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Historical Markers and Kentucky's Christian History

 By Lesley Barker PhD

There are more than 2,400 historical markers erected on the roads in Kentucky. Each marker celebrates a place, person or event that members of the community consider to be important to Kentucky’s history. A searchable data-base is available online by county or by keyword here[i].  This is useful to identify what aspects of the Christian religion and which of its practitioners the Kentucky Historical Society already acknowledges as significant. Using the keyword “church” returns more than 100 markers throughout the commonwealth that add emphasis to our claim that to do justice to the history of Kentucky, students must be educated about the vocabulary and ideas of the Christian religion.

This survey of Kentucky’s historical markers that mention “church” show that we can specifically connect the history of Christianity in Kentucky to these aspects of the K-12 public school curriculum:

·         Famous Kentuckians

·         American wars

·         Arts and architecture

·         Geography

·         Women’s history

·         Civil rights

·         Abolition

·         Transportation

·         Native America

·         Communications

·         Immigration

·         Politics

·         Music

·         World cultures

·         Aviation

·         Pioneer life

·         Literacy

·         Oral communication

·         Social justice

·         Journalism

·         Theater arts

This blog will make some of these connections. Stay tuned.


[i] https://history.ky.gov/resources/publications-databases/historical-marker-database/

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