Bowling Green , Ky. - Dr. John A. Hardin, associate professor of History at Western Kentucky University, has been appointed to the Kentucky African-American Heritage Commission by Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Dr. Hardin, who is also the appointed chair of the Kentucky Oral History Commission, will serve through February 2009. He said the commission’s charge is to preserve all meaningful vestiges of Kentucky’s African-American heritage.

“As an historian who has written books on Kentucky black higher education and served as a contributor and consultant to other book and video projects, it is my hope that I can make a meaningful contribution to the preservation of the richness of African American contributions to the Commonwealth,” Dr. Hardin said. “Also, I am serving as one three general co-editors of the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia (KAAE), the first work of its kind. When completed and published by University Press of Kentucky in 2011, it will serve as a unique, comprehensive, single volume encyclopedia on Kentucky’s black life and culture. In addition to assigned commission duties, I hope to engage this group to use the research from the Encyclopedia’s proposed 1,000-plus entries to advance wider knowledge of African Americans’ impact on life in Kentucky.”

Dr. Hardin’s books include “Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky, 1904-1954” and “Onward and Upward: A Centennial History of Kentucky State University, 1886-1986.” He is also an editor and consultant to “Community Memories: A Glimpse of African American in Frankfort, Kentucky” and a chapter contributor to “A Commemoration of WKU’s Integration 1956-2006.”

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For more information, contact John Hardin, (270) 745-2233.

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