Preview
Creation Date
2-28-1999
Description
Many tidbits of local black history, centering on the lost community of Jonesville, connect to Bowling Green High School students.
Former Warren Central High School student Nikita Stewart became interested in Jonesville when a teacher and native of the community described to her and others the tragic disappearance of the once thriving area.
Stewart interviewed several people and wrote an article for Western Kentucky University's student newspaper, the Collge Heights Herald.
Since then, the internal interest in Jonesville has gone public and, during Black History Month each February, someone somewhere does a story or a presentation on the people, the times and the place. But, almost invariably, the presentations focus on the lower end of the community, the part that stretched toward Russellville.
There's more.
Much more.
Here's some history from the upper half, which led to downtown Bowling Green.
BGHS junior Tremayne Taylor's grandfather, Dan Taylor, owned a home in Jonesville on what now is part of the Diddle Arena parking lot. Sanitation trucks bearing his name still run the streets of Bowling Green.
The elder Taylor remembers Jonesville residents as Christian, hard-working families.
"The people were friendly and helpful to each other. They were like one big family of folk, all striving for a better day and enjoying the journey," he said.
The late Henry K. Alexander lived in Jonesville. He along with the late Doug Withrow grandfather of BGHS senior Daniel Withrow, filed the lawsuit that first integrated Bowling Green schools.
Harry Taylor, who is Alexander's uncle and a cousin of BGHS sophomore Kammara Taylor, was a black musician who owned and played all musical instruments - woodwinds, strings, brass, percussion, etc.
Today, a life-sized framed photographs of Harry Taylor travel the state museums and have been on loan to the Kentucky Museum on Western's campus. His sister Lucille was a mortician, and their cousin Wilma Blackburn was a florist whose waxed flower displays decorated many homes.
Their nephew Lockwood Alexander was a young entrepreneur who owned and operated a grocery store that served the community.
He gave it up to nephew Henry Calloway when he opened a black taxicab station and a small restaurant on Main Street.
That restaurant is pictured in "Families Histories of Bowling Green." Brother Tom Alexander and cousin Ireland Hobson owned and operated a restaurant across town.
Separating upper from lower Jonesville was Audrey Bailey's Beauty Shop, which was patronized by folks from all over Bowlng Green.
WIll Taylor, father of Henrietta Taylor - who is related to BGHS senior Celeste Sears - had a small farm where Downing Univeristy Center now stands. Mount Zion Baptist Church stood near where L.T. Smith Stadium now is.
Tremayne Taylor said he has learned much about Bowling Green's black history.
"In the early part of this century, a lot of black people in Jonesville owned their own homes and had their own business," he said. "Living in the shadow of WKU was not all bad.
Being exposed to the sports around no doubt inspired Uncle Ron in his interest in atheltics."
Other BGHS students also have ties to Jonesville.
There's much to the story.
Much more.
Keywords
Western Kentucky University, Jonesville