Throwback Thursday – Remembering the Kentucky High School Athletic League

We bring you another Black History Month story this week, one that remembers the
all-Black Kentucky High School Athletic League that operated from the mid-1930s
thru the late 1950s. The “Voices of the Segregated Past” project was co-authored by Alonzo G. Webb and James W. Stockton, with a forward by Dr. John Hardin from Western Kentucky University.
In 1932, the United States was still living in a post-Jim Crow segregated era, where
Blacks were not allowed to play sports in mainstream society. All-Black schools
were established all over the country, many preventing their students from the
same opportunities given to white schools.
The Kentucky High School Athletic League was formed that year. It was active until
1958. The state was divided into five regions with 69 schools participating. In our
area of Kentucky, deemed the East-41 Region 3, the teams were the Horse Cave
Colored School Tigers, the Glasgow Ralph Bunche Blue Hawks, the Franklin Lincoln
Pirates, the Bowling Green State Street and High Street Mustangs, the Russellville-
Knob City Trojans, the Elkton-Todd County Training Bobcats, and the Drakesboro
Community Buffaloes.
There is a lot of information in this “Voices of the Segregated Past” that we can use
for many stories to come. But to begin the discussion of the all-Black league of
athletes that competed mostly without distinction compared to the white schools
and competitions is a start in the direction of showcasing these Black history stores.
When the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that segregation
was unconstitutional was made, these all-Black schools began shutting down. The
first in this area to integrate was Russellville, followed by Horse Cave. The
remaining schools followed suit, with the final two being Bowling Green High Street
and Franklin Lincoln in 1965.