Kentucky School For The Blind

Bluegrass returns to Tug Hill

LOWVILLE — Like a fine-tuned mandolin, the Tug Hill Bluegrass Festival has strung along a successful formula it won't mess with too much this year as several entertainers plan to return for the sixth annual event.

As long as the crowds and popular entertainers keep coming back for the Father's Day weekend tradition here, it's a recipe that makes festival organizers quite happy.

"It's grown a lot and I almost don't want it to get too big or we might lose that community feel to it," said Keith Zehr, executive director of the Adirondack Mennonite Camping Association, which operates the Maple Ridge center, where the festival is held.

The center, 7421 East Road, is a Kentucky-style ranch that overlooks the Black River valley. This year's festival is June 17 to 19. The host band once again is the Harrisville-based Atkinson Family.

Among returning performers is Indiana-based Audie Blaylock and Redline. Mr. Blaylock has performed at the festival for the past three years.

"Audie seems to have so much fun up here," said Mr. Zehr. "He loves the audience and the audiences seem to like him."

Among performers coming for the first time to the festival are the Old Time Bluegrass Singers, led by Dick Bowden of Tolland, Conn.

Mr. Bowden, on guitar, played music in his home state of Maine for 25 years before moving south in 1989. In an email, he said he's looking forward to returning to the north country and noted he once worked at the paper mill in Deferiet.

He calls the Old Time Bluegrass Singers "the newest old bluegrass band in the Northeast" made up of traditional bluegrass veterans.

Bluegrass Unlimited magazine recommended the band's latest CD, "Plastic Heart," for "excellent singing, great playing and tight arrangements. This is how it should be done."

Old Time Bluegrass Singers member Herb Applin is from the Boston area and has played music since the 1950s, including with the Lilly Brothers. In the 1970s he helped form New England's all-time leading bluegrass group, Joe Val and the New England Bluegrass Boys.

Other members are Terry McGill from New Jersey on banjo and Robert and Lillian Fraker, slap-rhythm guitar and bass fiddle, respectively, who live in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.

The band's repertoire ranges from Stephen Foster to Warren Zevon and some originals.

Mr. Bowden said his band is delighted to be returning to New York state.

Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era | Blog | Kentucky School ...

 I’ve been interested in Kentucky history for a while now and with the subject of Civil Rights, it got me thinking about the perfect topic the write about.  The topic is easy: education and one subject seems to be forgotten, when Kentucky schools integrated.  With the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, I thought it meant an immediate decision to integrate all schools in the country.  That wasn’t the case in Kentucky.  Something didn’t happen, at least in Lexington, until the summer of 1955 when Helen Caise Wade became the first African-American to enroll in an all white school.  Wade was a student at Douglass High School and was interested in American history.  She wanted to take a course on it, but only one was offered at Lafayette High School.  She was able to register for the class and when it started she says she had no big problems.  “It was not a bad experience because nobody really mistreated me,” she said. “They weren’t mean to me. They just ignored me.”  Wade had to have escorts with her for a while, but soon after they weren’t necessary.

Integration in schools was happening in 1955 when a school for the blind in Louisville approved for integration.  According to The Lexington Herald, the small article talks about the Kentucky School for the Blind allowing 16 Negro students and three Negro teachers integrating to the school when the year started in 1955.  This school became the first school in Jefferson County to have mixed classes.

One story from the Lexington Herald that was very different was something of the mere opposite of integration, sort of.  In early 1955, in Louisville, Ky. a young white boy was allowed to enroll in an all black school and his mother wanted him to.  The article goes on to say that David Rogers Russell’s family lived in Tokyo and he didn’t understand about segregation.  David knew he would be attending a Negro church, a Negro Scout troop and a Negro YMCA, but everyone seemed to be happy with this decision.

That wasn’t the case in Clay, Ky. on September 13 , 1956 when a boycott happened at the Clay School when two Negro students were admitted.  News of this event spread around the school and ten teachers refused to show up and two of those teachers even resigned.  I couldn’t believe that.  White students came to the school, but all they did was gather their personal things and quickly left the school.  One little girl became scare of the empty halls.  “I’m afraid.  There’s nobody inside.  I ain’t staying.  I want my momma.”  The little left the school in tears.  Principal Irene Powell wanted these two Negro students, Theresa and James Henry Gordon, to be treated like any other student.  She says “they’re being taught regular classes and will be served in the cafeteria.”  The Gordon children said they were unafraid and felt good about going to the Clay School.  Their teachers even “treated them fine.

Kentucky School for the Blind, 1988-1989 yearbook

The public papers of Governor Keen Johnson, 1939-1943

Child welfare work in Louisville, a study of conditions, agencies and institutions

Bulletin

The New outlook for the blind