Interview with Jennie Didlick, August 8, 1986

Interview Summary

In the late 1940s, Mrs. Didlick filed a lawsuit against the local transportation system after she was asked to sit in the back of a public bus traveling between Winchester and Lexington. The judge filed in her favor, awarding her $200 in damages.

The daughter of Benjamin and Lena Burns Bibbs, Mrs. Didlick taught at Booker T. Washington and Constitution Elementary Schools, and later earned the position of principal at Booker T. Washington. She attended school at Russell and Dunbar in Lexington, and graduated from Howard University. Her Master's Degree was earned at the University of Kentucky, and at one time she worked for University of Kentucky President Frank McVey. Before Hill became superintendent of the Fayette County Schools, the salary scale for African American teachers was very different from that afforded white teachers. She also mentions the teacher-student relationship in the segregated African American schools, the integration of teachers at Booker T. Washington, a few of her teaching experiences, and compares the quality of education between her era and 1986.

Mrs. Didlick recalls growing up in the African American community, the importance of the family and the role the churches played in that society. Her mother took in laundry and was the disciplinarian in the family, and her father worked for the University of Kentucky. She recounts the family memories of slavery, the educational background of her family and its' history. She recounts experiences with discrimination in white-owned businesses, her lack of participation in the civil rights movement, the socioeconomic division present in the African American community, and the segregated housing conditions still in effect in Winchester in 1986.

Interview Keyword

African American families African American neighborhoods African Americans--Recreation African Americans--Religion. African Americans--Social life and customs. Discrimination in employment. University of Kentucky Winchester (Ky.)

Interview LC Subject

African Americans--Education African Americans--Segregation African Americans--Social conditions Civil rights movements--United States Didlick, Jennie Didlick, Jennie--Interviews Integration Lexington (Ky.)--Race relations. Race discrimination School integration--Kentucky--Fayette County Segregation in education--Kentucky Teachers--Kentucky Teaching

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.