Simon B. Malone was born into slavery on December 18, 1842 in Tippah County, Mississippi. During the war, he fled to freedom when the 5th Ohio Cavalry came through his home county. According to oral history and family tradition, Malone followed the 5th Ohio, making himself useful by caring for soldiers’ horses, fetching water and…
Today is an appointed National Day of Thanksgiving in the United States, the second official annual holiday that in the years to come is known simply as Thanksgiving. Union battlefield successes in 1863 led President Abraham Lincoln to set aside the last Thursday in November as an official holiday of national thanksgiving, and further military…
In Nicholasville, Kentucky in 1846, black Baptists were granted permission to worship under the supervision of white Baptists. Those worship services have been conducted in the Union Church building since 1846. Today, however, a lot on York Street is deeded to Peter Johnson, a trustee of the black church, on behalf of the congregation. Eventually,…