Culture of Kentucky

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Although the culture of Kentucky is considered to be firmly

whiskey distilling, tobacco, horse racing, and college basketball
.

Cultural history

Kentucky is more similar to the

Upper South in terms of ancestry which is predominantly American (meaning that only this ancestry was specified by respondents to the US Census).[1] Nevertheless, during the 19th century, Kentucky did receive a substantial number of German immigrants, who settled mostly in the Midwest and parts of the Upper South, along the Ohio river primarily in Louisville, Maysville, Covington, and Newport.[2] Only Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia have higher German ancestry percentages than Kentucky among Census-defined Southern states, although Kentucky's percentage is relatively smaller than the previously named states' percentages.[3]

Kentucky was a

cotton plantation system though it did support significant and large scale tobacco plantation systems in the western and central parts of the state more similar to the plantations developed in Virginia and North Carolina than those in the Deep South, and never had the same high percentage of African Americans as most other slave states, with less than 8% of its current population being black, Kentucky has a relatively significant rural African American population in the Central and Western areas of the state.[4][5][6]
Kentucky adopted the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in most public spheres after the Civil War, but the state never disenfranchised African American citizens to the level of the Deep South states, and it peacefully integrated its schools after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education verdict, later adopting the first state civil rights act in the South in 1966.[7]

Kentucky celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday on June 3, on the anniversary of Jefferson Davis's birthday. The biggest day in horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, is preceded by the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival[8] in Louisville. Louisville also plays host to the Kentucky State Fair[9] and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival.[10] Owensboro, Kentucky's fourth largest city, gives credence to its nickname of "Barbecue Capital of the World" by hosting the annual International Bar-B-Q Festival.[11] Bowling Green, Kentucky's third largest city and home to the only assembly plant in the world that manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette,[12] opened the National Corvette Museum in 1994.[13]

Toonerville Trolley.[17]

The more rural communities are not without traditions of their own, however.

Tater Day.[22] Residents of Clarkson in Grayson County celebrate their city's ties to the honey industry by celebrating the Clarkson Honeyfest.[23]
The Clarkson Honeyfest is held the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September, and is the "Official State Honey Festival of Kentucky."

Music

Main article: Music of Kentucky

Homer & Jethro, Lily May Ledford & the Original Coon Creek Girls, Martha Carson, and many others have performed as regular members of the shows there over the years. The Renfro Valley Gatherin' is today America's second oldest continually broadcast radio program of any kind. It is broadcast on local radio station WRVK
and a syndicated network of nearly 200 other stations across the United States and Canada every week.

Mildred and Patty Hill, the Louisville sisters credited with composing the tune to the ditty Happy Birthday to You in 1893; Loretta Lynn (Johnson County), and Billy Ray Cyrus (Flatwoods). However, its depth lies in its signature sound — Bluegrass music. Bill Monroe, "The Father of Bluegrass", was born in the small Ohio County town of Rosine, while Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, David "Stringbean" Akeman, Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones, Sonny and Bobby Osborne, and Sam Bush (who has been compared to Monroe) all hail from Kentucky. The International Bluegrass Music Museum is located in Owensboro,[24] while the annual Festival of the Bluegrass is held in Lexington.[25]

Kentucky is also home to famed

Dove Award-winning Christian groups Audio Adrenaline (rock) and Bride
(metal).

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Kentucky
The Hot Brown was first served at Louisville's Brown Hotel

Kentucky's cuisine is generally similar to and is a part of traditional southern cooking, although in some areas of the state it can blend elements of both the South and Appalachia.[27][28] One original Kentucky dish is called the Hot Brown, a dish normally layered in this order: toast, turkey, bacon, tomatoes and topped with mornay sauce. It was developed at the Brown Hotel in Louisville.[29] The Pendennis Club in Louisville claims to be the birthplace of the Old Fashioned
cocktail. Also, western Kentucky is known for its own regional style of barbecue.

Collectible bourbon

Kentucky, for a variety of reasons, has been a frequent hunting ground for vintage spirits collectors.[30] There are multiple distilleries in the state, and a large number of bourbon distilleries; bourbon in particular is considered highly collectible.[30] Vintage spirits are legal for sale under Kentucky's 2018 Vintage Spirits law,[31][32] known as House Bill 100;[33] in almost all other US states such sales are illegal.[32]

Kentucky is also fertile ground for collectors because while distillers historically included bourbon in employee compensation packages, Kentucky is part of the Bible Belt, an area of the United States where many disapprove of drinking alcohol.[32] In Kentucky it is not uncommon to find unopened cases dating back decades stored in attics or basements.[32][30]

See also

References

  1. ^ Brittingham, Angela & de la Cruz, G. Patricia (June 2004). "Ancestry 2000: Census 2000 Brief" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2004. Retrieved 28 June 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Kentucky's German Americans in the Civil War". kygermanscw.yolasite.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  3. ^ "2000 Census: Percent Reporting Any German Ancestry". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  4. ^ Beale, Calvin (21 July 2004). "High Poverty in the Rural U.S. and South: Progress and Persistence in the 1990s". Archived from the original (PowerPoint) on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
  5. ^ Womack, Veronica L. (23 July 2004). "The American Black Belt Region: A Forgotten Place". Archived from the original (PowerPoint) on 26 June 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
  6. ^ Unknown. "Identifying the "Black Belt" of Cash-Crop Production". Bowdoin College. Archived from the original (JPEG Image) on 28 June 2007. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
  7. ^ "Civil Rights and Women's Rights". Archived from the original on 2009-08-29. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  8. ^ "Kentucky Derby Festival Home Page". Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  9. ^ "Kentucky State Fair". Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  10. ^ "Kentucky Shakespeare Festival Home Page". Archived from the original on 2006-04-21. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  11. ^ "Home Page of the International Barbecue Festival". Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  12. ^ "National Corvette Museum press release". Archived from the original on 2007-12-27. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  13. ^ "National Corvette Museum Home Page". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  14. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    . Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  15. ^ "St. James Court Art Show Home Page". Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  16. ^ "The Heart Line" (PDF). Kentucky Commission on Community Volunteerism and Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-26. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  17. ^ "Old Louisville and Literature". Archived from the original on 2006-12-24. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  18. ^ "Kentucky Bourbon Festival Home Page". Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  19. ^ "How Bourbon Whiskey Really Got Its Famous Name". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  20. ^ "Glasgow, Kentucky Highland Games Home Page". Archived from the original on 2006-12-24. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  21. ^ "Little Sturgis Rally Home Page". Archived from the original on 2006-12-23. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  22. ^ "Tater Day Festival A Local Legacy". Archived from the original on 2006-12-27. Retrieved 2006-12-25.
  23. ^ "Clarkson Honeyfest home page". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2007-05-12.
  24. ^ "International Bluegrass Music Museum". Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  25. ^ "Festival of the Bluegrass Home Page". Retrieved 2006-11-30.
  26. ^ Voce, Steve (2002-09-02). "Obituary: Lionel Hampton". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2013-07-30. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  27. ^ "Southern Recipes - Southern Food and Recipes". Southernfood.about.com. 2009-06-17. Archived from the original on 2009-09-19. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
  28. ^ "International Institute of Culinary Arts". Archived from the original on 2008-01-06.
  29. ^ "Hot Brown Recipe". Brown Hotel. Archived from the original on August 23, 2007. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
  30. ^
    Punch. Archived
    from the original on 2023-07-03. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
  31. Kentucky.com. Archived
    from the original on 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
  32. ^ a b c d McKirdy, Tim (2020-09-15). "The Landmark Kentucky Law Bringing Vintage Bourbon to the Masses". VinePair. Archived from the original on 2023-07-02. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
  33. ^ "17RS House Bill 100". apps.legislature.ky.gov. Archived from the original on 2023-07-22. Retrieved 2023-07-02.
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