REINETTE F. JONES, a research librarian at the University of Kentucky, will be at the Woodford County Library on Thursday, March 19, to talk about a free database containing information about notable Kentucky African Americans. (Photo submitted)

University of Kentucky research librarian Reinette F. Jones is coming to the Woodford County Library next Thursday, March 19, from 6 to 7 p.m. to talk about a free database containing information about notable Kentucky African Americans.

No signup is necessary for the free library program, which will inform attendees about a Notable Kentucky African American Database (nkaa.uky.edu) that has information about people who shaped Black history and is also a free research tool for anyone interested in Kentucky history and/or their heritage.

“The information,” Jones told the Sun, “ties into the overall history of Kentucky,” and sheds light on the many contributions that African Americans – men and women – have made to Kentucky history.

From having the second largest number of African American (USCT) soldiers in the United States who served during the Civil War to the Black jockeys and horsemen who contributed to the growth of racing in Kentucky, “there’s some really strong foundational history that (still) hasn’t been recovered,” Jones said.

A decade before Jones and UK emeritus librarian Rob Aken started the Notable Kentucky African American Database, “I was told … it’s not needed,” she recalled.

Jones knew differently because numerous people had been asking for information about African Americans “that I didn’t know anything about. And we would say, ‘We don’t have information.’ And it would just keep happening.”

Jones said the information that people were seeking at the UK library reference desk “wasn’t anywhere,” other than in “the oral histories of families that just got passed down from one generation to the next.”

So in 2003, Jones and Aken developed the database. And people from across Kentucky and the country have made hundreds of submissions to the database, she said.

“It has just continued to grow,” said Jones. “We get a lot of help from the community – and not just African Americans and not just folks in Kentucky. We’ve got a large following outside of Kentucky – around the United States and also an international following at this point.”

Next Thursday’s Black Heritage program featuring Jones and others is co-sponsored by the Woodford County Library, Woodford County Historical Society, Huntertown Community Interpretive Park and Woodford County government.