Jaida Hampton, a 2020 UK graduate, was a political science major and active in summer protests over the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Black students have only been present, much less welcomed, for less than half of the University of Kentuckyâs 155-year history. Seventy-one years ago, Lyman T. Johnson won a lawsuit that helped integrate the all-white school. Even though he never graduated from UK, and never intended to, his actions helped future generations of Black students.
However, despite Johnsonâs efforts so many years ago, UKâs Black community is still facing challenges today. For the first time last year, the university offered a major in African American and Africana studies. But 2019 also saw the Main Building sit-in led by the students of the Black Student Advisory Council and the Basic Needs campaign. Among demands to make the university more diverse and inclusive via policy changes, students were also demanding, again, that the New Deal-era mural in Memorial