From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Lawrenceburg (KY) Colored Fair
(start date: 1885 - end date: 1938)The early mention of the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair can be found in Kentucky newspapers dating back to at least 1885. This was the year that Julius Silver named himself as president of the fair. The other members of the fair board disagreed and named another as president. The incidient was published in The Anderson News, 09/24/1885, p.3.
The 1913 fair was held August 27-29. Southern Railway offered an excursion rate of $1.15 for a round trip ticket. Ads announcing the fair were reprinted in several Kentucky newspapers throughout the month of August. Return train passage from the fair had to be used by August 30th.
Ten years later, in 1923, there were again newspaper ads for the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair. The fair was held August 29-31st. The following year, 1924, I. B. Parrent was the contact person for the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair Association. The fair was to be held August 26-29. I. B. Parrent continued to be involved with the fair association for several years. In 1927 the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair Association board members were President J. T. Utterback, Vice President Henry Harris, Secretary I. B. Parrent, Assistant Secretary T. L. Thurman, and Treasurer Lewis Martin (source: see 1927 fair announcement attached to this entry).
Advertisements for the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair continued to be printed in the local newspapers until about 1930. The fair continued to be mentioned in The Billboard until about 1938 when W. M. Coleman was the contact person for the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair Association. Coleman was the principal and teacher at the Lawrenceburg Colored School.
SOURCES: "The colored fair is opening ...," The Anderson News, 09/17/1885, p.3; "Lawrenceburg Colored Fair," Kentucky Daily Advocate, 08/15/1913, p.4; "We will see you at the Lawrenceburg Colored Fair August 29 to 31," Lexington Leader, 07/19/1923, p.2; "Lawrenceburg," Kentucky Advocate, 08/07/1924, p.2; "Lawrenceburg Colored Fair," The Lexington Herald, 07/14/1930, p.8; see "Lawrenceburg" under the Kentucky heading in The Billboard, v.50, 1938, p.73; Lawrenceburg Colored Fair Association, Lawrenceburg, KY, 08/24-26/1927, p.1 [UNPROCESSED in the Hattie Lee Gray Marshall Collection at the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center].