For three dozen or so people, Saturday’s 150th anniversary celebration of the Huntertown community was a homecoming. For an estimated 300 others, it was an opportunity to visit what is becoming the Huntertown Community Interpretive Park and learn about the the people who lived, worked and worshiped there. Magistrate Larry Blackford (Dist. 6) served as master of ceremonies for a service under a tent that began a few minutes after 10 a.m. The invocation was given by Lic. Donald Morton of First Baptist Church, a Huntertown descendant, and followed by the morning’s first speaker, Robert Bell, a member of the U.S. Colored Troops Living History Association. Bell spoke of some of the long-held and erroneous assumptions about the roles of Black people during the Civil War – among them that they became free without helping their cause. Attired in a uniform like that worn by African Americans during the conflict, “Whether we carried a rifle or a shovel, we contributed to the Union victory. No less an authority than Abraham Lincoln credited the United States Colored Troops with victory during the war of the rebellion. We took part in every major battle that occurred after 1863, and for Kentuckians, it would be after 1864.” Bell reminded the audience, the front rows of which were set aside for former Huntertown residents and descendants, that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 helped convince European nations not to step in on the side of the rebels. After the war, Blacks who fought for the Union were less inclined to turn the other cheek when attacked by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, he said. “When they tried to run the black folks out, we shot back. Why? We had learned from our military service. It is the sacrifices, the service of these men that we all enjoy today. I wouldn’t have been in school, I wouldn’t have been free, but somebody who didn’t know me, didn’t know I was coming about, shed blood that I might be here,” Bell said. Other challenges faced newly freed Blacks, he said, citing the examples of veterans and eventual Huntertown residents Richard Coleman and Henry Gatewood, who had trouble obtaining $6 monthly pensions. (Six years after the end of the war, Gatewood, a freed slave, managed to come up with enough money to buy five acres of land in Huntertown from Isham Railey of the Hunter family.) “The war didn’t end when we got out,” Bell said. “When I put on this hot, wool uniform, it’s not about me. It’s about the 200,000 men, Black men, across this nation who bled, who died, who suffered, who struggled, not only through the war, but in the years afterward, that each and every one of us might have a better life.” Next up was Dr. George C. Wright, the University of Kentucky’s vice president for Institutional Diversity who’s spoken at other events in the county. Wright also spoke of the challenges faced by African Americans during the Civil War, when Black soldiers were often used as shock troops and suffered casualties at four times the rate of their white counterparts. When the war ended, another struggle began, he said. “The Civil War ended April, 1865. Slavery in Huntertown and other places in Kentucky ended December, 1865. So, other than Brazil , Kentucky would be the last place in the Western hemisphere to end slavery. Understand that,” Wright said. In Huntertown and elsewhere, Blacks did have support from some whites, he said. “One of the themes of Reconstruction is that there were always some well-meaning, sympathetic, committed white folk. If anybody ever tells you there are no committed white folk, run out of there. That’s what I would do. I’d get out of there right now, because that’s not true,” Wright said. He closed his remarks by quoting Booker T. Washington, who said, looking back at that time, “Don’t judge me by where I am, but by how far I had to come to get where I am. When you do that, you will find people in this community who should be heroes and heroines.” Author and poet Desiree Jackson, a Huntertown descendant, entertained the crowd with memories of Huntertown and her family members and friends who lived there in a poem called, appropriately, “Huntertown.” “Everyone, please gather around to hear the nostalgic sound of Huntertown. The memories made by families who gave years of their lives, To cultivate the very essence of what our African American communities used to be. Whether working in the tobacco fields or climbing the fruit trees, This was a place where we could be … free.” Jackson spoke of her Aunt Eveleen and Uncle Mac and the hijinks of children – and adults – of washing coke bottles to return and slopping hogs. “There was never a dull moment.. but when the night came to rest, The whole family would gather on the backyard porch and listen to what came next, A starlit country sky, dark as night yet lit up with peals, And in the distance a glow of gold, coming from trash packed barrels, The Weathers brothers would gather round the fire and sing for all to listen, Mr. George and Mr. Holly just ‘sangin’ for all who paid attention. You see, Huntertown is more than a school or road.. It’s OUR…. History.” Jackson was followed by Bryan Kennedy, the sports director for WTVQ-TV whose father’s family hails from the Midway area. He spoke of the importance of baseball and the other sports played by the people of Huntertown. Among those highlighted were the three African American baseball teams who played home games in Huntertown during the early 1930s – the Huntertown Sluggers, the Huntertown Tigers and his “personal favorite” – the Huntertown Hard Hitters. Kennedy spoke of how sports helped bring Huntertown and other African American communities together. “The next time someone tells you sports is just a game, tell them, ‘You’re right – but also, you’re wrong. It can grow a community. Look at Huntertown. It can help create a community, build a community and grow a community,’” he said. Huntertown descendant Monique Shanks followed by singing, “Alpha and Omega” and brief remarks were given by Midway Mayor Grayson Vandegrift, Woodford Judge-Executive James Kay and Jon Gay, the chair of the Versailles-Woodford County Parks and Recreation Department. Scott, the executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society, then directed the crowd to the unveiling of the Huntertown state historical marker. Standing by the marker were former Huntertown residents Brenda Jackson (who designed the marker and helped prepare the application for it) and Josephine Carr, who at 91 is believed to the the oldest former Huntertown resident living locally. Before a lunch prepared by the Lion’s Club and Knights of Columbus, hundreds walked by to look at the marker, which noted that five acres of land was purchased by Gatewood on Aug. 29, 1871 – 150 years ago to the day. Among them were Phyllis Washington-Martin, who grew up in Huntertown. “It’s awesome to be back here,” said Washington-Martin, a granddaughter of Carr. “To be able to come back and see how I grew up, without running water, and to see how the land is still the same way, just without the houses. It’s a blessing to me.” She said even before her family had running water, growing up in Huntertown was nice, as was, that day, seeing an African American community being celebrated by people of all races. “To see the diversity here is really nice …” Washington-Martin said. Washington-Martin spent part of her day pushing the wheelchair of her mother, Nanzetta Waters. Waters said she lived in Huntertown for about half a century – “ever since I was knee-high to a duck,” she said – and that it was good to be back home. “It was great here,” Waters said. “Everybody’s family got along. We were family.”