The fight for independence for African Americans in America did not end with President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. In fact it had only just started. The black community of America continued to fight racism and segregation and did not give up the fight until they earned the place that they are in now. Kentucky, and Louisville more specifically, was no different. .
In Louisville, blacks were indeed able to own houses and many participated in various community activities. This is shown in the pictorial history of Bruce M. Tyler's book, "African-American Life in Louisville. The first chapter, "Family Photos" depicts several female African American's outside their homes and in some cases like that of, "Elizabeth Battle Withers was a Baptist missionary for Calvary Baptist Church and the grandmother of Mrs. Ann Spann" (14), show to have been particularly active in church settings. .
The schools were not a good situation for African Americans in the United States and in Kentucky the situation was no different. At the beginning of the second chapter, "Lincoln Institute", the school Berea Hall is depicted. The under text explains that the school, "permitted African Americans and white students to jointly attend classes until Kentucky's legislature, supported by the United States Supreme Court in 1908, segregated all schools in the state (17). The difficulty for young black students who wanted to attend schools in America was that they were going against the government of not only their states, but the national level too. Many schools that provided a great education for young minds were for whites only and blacks did not get their chance to expand their minds. This was until just three years later in 1911 when the Lincoln Institute opened its doors. Its main duty was to give the neglected African American youths that had been cast out from attending any other schools in the states.
