The Kentucky Faith and Public History Education project published the first four high-interest, easy-reader chapter books in its Famous Kentucky Christians Club (FKCC for short) Series in August 2020, making them available for sale on Amazon. They are examples of historical fiction written at a second through fourth grade reading level that are appropriate for elementary and middle school students. Our plan is to release the books in sets of four where one is about a white man, one about a black man, one about a white woman and one about a black woman – with Hispanic and other minority men and women included as we discover their stories. Each book treats the Christian religion factually, using secular, objective, and non-devotional language without minimizing the extent to which the famous Kentuckian valued, prioritized and represented that faith. Each enjoyable plot that follows the same pattern. There is a state competition for fourth grade students. Each book is about the ...

  The oft quoted saying that history is written by the victors is sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill and sometimes to Machiavelli. It can be disputed and is losing its claim to accuracy in this post-colonial world in which increasingly all lives and voices, particularly black, brown and indigenous lives matter. Each week the Kentucky Faith and Public History Education Project features a famous Kentucky Christian on our Facebook page. We are intentionally researching and then portraying men and women from each race and ethnicity that has impacted the history of Kentucky with their lives who gave clear credit to their Christian faith for their achievements. It is significantly more difficult to find written records of Kentucky women than men. It is most difficult to find written records of Kentucky’s African American women. Effie Waller Smith is one such woman. Her story and her perspective on the early events of the twentieth century are woven through her poems. They are writ...