Across the Kentucky Color Line: Cultural Landscapes of Race from the Lost Cause to Integration Hardcover – November 18, 2023

Helluva read! Dr. Stone interweaves geographic theory with strands of local history, labor advocacy and artistic commentary. I can only imagine the herculean effort that went into the research and writing. His use of newspaper archives proves how much these yellowed sources can add to an investigation of historical perspective. I was also pleased to see all the Western Kentucky references, both in the text and in the notes. This end of the Bluegrass state is woefully understudied.

Reading Lee Durham Stone's Across the Kentucky Color Line, a geohistorical work about Western Kentucky and Muhlenberg County, piqued my interest because of my ancestral background. Reading it allowed me to become aware of the extent of the deliberate methods and manipulations that the United States went about after the Civil War and into the 20th century to establish inequality and systemic racism and limit Black prosperity. It brought me to a realization, too (although I don't know if this was his goal), that the media, artists, lawmakers, and other powerful people, continued to influence society to inform the beliefs of and present the Black community as caricatures and negative stereotypes. These forces played deeply in forming how we were thought of and what we became. Unfortunately, many--both Blacks and Whites--were left with disturbed psyches. This informative, very relevant book will enlighten most readers, including the Black/ African American descendants of the South and border states, whose elders went about with heroic efforts to hide the hardships, injustices, and disadvantages they endured, to produce a generation of fearless forward-thinking individuals. Yet, I can hear my Aunt Virginia say, "You don't wanna upset the White people."Jacqueline L. Glass

Lee Durham Stone’s book, Across the Kentucky Color Line, is, in my opinion, a remarkable achievement. Thanks to his many years of research, Dr. Stone has taught us the hard truths of Kentucky’s violent history of racial relations. As a native Kentuckian and more specifically, a white Muhlenberger, I found this difficult, but captivating reading. The fact that our forebearers could act in these abhorrent ways is hard to conceive. Unfortunately, the history books of my youth primarily skipped these morally complex problems, and because of that, we need to learn and understand the injustice suffered by many as a result only of their heritage. The author has revealed to us the truth, and consequently, we as a nation can do better in the present and in the future. Reading this book is a great way to do that.

A born historian, Lee Durham Stone understands how the most granular details of local history reveal even the best-hidden secrets of the past. In his enlightening new book, "Across the Kentucky Color Line," Stone explores how centuries of racism have endured in our cultural landscapes and still plague us today, even as we congratulate ourselves on our progress in healing racial divides. His focus is a close, unflicnhing examination of some of the darkest areas in our cultural history, from racial violence to decades of self-deception to our willful fostering of social injustice in the present. In the history of a border state with a reputation for a relatively benign mind-set on race, Dr. Stone finds grim paradigms that are not just regional but national in scope. His insights on the true nature of so much or our heritage, however, suggest that the path to real healing is there if we will take it.

It was extremely accurate. Written and organized very thoughtfully. A great gift for historians or anyone interested in history. I highly recommend it.

Dr. Stone has gathered, organized, and recorded details of race relationships in the United States that are not part of most of our educations. Having grown up along the northern Kentucky border in a small Ohio River Valley community, I now feel more connected to its and my history. Hopefully, being aware of our past, we improve the present and future history.

From the very beginning, one can realize the indepth, intense and detailed research Dr. Stone spent years collecting and putting into understandable, interesting reading.I highly recommend the book, not just to scholars, but to everyone interested in learning and who cares about truths that many have hidden, regarding blacks and whites history.

A wonderful book about a shameful era.