Last week, staff from the C.B. Nuckolls Community Center & Black History Museum paid a visit to Ironton High School, where they gave a presentation to students on the subject of local Black history and their efforts to preserve it at their location in Ashland.

Students not only heard about the collections contained in the museum, but also the personal stories of people such as its co-founder, Bernice Henry, who shared with them her experience going through school, starting in Ashland’s Black school and then graduating after integration had taken place locally.

Darrell Smith, the other co-founder of the museum, explained to them that he felt it was a needed institution for the area, as so much of that history is in danger of being lost as elders pass on.

Stories such as Henry’s illustrate that things such as integration are still, in terms of history, a fairly new phenomenon in the United States, having come about within the lifetimes of many who are still with us.

It is easy for current generations to take for granted the hard-fought changes and progress that were made in the civil rights era and that is why it is important that resources such as the Nuckolls museum exist.

And, in our current political climate, where, unfortunately, celebrations of diversity and initiatives promoting it are being curtailed or discouraged by certain officeholders, it is good to see that, locally, the civil rights era and the larger saga of Black history are being presented to students.  

It is only recently that a more inclusive, broader view of U.S. and local history has started to be promoted in the mainstream. We are glad to see that progress remains strong in our region’s educational institutions.