Latest news with #BlackKentuckians
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kentucky fatal overdoses decreased again in 2024
Narcan is an opioid reversal treatment. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd). For the third year in a row, Kentucky saw a decrease in fatal drug overdoses, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Thursday. Still, 1,410 Kentuckians died from an overdose last year, according to the 2024 Drug Overdose Fatality Report, which was released Thursday. 'That's 1,410 too many people that we lost,' Beshear said. 'These are people's friends and family members, each one a child of God taken from us far too soon.' In 2023, Kentucky had 1,984 overdose deaths, which was a decrease from the 2,135 lost in 2022. Black Kentuckians also saw a decrease in 2024, a reversal from previous years. In 2024, 170 Black Kentuckians died from a drug overdose, a decrease from 259 in 2022 and 264 in 2023. The report does not break down deaths across all races. It shows 1,216 of the 2024 deaths were white Kentuckians, 170 were Black and 24 were of an 'other' race. This decrease means 'that this good news has come for all of our Kentucky communities,' Beshear said. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, is still a key culprit in killing Kentuckians. Fentanyl was present in 62% of the 2024 deaths and methamphetamine was present in 51%, according to the report. 'Those two continue to be the most prevalent and ultimately most deadly drugs found in overdoses,' Beshear said. The counties with the highest rates of fatal drug overdoses were Lee, Knott, Breathitt, Powell and Estill, according to the report — all Eastern Kentucky counties. The age range most affected were Kentuckians 35-44, with 379 deaths in that age range. Five children aged 4 or under died from drug overdose in 2024; fewer than 5 died between the ages of 5-14. Van Ingram, the executive director for the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, said 'we still lost 1,400 Kentuckians, and so our work's not finished, not by a long shot, it's just time to get back to work.' Beshear cited prevention efforts such as Narcan distribution, syringe exchange programs and treatment recovery programs in driving the numbers down. The report says that for 2024: $29,754,033 was distributed in grant and pass-through funding from the Office of Drug Control Policy. 170,000 doses of Narcan were distributed. 84 syringe exchange program sites served 27,799 unique participants. 142,312 Kentuckians received addiction services through Medicaid. 17,399 Kentuckians received treatment paid by Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 17,984 Kentuckians received recovery services like house assistance, employment services, transportation and basic need services in their community paid by Kentucky Opioid Response Effort. 3,329 incoming calls were made to the KY HELP Call Center with 14,087 outgoing follow up calls. 21 counties now certified as Recovery Ready Communities representing 1,495,518 Kentuckians. Kentuckians living with addiction can call Kentucky's help line at 833-859-4357. Narcan, which can help reverse overdoses, is available at pharmacies for sale and through some health departments and outreach programs for free. The legislature decriminalized fentanyl test strips in 2023, meaning Kentuckians can use them to legally check substances for the presence of fentanyl. 'Today's news should be very meaningful to all Kentuckians, and it ought to tell us that an epidemic that arose in our time, we should be able to defeat in our time,' Beshear said. 'This is not something we should leave for our kids and our grandkids. This is something we should continue to strive to do better, better, better at addressing.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Samuel Crawford fought for freedom
Samuel Crawford is buried in Mayfield's Oak Crest Cemetery. His birth date is unknown, but he was almost certainly born in slavery. Crawford died on Jan. 3, 1895, having fought decades earlier for the United States in the Civil War. (Photo by Berry Craig) Samuel Crawford, one of approximately 24,000 Black Kentuckians who fought for their freedom and helped save the Union, is buried in virtual anonymity in Mayfield's Oak Crest Cemetery. The Civil War veteran rests for eternity under a ramrod-straight military tombstone at the foot of a towering oak tree. 'CO. I 4 U.S. CLD. HV. ARTY.' is chiseled on the white marble slab in the historically African American burial ground. The abbreviations mean that Crawford was in Company I of the Fourth United States Colored Heavy Artillery. The Fourth Artillery was recruited in Columbus, a strategic Mississippi River port on the western edge of the Jackson Purchase, Kentucky's westernmost region. In 1861, the Confederates turned the Hickman County town into a cannon-bristling bastion they dubbed the 'Gibraltar of the West.' But by early the next year, Hickman County was under Union occupation and remained there until the war's end in 1865. Columbus became a haven for escaped slaves and the state's second-largest African American recruit training center. Only Camp Nelson in Jessamine County was larger. (Some of the Columbus earthworks, trenches and a large anchor and part of a heavy chain the rebels used to block the river are preserved in Columbus-Belmont State Park.) About 179,000 Black volunteers, most of them slaves, served in the Union forces, prompting President Abraham Lincoln to declare in 1865, 'without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the south could not have been won.' Even so, for decades after the Civil War, almost all white historians ignored or downplayed the key role Black soldiers played in Union victory. Modern historians have done much to correct the omissions and distortions. Yet some Confederate apologists continue to claim falsely that thousands of Black men fought in rebel gray, though Confederate government officials hotly denied any such thing. 'Not only would no slaves be enlisted; no one who was not certifiably white, whether slave or free, would be permitted to become a Confederate soldier,' wrote historian Bruce Levine in the Washington Post. (In March, 1865, a month before Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, the Confederate government, desperate to stave off defeat, authorized Black enlistment. The plan triggered strong opposition and few Black enlistees signed up. Levine wrote that, revealingly, neither rebel President Jefferson Davis or anybody else who touted the plan 'ever pointed proudly to the record of any of the Black units (or even individuals) who purveyors of the modern myth claim were already in the field.') Promoters of the 'Black Confederate Myth' wanted 'to demonstrate that if free and enslaved Black men fought in Confederate ranks, the war could not have been fought to abolish slavery,' wrote Kevin M. Levin in 'Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War's Most Persistent Myth.' 'Stories of armed black men marching and fighting would make it easier for the descendants of Confederate soldiers and those who celebrate Confederate heritage to embrace their Lost Cause unapologetically without running the risk of being viewed as racially insensitive or worse,' Levin writes. The U.S. military was segregated in the Civil War. White officers commanded Black units, which were officially United States Colored Troops, USCT for short. Kentucky was a border state that spurned secession. But making soldiers of slaves enraged almost all white Kentuckians, including most of the strongest Unionists. The Louisville Journal, the state's premier Union newspaper, argued that Blacks and whites 'cannot exist in the same country unless the black race is in slavery.' In short, most Unionist Kentuckians were pro-slavery and pro-Union. (The state's Confederate minority claimed only secession could save slavery.) Reflecting the sentiment of pro-Union Kentuckians, Frankfort refused to allow 'Kentucky' attached to the name of any Black unit raised in the state. Black troops incensed Confederate soldiers who were fighting to establish an independent Southern nation rooted in slavery and white supremacy. The Confederates considered Black soldiers in the Union army rebellious slaves. 'Throughout the war, USCT regiments faced a danger that their white peers did not: re-enslavement or execution,' says the Museum of the U.S. Army's website. 'Official Confederate policy refused to recognize African Americans as lawful combatants. Any captured African American Soldiers or their white officers were subject to harsh treatment or execution.' There were massacres of Black troops. In April, 1864, 'Confederate soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest executed wounded and captured USCT men after the battle of Fort Pillow, in Henning, Tennessee,' the website says. Black soldiers also faced hostile civilians statewide, but especially in the Purchase, the state's only Confederate-majority region. Though the Columbus soldiers were trained as artillerymen, they were mainly used as infantry, patrolling, fighting gorillas and rebel raiders and guarding outlying roads, bridges and rail lines. At Columbus, they helped white troops guard the post, unload steamboats and load rail cars. White officers praised their conduct under fire. The Fourth Artillery mustered out of federal service in 1866. Crawford's headstone doesn't reveal his lifespan. His birth date is evidently unknown, but he was almost certainly born in bondage. Crawford died on Jan. 3, 1895, during the segregationist Jim Crow era when race discrimination was the law in the South and border states like Kentucky and was underpinned by violence or the threat of violence. In Jim Crow times, separate-and-unequal status for Black Americans didn't end when life did. Oak Rest is downhill from then white-only Maplewood Cemetery, where the main entrance gateway is a 1924 memorial to local Confederate soldiers.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Goodwine honored during Kentucky courts' Black History Month Celebration
Pamela Goodwine speaks to supporters at her election night watch party in Lexington, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes) The first Black Kentuckians to serve on the state's highest court were recognized Tuesday during the judicial branch's annual Black History Month Celebration Justice Pamela Goodwine, elected to the Supreme Court last year, was honored with the Justice William A. McAnulty Jr. Award. McAnulty, of Louisville, was the first Black person to serve on the Kentucky Supreme Court after he was appointed by Gov. Erie Fletcher in 2006. He died in 2007 after being elected to a full term. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant impact on Kentucky courts 'through years of service, leadership, job performance or efforts toward improving racial and ethnic diversity and equity in the Judicial Branch,' a press release said. Accepting the honor from Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert, Goodwine said she was 'almost speechless.' She had been a court reporter for McAnulty in 1986 while he was assigned a case in Fayette County. 'I was honored to work with him then, and I shared my dream with him of one day serving on the Kentucky Supreme Court,' Goodwine said. 'This is a 45-year dream in the making, and I am honored not only to have accomplished that goal, but one of many firsts, and I am proud to be a trailblazer.' Goodwine was the first Black woman to become a district and circuit judge in Lexington and a judge on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Kate McAnulty, daughter of the late justice, said in a video played during the ceremony that her father 'was especially proud to champion women serving in the judiciary' and would have been impressed with Goodwine's accomplishments and service. 'Both my dad and Justice Goodwine treated people with dignity and presided over cases with fairness. Just as the award suggests, both had a sustained commitment to all people of the commonwealth.' Lambert said the Supreme Court justices are 'excited to work with' Goodwine, whom she called 'a hard working, thoughtful and caring member of our court community.' 'Justice Goodwine, we are so grateful for your leadership and your positive attitude, your generosity and your dedicated service to our court community, and you are most deserving of this recognition, and I'm proud to present it here to you today,' Lambert said. Most Supreme Court justices were present during the celebration and also echoed Lambert's comments about Goodwine.'It's wonderful that the Administrative Office of the Courts also recognizes Black History Month in this fashion,' said Justice Michelle Keller. 'It's one we'll never forget because our new colleague and good friend, Justice Pam Goodwine, has been recognized for a lifetime of work that is not over yet. You're just getting started.' Thursday's celebration marked the fifth time the Administrative Office of the Courts held a Black History Month Celebration. Shericka Smith, a mental health coordinator for Fayette County Public Schools, gave a keynote address on the legacy and history of Black professionals in the workplace. Most of the Supreme Court justices had recognized Black History Month last week by attending the Black History Month Celebration hosted by the Kentucky Black Legislative Caucus in the Capitol.
