HISTORIC MAGNOLIA HOUSE

Shirley Mae’s Café

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

Fresh food has always been Shirley Mae’s competitive edge. It’s why the café that sits at the corner of Clay and Lampton streets in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, features an open kitchen that allows customers to see behind the scenes of their food preparation. This transparency, coupled with made-to-order soul food like Southern fried chicken wings, barbecued ribs and meatloaf, is a major part of the café’s charm.

But proprietress Shirley Mae Beard is as well known for her contributions to Black history and its preservation as she is for her hot water cornbread. Most notable is her commitment to honoring Black jockeys in the city and state at the center of one of the most prestigious horse racing events in the world: the Kentucky Derby. Black horsemen were once a dominant force at the Derby, making up 13 of 15 riders at the first running in 1875 — and won by Black jockey Oliver Lewis — and winning 15 of the first 28 runnings of the equine event. As Kentucky ramped up segregation laws in the 1890s, Black riders were systematically barred from the sport.

After discovering the accomplishments of these hidden figures in a set of World Book Encyclopedias, Beard, with the help of her children, made it her mission to educate the masses. The Salute to Black Jockey event was born in May 1989, with photos of the riders covering the café walls and the introduction of what is billed as the “largest inner-city carnival in the commonwealth of Kentucky.” The annual event is a popular draw, prompting visits from Academy Award-winning actors Whoopi Goldberg and Morgan Freeman.

Shirley Mae’s has been operating on a carry-out basis since the start of the pandemic, as a safety precaution and to minimize contact with the now 82-year-old matriarch. But the beloved local institution is gearing up to welcome diners back for the homecooked meals they have come to crave.

Shirley Mae Beard is as well known for her contributions to Black history as she is for her hot water cornbread.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DOCUMENTS

ATLANTA

Few figures in the civil rights movement are more recognizable than Martin Luther King Jr. King was emblematic of the movement during the 1950s and ’60s, providing leadership, courage and wisdom that inspired individuals of many races and backgrounds to fight for equality and cling to hope for a just world. His speeches and sermons, such as the famous “I Have A Dream” speech, were catalysts for social change and racial equality, even after his 1969 assassination in Memphis. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta houses an exhibition called “Voice to the Voiceless,” which features artifacts of King’s from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection. The exhibition includes some of King’s papers and letters, 1,100 books from his personal library and an art installation featuring a backlit display of his unique handwriting stretching 38 feet across 50 metal panels, titled “Fragments.”

By Justin Chan, courtesy NCCHR