Day in 1898

Carl Day (April 1875 in Frozen Creek, Kentucky[1] – April 12, 1904 in Lexington, Kentucky)[2] was an American politician who represented Breathitt, Lee, and Magoffin Counties[3] in the Kentucky House of Representatives for three months in 1904,[4] before dying in office. He is known for having introduced the Day Law, which mandated racial segregation in privately-owned educational institutions.

Day claimed to have been motivated by a November 1903 trip to Berea, Kentucky[5] — home of Berea College, which was Kentucky's only racially-integrated educational institution[6] — where he witnessed an interracial embrace between two female students.[7][8][9]

Historian T. R. C. Hutton has noted that, although "various commentators [have] blamed" the Day law on "Carl Day's egregious personal racism or his personal vendetta towards Berea College," it may also — or instead — have been a ploy meant to increase the influence of Day's extended family in Breathitt County: "more a cynical political maneuver than a sincere attack on integration." Hutton has also pointed out that Day's only other bill was one which allowed timberland owners to deny right of way to adjoining lands, thereby making it impossible for smaller landowners to reach markets or bodies of water — a "final nail in the coffin for the (...) free-ranging mountain economy".[10]

In March 1904, Day began experiencing symptoms of "inflammatory rheumatism", and was hospitalized; he died a month later, of pneumonia.[2]

Early life

Prior to running for office, Day grew up in Frozen Creek, Kentucky located in Breathitt County.[11] Later he attended Central University of Kentucky,[11] and served as Frozen Creek's postmaster.[12]

Family

Day's father was referred to Judge Nathan B Day. Day also had three siblings. His brother was Walter Day, who served as Kentucky State Treasurer under William S. Taylor.[13][14] Day's older sister was named Mrs. Carrie Williams, who lived in the family home at Frozen Creek. Day's Youngest sister was named Miss Mary Day, who attended college at Danville. [11]

References

  1. ↑ Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950, by James C. Klotter; p. 152; published January 1, 1996, by University Press of Kentucky
  2. 1 2 DEATH COMES to hon. Carl Day, of Breathitt County, originally published April 15, 1904, in The Twice-A-Week Messenger of Owensboro, Kentucky; via newspapers.com
  3. ↑ Journal of the Special Sesssion of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, January 12, 1905; p. 19
  4. ↑ Kentucky General Assembly Membership, 1900-2005 - Vol. I 1900 - 1949, Informational Bulletin No. 175 (4th revised edition), by the Legislative Research Commission; published April 2005; p. 125, "1904 General Assembly Membership": Day is listed with an "(n)", indicating that he was newly-elected, and the 1904 legislative session began in January 1904
  5. ↑ A History of Education in Kentucky, by William Ellis; published June 1, 2011, by University of Kentucky Press
  6. ↑ Louisville's Historic Black Neighborhoods, by Beatrice S. Brown, p. 125; published 2012 by Arcadia Press
  7. ↑ This Kentucky college did the unthinkable by pushing integration during slavery, by Maggie Menderski, in the Louisville Courier Journal; published February 5, 2020; retrieved April 1, 2022
  8. ↑ 'The State Must Provide' Is A Lesson On Inequality In Higher Ed, Past And Present, on Fresh Air; at National Public Radio; published August 16, 2021; retrieved April 1, 2022
  9. ↑ The Little College Where Tuition Is Free and Every Student Is Given a Job, by Adam Harris, in The Atlantic; published October 11, 2018; retrieved April 1, 2022
  10. ↑ Bloody Breathitt: Politics and Violence in the Appalachian South, by T.R.C. Hutton; p. 189; published July 2013, by University of Kentucky Press
  11. 1 2 3 REPRESENTATIVE CARL DAY DIES OF PNEUMONIA, in the Lexington Herald; published April 13, 1904; archived at FindAGrave
  12. ↑ Official Register of the United States, Volume 2,published 1901, by the United States Civil Service Commission, p. 132
  13. ↑ A Reconstructed Eastern Kentucky Newspaper: A Century Ago This Week by Knott County Historical Society, by David R. Smith; published 2004; archived at Rootsweb
  14. ↑ Receiver Appointed for N. B. Day & Co.—Assets Nearly Double Liabilities, in the Winchester, Kentucky Sun-Sentinel, published September 1, 1904; archived at the Clark County Public Library
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