In response to the question “Kentucky: Is It Southern?”a group gathered at Eastern Kentucky University’s Center for Kentucky History and Politics answered: probably. The Center’s Fall Conference featured speakers from all over the state and region who participated in panel discussions and lively exchanges with an equally diverse audience. The assembly was not content to dwell in anecdotes about their ancestors’ Civil War loyalty, but instead moved quickly to examine aspects of Kentucky’s political, racial, and religious history. Their conclusions may point, in fact, to Kentuckians as uniquely qualified students of Southern culture--both insiders and outsiders who frequently embrace a regional identity at the same time that they pause to consider, as this group did, the stakes in choosing Southernness.

Kathryn McKee