WKU News

The Jonesville Reconciliation Workgroup will host Honoring Jonesville: Our People, Our Community, Our Legacy, a reception and symposium April 14-15 to continue assessing the best way(s) to honor the Jonesville community. 

Jonesville descendants and interested WKU and local community members are welcome to attend the reception from 6-8 p.m. April 14 at One Roof Event Space in downtown Bowling Green. Remarks will take place at 6:30 p.m.

The Symposium will begin at 9 a.m. April 15 in the Eva & Jim Martens Alumni Center with remarks from President Timothy C. Caboni and workgroup chairperson Dr. Saundra Ardrey. The Symposium will feature morning speaker Dr. Shawnboda Mead, Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Mississippi.

Sessions will follow presented by WKU University Historian and Professor of History David Lee and Professor Peggy Gripshover in Environmental, Sustainability, and Geographic Studies. The Symposium will include a panel with discussion and shared stories from descendants and Community Scholars Wathetta Buford, Alice Gatewood Waddell, and Maxine Ray. This session is facilitated by Brent Bjorkman, Director of the Kentucky Folklife Program and Kentucky Museum. Akisha Townsend Eaton, J.D., also a descendant, will lead the lunch and dialogue. The symposium will close with a facilitated conversation about reconciliation led by Ryan Dearbone.

President Caboni established the Jonesville Reconciliation Workgroup during the Spring 2022 semester. Members of the workgroup include WKU alumni, WKU employees, descendants of Jonesville, and individuals from the Bowling Green/Warren County community. The primary purpose of the workgroup is to appropriately address the issues that remain from the dismantling of the Jonesville neighborhood.

Register online at https://www.wku.edu/jonesville/events.php.

Contact: Dr. Saundra Ardrey, (270) 745-4559 or saundra.ardrey@wku.edu

-WKU-

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.