I was new to the area. Eastern Kentucky, a small rural county, and I had just taken a different position with the State Planning Commission. I mainly worked with the highway departments on the state, county and local levels, in road building and maintenance. I’ve been working for the state for six years up to that point, ever since graduating from UK in 1990. I had worked my way up, getting promoted at every opportunity.
Now I was here, and not really sure if this was such a good idea. My new position paid well, very well. And at the time I was single. So what’s the problem? Well, the problem was I’m black. Six-five, two-sixty of prime black American male, in a part of rural coal-mining Kentucky where there are very few African-Americans, and none with money. The local non-white population didn’t really like me that much, and let’s not even go on about the white population. At least, not at first.
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