The Nunn Center’s oral history interview with Harry N. Sykes, Lexington’s first African American to be elected to the city council. Sykes came to Kentucky to attend Kentucky State University on a basketball scholarship, played two years for the Harlem Globetrotters after graduation, and settled in Lexington, Kentucky to teach at a segregated Dunbar High School. Sykes was a teacher, an entrepreneur, he was instrumental in creating Lexington’s Urban League, and was elected as a city commissioner in 1963.
Sykes was interviewed seven times across multiple Nunn Center projects. Check out this episode of Saving Stories on WUKY to hear Sykes talk about his political strategy: https://www.wuky.org/post/saving-stories-political-trailblazer-harry-sykes