Vision of Marshall County’s
future glimpsed in past

By Jody Norwood
Tribune-Courier News Editor
jnorwood@tribunecourier.com

MARSHALL COUNTY – A woman who stood alongside some of the most recognized voices in the civil rights movement hopes Marshall County’s Cherokee State Park will be a place to remember history and for future generations to work out differences.

Colia Clark– who worked with both Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr.– spoke at Cherokee Monday, which was also the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

“We dared to face the Klan,” Clark told a crowd gathered to celebrate Cherokee and look toward its future. “We dared to face the citizens councils. We dared to face anyone in the house, because it was our job.”

Clark spoke briefly on the current and past struggles of civil rights and the importance of recognizing places like Cherokee. She also spoke of the potential for such places.

“Kentucky, you are on the front line of a new age,” Clark said. “I travel all around this country and when I come to Kentucky I see a new spirit.”

Clark encouraged officials to use the park as a place to remember the true history of segregation and as a place for communities to come together.

“This park was built because they didn’t want to open up the white park,” Clark said.

Cherokee was founded on a 300-acre tract and opened in 1951 and lasted for a decade before desegregation efforts helped to abolish segregated establishments.

The camp provided general recreation options, vacation cottages, swimming, boating, fishing and camping activities to African Americans, complimenting the amenities offered at nearby Kenlake State Resort Park. When the park closed in the 1960’s, the cottages were moved to Kenlake.

While Clark spoke on the future of the park and the struggles of the civil rights movement, others attending included former park guests and employees. One former worker, Joe Arnold, of Murray, remembered Cherokee fondly.

“It was one of the most exciting places back then,” Arnold said. Arnold worked at the park from 1957 to 1961.

“This was my high school summer job,” Clark said. “I worked under several different managers. This was an exciting place to be. We had such crowds, you couldn’t even find a parking place. We had something that you couldn’t possibly believe.

“Back then, not everybody had their own transportation. They’d come down in those big trucks out of Tennessee, farm trucks with the sides on them. They’d have chairs and benches in the back. They’d come down by the load.”

Arnold said people came from all over– places like St. Louis, Mo., Chicago, Ill., and Louisville– to spend their summers. Many guests came to the park as a day trip, but Arnold said many guests would come and stay longer on family vacations.

“I guess it was the only place around where black people had a place to come to,” Arnold said. “Everybody would come and bring their families and spend the day.”

The park has been designated as a historic site, something Arnold said he has been looking forward to.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted,” Arnold said. “It will be something really nice for this part of the state. And I think everybody in this part of the state and everyone in the state of Kentucky will continue to come back. A lot of the people who came when they were teenagers can remember the exciting times they had at the park.”

Cherokee was the third segregated state park in the country and the first in Kentucky.

Renovations are being planned at the park by the state, although the efforts have been slowed by the state’s financial situation. Friends of Cherokee Park have worked to raise awareness of efforts at the park, as well as local leaders.

Friends member Dr. Nancy Dawson encouraged people to take part in the restoration efforts and said the group was looking for any photos or memorabilia.