By Linda Blackford | Editor
Good morning! On Friday, I promised Lantern readers more about Juneteenth, the belated celebration of the end of slavery after the Civil War. And at Lexington’s Juneteenth celebrations, I got to see a unique commemoration of a time after slavery ended, but racial violence still abounded. Read about the remarkable R.C.O. Benjamin, and how he’ll be remembered.
Also, if you didn’t have time to read McKenna Horsley’s fascinating story about who got what in the state’s projects budget, then take another shot.
Also, a federal judge zinged the Trump Administration for overhauling Homeland Security computers to find noncitizen voters.
Have a great Tuesday, and thanks for supporting the Lantern.
From left, civil rights activists Russell Allen and DeBraun Thomas, and historian George Wright, at the unveiling of a marker to honor R.C.O. Benjamin, a journalist, minister, and activist killed while trying to register Black voters in Lexington in 1900. The two jars of soil commemorate the site where he was killed. (Linda Blackford/Kentucky Lantern)
COMMENTARY
By Linda Blackford
Lexington’s first Equal Justice Initiative’s Community Remembrance Project –honoring R.C.O. Benjamin – joins similar markers in Shelbyville, Frankfort, Mount Sterling, and Owensboro among others that commemorate Kentucky’s horrific history of racial violence after the Civil War.
Polar bear at the Louisville Zoo in March 2024. (Sarah Ladd/Kentucky Lantern)
By McKenna Horsley
The Republican-controlled Kentucky General Assembly backed a multitude of one-time spending projects this year — $5 million for the Louisville Zoo to build a trail system, $11 million to construct a convention center in Frankfort, millions to help small counties and cities restore or replace aging water systems.
Voting at the Portland Expo in Maine’s June 9, 2026 primary election. (Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star)
By Jonathan Shorman
The Trump administration illegally overhauled a U.S. Department of Homeland Security computer program in its hunt for noncitizen voters, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision that laid into federal officials for violating the privacy of millions of Americans.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
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