Strickland, Nathaniel

Nathaniel Strickland was born in Irvine, KY, the son of Mitchell and Helen Parks Strickland. In 1973 he was elected city council member and Mayor Pro Tem in Irvine and re-elected in 1975 and 1977. He was the city's first African American elected official.

Strickland was head grocery clerk at an Irvine supermarket where he had worked for 32 years. According to World War II Army Enlistment Records, Strickland was a veteran, having served in the Panama Canal Department.

For more see "Mayor, 45 councilmen are black city officials," in the 1978 Kentucky Directory of Black Elected Officials, Fifth Report, by the Commission on Human Rights, p. 18.