African American Shoe Makers, Repairers, Shiners - Hopkinsville, KY

In Christian County, KY, the few African American shoemakers were located in Hopkinsville between 1870 and 1930. Though, one of the earliest of the recently freed men to make shoes was Jessie Hart in Garretsburg around 1880. There were never more than five of the shoemakers at any one time, and around WWI, the African American shoemaking businesses began the transition to shoe repair and shoe shining. By the early 1920s, most of the African American men in Christian County who were in the shoe care business were shoe shiners. There was a combination of employment styles, some men worked for themselves, while some worked in parlors that catered to whites, and others worked under the business name of African American proprietors such as Brasher & Shipp, Ned Bronaugh, and Shelby Carlisle. One of the unique things in Christian County, was the come and go nature of shoe shine employees who were African American. A man would be listed in the city directory as a shoe shiner one year and the previous or next years they were listed as porters, barbers, or tobacco workers. The shoe shine business was not a long term trade but more like a filler for when the men were between jobs. Also, it is not uncommon to see a man's name to be listed only one year in the city directory but not found at all in the census records for Christian County, as if the person may have visited for a brief spell before moving on from Christian County.