Kentucky is a state of the United States of America. The state's
name is of Shawnese or Iroquoian origin, possibly Wyandotic,
meaning "meadow," "field". In Seneca, also an Iroquois
language, the word geda'geh means "in the field". Kentucky has
the nickname Bluegrass State, which means the blue-green
flowering grass pastures from March to April, as a common
description.
Kentucky was initially a part of Virginia
and joined the United States in 1792 as the 15th state. In the
Civil War, Kentucky initially tried to remain neutral, then
residents of the state stood on both sides, such as B. Abraham
Lincoln as President of the Union and Jefferson Davis as
President of the Confederacy. However, the United States Census
Bureau now clearly counts Kentucky among the southern states.
In addition to the states of Virginia,
Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts, Kentucky bears the official name "Commonwealth of
Kentucky" in contrast to the usual designation of the member
states as "state".
Previously, the origin of the state's name was believed to come
from an Amerindian word meaning "dark and bloody hunting
ground," because the native tribes living in the region hunted
within the state's dense forests, and because these Tribes
fought among themselves in these forests. However, it is
currently believed that the word Kentucky can be attributed to
numerous indigenous languages, with several possible meanings.
Some of these meanings are "land of tomorrow", "land of cane and
turkeys" and "prairie". The region where Kentucky is currently
located was originally settled by settlers from the British
colony of Pennsylvania in 1774, but became controlled by
Virginia during the Revolutionary War of 1776, and became the
fifteenth American state to form part of the Union. on June 1,
1792.
Kentucky is a land of diverse environments and
abundant resources. It has the longest cave system in the world,
the longest length of navigable streams and channels in the
continental United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), the two
largest artificial lakes east of the Mississippi River, and the
most productive coal field in the world. country. Kentucky is
world-known for its thoroughbred horses, horse racing
(especially the Kentucky Derby), bourbon distilleries, bluegrass
music, tobacco, and its college basketball teams.
1 Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky.
2 Lexington
3
Louisville
4 Owensboro
5 Renfro Valley
Impressive Lost River Cave is located in Kentucky state. Its walls preserved many graffiti from the Civil War era.
Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest cave system known in the world situated in central Kentucky. This protected park covers an area of 52,830 acres in Barren, Edmonson and Hart counties.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium with colorful and dark history is one of the largest and most famous haunted destinations in the United States.
Kentucky is between 36°30′ and 39°9′
north latitude and between 81°58′ and 89°34′ west longitude. The
national territory extends over 225 km north-south and 610 km east-west
and covers 104,659 km².
Kentucky borders the Midwest and Southern
United States. It lies between West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee,
Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. It is bordered on the north by the
Ohio River. It is the only US state with an exclave that is only
surrounded by other states: in western Kentucky in Fulton County, the
small strip of land formed by the New Madrid earthquake of 1811 is the
Kentucky Bend on the Mississippi, bounded by the state Missouri and only
accessible via Tennessee.
There are five main regions:
the Cumberland Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau in the southeast, the
"Bluegrass Region" in the north, the Pennyroyal Plateau aka "Pennyrile"
in the south and west, the coalfields in the west, and the "Jackson
Purchase" in the west extreme west.
The Eastern Coal Fields, a
rugged, mountainous region heavily forested and dissected by rivers,
features the highest elevations and lies in the River Valley. The
highest mountain is Black Mountain in Harlan County at 1292 m. The
western portion of the region includes much of the Daniel Boone National
Forest.
The "busy" heart of Kentucky, the Bluegrass Region, is in
the north of the state. Geologically, it belongs to the oldest part of
the state. The calcareous soil forms the basis for grain cultivation and
pastures.
The Mississippi Plateau is only separated from it by a
series of smaller low mountain range hills, the Knobs.
The
Western Coal Fields, bounded by the Ohio River to the north and
northwest, are already part of the Illinois Basin.
The
southwestern portion of the state is a low-lying plain called the
Jackson Purchase. Here is also the lowest point of Kentucky in Fulton
County in the course of the Mississippi, around 78 m above sea level.
i.e. M. It was named after the later President Andrew Jackson, who in
1818 had initiated the purchase of the land from the Chickasaw as the
official agent. The huge alluvial land forms one of the most productive
agricultural areas in the country.
Large rivers such as the Ohio or the Mississippi, which also characterize the neighboring states, determine the landscape and the borders of Kentucky, with the entire river network covering around 140,000 km. Other major rivers include the Red and Green Rivers, Tennessee River, Cumberland River and Rough River, Big Sandy River, Licking and Kentucky River. Kentucky is also the only state bordered on three sides by rivers: the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Big Sandy River and Tug Fork to the east. Although the state itself has only three major natural lakes, it has a few reservoirs, some of which were dam-created as job creation measures during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policy, such as: B. Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, named after Vice President Alben W. Barkley, or Dewey Lake on the Big Sandy. The Red River supposedly owes its name to the large amount of blood spilled during fierce Indian fighting in the late 18th century.
Kentucky has an extensive park system. This includes
one national park, Mammoth Cave National Park, two national recreation
areas, two national historical parks, two national forest facilities, 52
state parks, 153 km² of state forest and 82 wildlife management areas.
The state is also part of two of the most successful biological
reintroduction projects in United States history. In the winter of 1997,
the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources began
reintroducing elk into eastern counties that had been extinct in that
area for over 150 years. In 2009, the project reached its goal of 10,000
animals, making it the largest population east of the Mississippi.
Kentucky had successfully reintroduced wild turkeys, which were also
extinct here, back in the 1950s. Today it has more turkeys than any
other eastern state.
Because Kentucky is located in the southeastern interior of North America, it has a temperate, humid, subtropical climate with cool winters and warm summers. Average temperatures vary between 30.9 °C in summer and -4.9 °C in winter with 1168.4 mm of precipitation. The annual mean is around 14 °C in most of the country. Temperature extremes range from −36.7 °C in Cynthiana in 1963 to +45.6 °C in Greensburg in the summer of 1930. In contrast, winter snowpacks of more than 60 cm are common in the Appalachian foothills. Kentucky is in the transit area of various storm systems, some of which occur as tornadoes between March and September. The most violent storm disasters occurred in the 1890 Louisville tornado with at least 76 fatalities and in the 1974 "Super Outbreak" with 72 fatalities. More recently, a 1997 flood killed 18 people, the multistate Super Tuesday tornado outbreak, killing 17 in Kentucky alone, and a January 2009 national ice storm that killed at least 24 people.
Until the arrival of European settlers, the plains and forests of
Kentucky were home to migratory large mammals such as bison, elk, and
elk. Today, only smaller mammals such as muskrats, foxes, squirrels,
rabbits, marmots, opossums and raccoons live here, but also deer.
There is a much wider range of bird species: from bald eagles to
wrens, almost everything is there. Typical birds are the red cardinal,
the "state bird", the mockingbird, the sap licker, the kingfisher and
various species of woodpecker. One of the country's most important
migratory bird routes stretches from the west of the state to the Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers.
The Cumberland Mountains, the western
foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in the Virginia border, are among
the most biodiverse mesophytic forests in the temperate zone of the
northern hemisphere. Around 30 species occur in the up to 35 m high tree
layers. Today, forests cover around 40% of the national territory.
Mostly there are deciduous trees like maple, birch, oak, horse chestnut
and walnut. But conifers such as hemlock, pine, Virginian juniper and
cypress are also common. Typical plants of the area are rhododendrons,
laurel rose, blueberry, tulip tree, goldenrod and mint. The lower tree
layers are also very species-rich. Such forests (cove forests) in humid
depressions on concave slopes are characterized by tall growth and
straight trunks. The core regions of the mesophytic forests are
considered to be geologically important genetic reservoirs for the
distribution of many forest species.
Different tribes of Native Americans lived in the region where
Kentucky is currently located about ten thousand years before the
arrival of the first European explorers. These tribes were mainly
Cherokee, Delaware and Shawnee, as well as the Iroquois. The latter
constantly attacked other indigenous settlements.
According to a
royal charter signed by James I in 1609, the territory that would later
become Kentucky was attributed to the colony of Virginia. However, in
1750 it was still largely unknown territory when it was proposed to
explore it and search for suitable lands there. to colonization.
Throughout the end of the 17th century and the first decades of the 18th
century, various British and French explorers explored the region.
Much of what is now Kentucky was purchased from Native Americans by
the treaties of Fort Stanwix (1768) and Sycamore Shoals (1775). Kentucky
later grew rapidly as the first settlements were founded west of the
Appalachian Mountains, with settlers (especially from Virginia, North
Carolina and Pennsylvania) who entered the region through a passage
between the Appalachian Mountains called Cumberland Gap and the Ohio
River. The most famous of these early explorers and settlers was Daniel
Boone, traditionally considered one of the founders of the state. In
1775 the American War of Independence began. Because the Shawnee north
of the Ohio River were dissatisfied with settlement in Kentucky, they
allied themselves with the British during the war. Kentucky was a
battlefield during the war; The Battle of Blue Licks, one of the last
major battles of the Revolution, took place in Kentucky.
In 1776,
Kentucky became officially controlled by the United States and the
region became one of the counties of Virginia, attracting inhabitants
from other regions of Virginia. However, the Iroquois continued to
attack American settlements. These indigenous people were equipped with
firearms supplied by the British. They controlled a small region in the
northwest of the current state of Kentucky. A militant force, controlled
by George Rogers Clark, conquered the three British settlements that
were located in the northwest of the region. Such settlements supplied
the Iroquois with modern weapons. With the capture of these settlements,
Iroquois attacks decreased.
Virginia never showed much interest
in taking over Kentucky; In fact, the incorporation of the region as a
county of Virginia had been made only as a declaration of claim to
United States possession of the region of Kentucky (which prior to the
start of the war was not part of any of the Thirteen Colonies). . The
American Revolutionary War ended in 1783. Nine years later, on June 1,
1792, Kentucky officially became the fifteenth American state, and Isaac
Shelby, a soldier hero of the Revolutionary War, was elected the first
(and later fifth) governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
At
the end of the war against Great Britain, the United States found itself
with a huge problem: paying the debts it owed to France and Spain. This
problem was so great that Kentucky even planned to leave the Union and
adhere to the Spanish crown. However, the payment was never made;
Otherwise, the new nation would have been ruined.
During the first decades of the 19th century, Kentucky prospered
economically. The rich pastures of central Kentucky made it an ideal
place for raising horses. Tobacco began to be grown on a large scale in
Kentucky beginning in the 1830s. Nearly 30 years later, Kentucky was
already the largest tobacco producer in the country. Other important
crops were corn and wheat. Kentucky also became one of the largest
producers of alcoholic beverages (mainly bourbon whiskey) beginning in
the 1840s. The variety of rivers that flow through the state helped
Kentucky farmers and merchants prosper. These estates used a large
amount of slave labor.
In 1818, President Jackson secured
possession of the present western portion of Kentucky—until then
disputed with the natives—through the formal purchase and sale of this
region to the Indians.
During the 1850s, the United States
Government considered moving its capital, the District of Columbia,
westward to what was then called the Western District of Columbia. This
capital would be between Capitol City (located in Kentucky) and
Metropolis (Illinois). However, these plans never went beyond paper.
The American Civil War began in 1861. Kentucky initially declared
its neutrality in the war, demonstrating no interest in actively
participating on the side of the Union (the United States itself) or the
Confederate States of America. Officially, however, Kentucky was still
part of the Union, so Confederate troops invaded Kentucky in January
1862, being expelled by Union forces in October of the same year.
During the war, Kentucky's population was divided. Many were
pro-abolitionists, especially those living in the state's major urban
centers. Others, mainly farmers, were in favor of the use of slave
labor. Pro-abolitionists wanted the state to join the Union, and those
who supported the use of slave labor wanted Kentucky to join the
Confederacy. Even entire families were divided. About 75 thousand people
of the state fought on the side of the Union, and about 30 thousand
people fought on the side of the Confederacy.
At the end of the
war, Kentucky was still part of the Union. However, the United States
government made decisions that displeased the vast majority of the
state's residents. The slaves were freed without compensation for their
owners, the economy of Kentucky, at that time mainly agrarian, was in
rags. On top of that, Union troops occupied the state, despite having
actively participated on the Union side. These troops remained in the
state until 1870, composed primarily of African Americans and occupying
areas that had supported the southerners. The morale of Kentuckians
declined drastically. For a decade the state would enter a major
economic recession, mainly caused by a drastic drop in foreign tobacco
sales.
Slavery was legal in Kentucky. However, it did not have the same
economic importance as in other southern states. In the run-up to the
Civil War, Kentucky played an important role in helping black African
slaves to escape from the neighboring countries due to its open border
over 1126 km to the south. Numerous subterranean hiding places of the
"Underground Railroad" that led to Canada have been preserved to this
day.
On May 20, 1861, Kentucky attempted to maintain its
neutrality in the Civil War through a proclamation (see Kentucky
Declaration of Neutrality). However, when Confederate troops invaded and
burned numerous cities on September 3, 1861, the Union side was sided
with.
General propaganda included the printing of political
slogans on business cards and the mail. In a cartoon circulated on an
envelope from Illinois at the time, the Secession wolf in tails kneels
before Little Red Riding Hood, who shoulders a Union banner. He offers
to take Kentucky out of the Union - or any other state, that would be
the crucial question. ("The Secession Wolf" offering to lead Kentucky,
"Or any other State," out of the Union. "That's what's the matter.")
Despite attempts to maintain neutrality, relatives on both sides
often fought. Approximately 100,000 Kentuckians sided with the Union,
while around 40,000 men championed the cause of the Confederacy. Both
armies had recognized the strategic potential of the state, so that
various skirmishes and numerous guerrilla raids took place on national
territory. The Battle of Perryville is considered the fiercest
confrontation, ultimately killing 7,600 soldiers and wounding 5,400 when
Northern General Don Carlos Buell missed an acoustic shadow to confront
the outnumbered troops of Braxton Bragg.
Until the end of the
war, the civilian population suffered from raids by bushwhacker gangs
from the south. Nevertheless, later, during the reconstruction phase
(1865-1877), they demonstratively sided with the South. Since the 1880s
in particular, the Ku Klux Klan has pursued a policy of intimidation
against the colored and liberal population.
After the demise of the hemp industry, which had previously produced
most of the sacks in the States, the cultivation of "Burley Tobacco"
changed the agricultural landscape significantly. New sales markets
could be opened up with this high-quality product.
When the
Kentucky Railway Company opened up the Powell County rail line in 1886,
the country's cedar timber industry also expanded. The Red River Lumber
Mills corporation, founded six years earlier, was considered the largest
steam-powered sawmill in the state. Around 1890, a literal "run" began
on America's largest cedar plantation near Clay City. However, the boom
in the region came to an unexpected end in 1906 when a devastating fire
ravaged the mills and plantations.
The "Black Patch Tobacco War"
between 1904 and 1909 expressed the dissatisfaction of small and
medium-sized suppliers, who ultimately fought successfully against the
tobacco monopoly of a few large suppliers.
The greatest upheaval
was expressed in the change from an agrarian to an industrial state,
which was almost completed during the Second World War. In addition to
textiles, it was above all the coal-mining and tobacco-processing
industry that paved the way for other branches of production. Due to the
Great Depression in 1930, many farmers and miners were forced to seek
work in the cities. However, it was not until 1970 that more workers
were employed in the cities than in the countryside.
In 1936, the
US Treasury and its gold reserves were established at Fort Knox.
The winters of 1936-37 saw catastrophic flooding in many parts of the
state, forcing thousands to evacuate. In Louisville and Mayfield entire
streets were submerged when the Ohio River burst its banks.
Citizens of a state proud of its fighting frontier tradition, many a
Kentuckian fell in Europe during World War I. At Godman Field near Fort
Knox, an airfield was created for the first time with the stationing of
the 29th Aero Squadron, the squadron remained at this location with the
31st Ballon Corps from 1918 to 1921. After this anachronism ended, the
base remained deserted until 1937, when it housed the 12th
Reconnaissance Squadron. During World War II, the base housed various
bomber squadrons, all armed with the twin-engined Martin B-26 "Marauder"
model, used primarily in Italy and the Pacific War.
Robert H.
Brooks became the first African American to enlist in the previously
all-white National Guard before the start of the war. Officially, he was
the first armed American soldier to be killed in a Japanese bombardment
of the Philippines on December 8, 1941 after the Japanese declaration of
war. Two weeks later, the parade ground in Fort Knox was renamed Brooks
Field in his honor. However, this ambivalent signal towards the
emancipation of the colored people in the south was initially limited to
the army, in which social advancement was possible, but still associated
with obstacles.
Another relic of the war can be found at Camp
Breckinridge, in Union County near Morganfield, where from 1943 to 1946
a prisoner of war camp for around 3,000 soldiers of the German Wehrmacht
was set up in additional barracks on the site of the original training
camp for recruits. As everywhere in the States, the prisoners of war
were soon part of economic life as cheap labor in agriculture and in
handicrafts in view of the shortage of workers with around 9000 fallen,
after initial distrust, which also ensured them a good livelihood given
the circumstances.
Only five years after the end of the war,
soldiers from Kentucky died again in the Korean War, with the
posthumously highly decorated field chaplain Herman Felhoelter being
declared a "national hero" for both the Catholic Church and the state
because of his selfless actions.
In the
1950s, the educational landscape gradually changed. As part of the
University of Louisville's integration policy, parts of the rest of the
campus as well as neighboring institutions were incorporated. As a
result, African-American professor Charles H. Parrish Jr., a renowned
sociologist and lifelong civil rights advocate, came from Louisville
Municipal College, which previously enrolled only blacks, as the first
black professor to attend a “white” Southern college. There he chaired
the chair of sociology from 1959 and openly cultivated his relationships
with the civil rights movement.
From the Reconstruction phase
until the 1990s, Kentucky was a stronghold of the Democrats. They were
succeeded by the Republicans, who promised a more favorable economic
climate. Over the course of this decade, the government managed to curb
hard coal production, strengthen tourism as an important service sector
by establishing nature parks, compensate for job losses and expand
social welfare. In this area in particular, however, Governor Ernie
Fletcher took a lot back, even cutting social security for government
employees against widespread protest.
The current Kentucky Constitution was adopted in 1891. Older
Constitutions were adopted in 1792, 1799, and 1850. Amendments to the
Constitution may be proposed by the Kentucky Legislature. To be
approved, amendments created by one of the chambers of the Legislative
Branch must receive at least three-quarters of the votes of the Senate
and the House of Representatives of the State, and two-thirds of the
votes of the electoral population of Kentucky, in a referendum.
At the head of the Executive Branch in Kentucky are the Governor and
Lieutenant Governor. The Governor is elected for terms of up to 4 years.
A person can hold office for a maximum of two periods.
The
Legislative Branch of Kentucky is made up of the Senate and the House of
Representatives. The Senate has a total of 38 members, while the House
of Representatives has a total of 100 members. Kentucky is divided into
38 senatorial districts and 100 representative districts. The voters of
each district elect a senator/representative, who will represent that
district in the Senate/House of Representatives. Senators are elected
for four years and representatives for two years.
The highest
court in the Kentucky Judiciary is the Kentucky Supreme Court, composed
of seven justices, one of whom is chosen by the group to serve as chief
justice. Other courts of law are the Court of Appeals of Kentucky,
composed of 14 judges, and 56 District Courts, with the number of judges
varying in each district. All judges of the Kentucky Judicial Branch are
elected by the population of the state, for terms of up to 8 years, with
district court judges elected by the population of their respective
districts.
Kentucky is divided into 120 counties. County
government, under the Kentucky Constitution of 1891, is established with
a County Judge/Executive (formerly called County Judge) who heads the
executive branch, and with a legislature called the Tax Court. Despite
the name, the Tax Court no longer has judicial functions. Fayette and
Jefferson Counties are administered by a Mayor and City Council.
Kentucky does not have villages or secondary cities (towns). Every urban
community with a town hall is a primary city (city). However, the state
government divides the state's cities into six classes, which vary
according to the population of the city in question. First-class cities
have more than 100 thousand inhabitants, second-class cities have 20 to
100 thousand inhabitants, third-class cities have 8 to 20 thousand,
fourth-class cities have 3 to 8 thousand, and fifth-class cities have
one thousand to three thousand. , and those of the sixth class, less
than a thousand inhabitants. Cities of higher class have greater powers
and responsibilities than those of lower classes. The counties are
responsible for providing most government services to lower-tier cities,
which, in higher-tier cities, would be the responsibility of the city.
More than half of Kentucky's government budget is generated by state
taxes. The rest comes from funds received from the federal government
and loans. In 2002, the state government spent 18.4 billion dollars,
having generated 16.1 billion. Kentucky's government debt is $9 billion.
The debt per capita is $2,210, the value of state taxes per capita is
$1,950, and the value of government expenditures per capita is $4,500.
For nearly a century after the end of the American Civil War,
Kentucky was dominated by the Democratic Party. However, the Republican
Party has grown in the state since the 1930s. Since the 1960s, both
Democrats and Republicans have elected an equal number of governors and
other executive officials and members of the state Legislature.
Nationally, however, Republicans currently dominate Kentucky, and the
majority of state representatives in the United States Congress are
Republicans. Kentucky voted Republican in five of the last seven
presidential elections, although it supported Democratic candidates from
the South. He voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton
in 1992 and 1996, and for Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Bush won the state's 8 electoral votes in a landslide in 2004 by a
margin of 20 percentage points and the 59 .6% of the votes.
Kentucky is one of four American states that uses the term Commonwealth
in its name, the other three being Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and
Virginia. The Kentucky government decided to use this term based on
Virginia (which also uses this definition). When the state of Kentucky
entered the Union in 1792, the vast majority of the population of
Kentucky was native to Virginia, which entered the Union in 1788,
already with the term Commonwealth. Kentucky is also one of only five
states that elects its state government in odd-numbered years (the
others are Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Virginia). Kentucky
holds state elections every 4 years in the years preceding Presidential
election years. Thus, since Kentucky elected governor in 2015, the next
gubernatorial election will occur in 2019.
According to the 2000 national census of the United States Census
Bureau, the population of Kentucky in that year was 4,041,769, a growth
of 10% relative to the state's population in 1990. An estimate made In
2005, the state's population was estimated at 4,173,405 inhabitants, a
growth of 12.8% in relation to the population in 1990, 3.2% in relation
to the population in 2000, and 0.8% in relation to with the estimated
population in 2004.
Kentucky's natural population growth between
2000 and 2005 was 77,156 inhabitants (287,222 births, 210,066 deaths),
growth caused by immigration was 27,435 inhabitants, and interstate
migration increased by 32,169 inhabitants. Between 2000 and 2005,
Kentucky's population increased by 131,120 inhabitants, and between 2004
and 2005, by 31,570 inhabitants. 2.3% of the state's population (95,000
inhabitants) were not born in the United States.
About 48% of
Kentucky's population lives in metropolitan regions. The metropolitan
centers of Kentucky are Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati (located in
Ohio, part of the metropolitan region located in Kentucky),
Hopkinsville-Clarksville (the last located in Tennessee),
Henderson-Evansville (the last located in Indiana), Ashland- Huntington
(the latter located in West Virginia) and Owensboro.
Kentucky's
total population has grown during every decade since data records exist.
However, during most decades of the 20th century, net emigration from
Kentucky has also increased. Since 1900, rural Kentucky counties have
experienced a net loss of more than 1 million people to outmigration,
while urban areas have experienced a slight net gain.
According to a 2006 census the racial composition of Kentucky's
population:
89.5% white
7.4% African Americans
0.9% Asian
0.2% Native Americans
1.2% two or more races
0.8% other races
Hispanic or Latino origin of any race: 2.0%
Only whites, without
Hispanic or Latino origin: 88.3%
The average age of the
population is 37.3 years.
The five largest groups in Kentucky by
ancestry are: Americans, who make up 20.9% of the population (the vast
majority are of English and Scottish descent), German (12.7%), Irish
(10.5%), English (9.7%) and African Americans (7.3%).
Kentucky's first public school was founded in 1775 in Harrodsburg.
Later other cities founded some schools in their urban areas. These
schools, initially, were entirely managed and financed by the cities. In
1837 the state government decided to create a state system of public
education, providing funds for the creation and operation of these
schools.
Many educational reforms have been developed in Kentucky
over the past two decades. In June 1989, the Kentucky Supreme Court
ruled that the state's education system was unconstitutional. The
General Assembly responded by passing the Kentucky Education Reform Act
(KERA) to next year. A few years later, Kentucky has shown progress, but
most agree that additional reform is necessary.
Currently, all
educational institutions in Kentucky need to follow the rules and
standards dictated by the Kentucky State Board of Education. This board
directly controls the state's public school system, which is divided
into different school districts. The Council is made up of seven members
chosen by the governor and approved by the Senate, for terms of up to
four years. In cities with more than eight thousand inhabitants, the
responsibility for the administration of the public school system falls
to the municipal districts, while in less densely populated regions,
this responsibility falls to the school districts, which operate
throughout the county. Kentucky allows the existence of “charter
schools” — independent public schools, which are not managed by school
districts, but depend on public budgets. School attendance is mandatory
for all children and adolescents over six years of age, until the
completion of secondary education, or until the age of sixteen.
In 1999, the state's public schools served about 648,000 students,
employing approximately 42,000 teachers. Private schools served nearly
75,000 students, employing approximately 5,500 thousand teachers. The
state's public school system consumed about $3.646 million, and public
school spending was approximately $6,400 per student. Nearly 80% of the
state's residents over twenty-five years of age have a high school
diploma.
Kentucky's first public library was founded in 1795, in
Lexington, although library users had to pay a monthly fee for the right
to borrow library materials. Currently, all cities with more than 8,000
inhabitants manage at least one public library, while counties manage
libraries located in several cities with fewer than 8,000 inhabitants.
Kentucky's first institution of higher education was Transylvania
University, founded in 1780, in Lexington, the first university
established west of the Allegheny Mountains and only the 16th in the
United States. Another university in the state, the Berea College was
the first non-segregated, co-educational college in the South. Kentucky
is home to 8 public universities. Additionally, the state has 16
technical colleges and more than 30 private colleges and universities.
The largest and most recognized university is the University of
Kentucky, located in Lexington. The state's main centers of higher
education are Louisville and Lexington.
In 2000, the Association of Religion Data Archives conducted a report
in which, of the 4,041,769 residents of Kentucky:
33.68% were members
of Evangelical Churches
Southern Baptist Convention (979,994 members,
24.25%)
Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ (106,638
members, 2.64%)
Church of Christ (58,602 members, 1.45%)
10.05%
were Catholic
8.77% belonged to Protestant churches
United
Methodist Church (208,720 members, 5.16%)
Disciples of Christ (67,611
members, 1.67%)
0.05% were members of Eastern Churches
0.88% were
affiliated with other theologies
46.57% were not affiliated with any
Church.
Kentucky's most populous cities, as well as most of its
fastest-growing counties, are concentrated in an area known as the
Golden Triangle, in the Bluegrass region in the north-central part of
the state. The exceptions are Hardin, LaRue and Meade counties, located
in the southwest of the state.
The most populous city in Kentucky
is Louisville. The portion of the Louisville metropolitan region located
within Kentucky (another portion is in Indiana) has a population of
1,120,039. The second is Lexington, which had, with its metropolitan
region, a population of 635,547 inhabitants in 2005. The seven counties
located in the far north, in the region called Northern Kentucky, which
is part of the metropolitan region of Cincinnati (a city located in the
neighboring state of Ohio) together had 403,727 inhabitants in 2005. The
metropolitan regions Louisville and Lexington, plus Northern Kentucky,
had a combined population of 2,159,313 inhabitants in 2005, which
represents 51.7% of the population of the state. Only three states in
the United States have capitals with a smaller population than the
capital of Kentucky, Frankfort, and they are Augusta (Maine), with
18,560 inhabitants, Pierre (South Dakota), with 13,876, and Montpelier
(Vermont), with 8,035 inhabitants.
The other two rapidly growing
urban areas are Bowling Green and the metropolitan region centered on
the cities of Somerset, London and Corbin. Although Somerset is the only
city in this metropolitan region with more than ten thousand
inhabitants, the region has experienced large population growth, along
with a large increase in the number of jobs in the area, and is
considered by many geographers as Kentucky's next major urbanized area.
Despite ranking thirty-seventh in size among the 50 states that make up the country, Kentucky is the third state in terms of number of counties, behind Texas' 254 and Georgia's 159. The original motivation to have so many counties was to ensure that residents, in the days when there were bad roads and horse travel, could make a round trip from their home to the county seat and back in a single day. Later However, politics also began to play a role in the motivation, with citizens who, due to disagreements with the county government, simply submitted a request to the state to create a new county. The Kentucky Constitution of 1891 set stricter limits on county creation, making it very difficult to create a new county today, and only McCreary County has been created since the 1891 constitution.
Kentucky's gross domestic product, in 2006, was $146 billion, 26th in
the United States. Likewise, per capita income was $29,719, one of the
lowest in the country (47th out of 50 states). Kentucky's unemployment
rate is 5.7%, also one of the highest in the US (46th).
The
primary sector accounts for 2% of Kentucky's GDP. Agriculture and
livestock together account for 2% of the GDP. Despite being the 14th
smallest state in terms of area in the United States, Kentucky is the
5th in total number of farms, with more farms per square mile than any
other American state. The average farm size in the state it is only 0.6
km². The state's main agricultural products are horses, cattle, tobacco,
dairy products, pigs, soybeans and corn. Kentucky ranks 8th and 12th
nationally in beef and beef production, respectively, and 14th in corn
production.
The secondary sector accounts for 34% of GDP. The
total value of products manufactured in the state is 34 billion dollars.
The main industrialized products manufactured in Kentucky are vehicles,
transportation equipment, chemicals (mainly fertilizers), machinery, and
industrially processed foods. The raw materials transformation industry
represents 27% of the state's GDP, employing approximately 335 thousand
people. The construction industry accounts for 5% of the GDP and employs
approximately 137 thousand people. Mining accounts for 2% of Kentucky's
GDP, employing about 23 thousand people. The main natural mining
resource in the state is coal. Kentucky ranks 4th among U.S. states in
automobile and truck assembly.
The tertiary sector accounts for
64% of Kentucky's GDP. Community and personal services account for 16%
of the state's GDP, and employs more than 615 thousand people, with
tourism as the main one. Financial and real estate services account for
close to 12% of the GDP, employing approximately 132 thousand people.
Wholesale and retail trade accounts for 15% of GDP, and employs
approximately 500 thousand people. Government services account for 13%
of GDP, employing about 350 thousand people. Transportation,
telecommunications and public services employ about 128 thousand people,
which means 8% of Kentucky's GDP. With six national areas, 49 state
parks, and hundreds of recreational, natural, historical, and cultural
attractions, Kentucky is full of opportunities for travelers. Tourism
and travel is Kentucky's third largest revenue-producing industry,
contributing $8.8 billion to the state's economy in 2001.
About
97% of the electricity generated in the state is produced by coal-fired
thermoelectric plants, and the rest is mostly produced by natural
gas-fired thermoelectric plants.
Initially, many Kentucky roads were private, and users had to pay
tolls to use them. Kentucky subsequently purchased all highways located
within the region, expanded the state's highway system, and liberalized
these highways. With the exception of certain minor roads, which are
private, no state road is toll. In 2003, Kentucky had 123,937 kilometers
of public roads, of which 1,228 kilometers were interstate highways,
considered part of the United States federal highway system.
Kentucky initially developed thanks to its rivers, which allowed the
transportation of its agricultural products to other regions of the
country. Later the railroad took the place of the state's small river
ports. Currently, the only port of relative importance is the port of
Louisville.
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides
passenger transportation service between major cities in the state. Coal
is the most common cargo on freight trains, with 79% of freight loaded
and 64% of freight unloaded. Kentucky has approximately 4,250 kilometers
of railroad tracks.
Kentucky's busiest airport is
Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, located in northern
Kentucky, but primarily serves Cincinnati, Ohio. Another important
airport is Louisville International Airport, one of the most important
in the world for freight transportation as it is the world headquarters
of UPS.
The first newspaper published in Kentucky was The Kentucky Gazette, first published in Lexington, in 1787. The oldest Kentucky newspaper still in circulation is The Advertiser, first published in 1818, in Louisville. Currently about 160 newspapers are published, of which about 20 are daily newspapers. Kentucky's first radio station was founded in 1922, in Louisville, and the state's first television station was founded in 1948, also in Louisville. Currently, Kentucky has nearly 200 radio stations and approximately 30 television stations.
Although Kentucky culture is generally considered to be Southern, it
is also influenced by the Midwest and southern Appalachia. The state is
known for its bourbon whiskey distilleries, horse racing, and gambling.
Kentucky is more culturally similar to the Upper South in terms of
ancestry, which is predominantly American. However, during the 19th
century, the state of Kentucky received a considerable number of German
and Irish immigrants, who settled primarily in the Midwest. Only
Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and Oklahoma have higher percentages
of German ancestry than Kentucky among states defined by the U.S. Census
Bureau as Southern. Kentucky was a slave state, and blacks accounted for
more than a quarter of its population. However, the state lacked a
cotton plantation system and never had the same high percentage of
African Americans as most other slave states. With less than 8% black
population, Kentucky is rarely included in current definitions of the
so-called "Black Belt" of the United States, despite having a relatively
significant rural African-American population in the central and western
areas of the state. Kentucky adopted the Jim Crow system of racial
segregation in most public spheres after the Civil War, but the state
never disenfranchised African American citizens at the level of the Deep
South states, and peacefully integrated its schools. After the famous
Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, subsequently adopting the first
state civil rights laws in the South in 1966.
Louisville also
hosts the Kentucky State Fair,53 the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, and
the prominent National Convention of Southern Gospel Quartets festival.
Owensboro, Kentucky's third largest city, lends credence to its
self-proclaimed "Barbecue Capital of the World" nickname by hosting the
International Bar-B-Q Festival each year. Bowling Green, Kentucky's
fifth largest city and home to the only assembly plant in the world that
manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette, opened the National Corvette Museum
in 1994.
The small town of Hodgenville, birthplace of Abraham
Lincoln, hosts the annual Lincoln Day celebration, and also celebrated
the launch of the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in
February 2008, a commemoration that will be celebrated throughout from
all over the country for two years.
The Kentucky Derby is the most famous thoroughbred horse race in the
country. It has been held since 1875 at the Churchill Downs racetrack in
the city of Louisville. It's part of the two-week Kentucky Derby
Festival, which includes the largest fireworks display in the United
States, a steamboat race and a beauty pageant.
The Kentucky
Colonels played in the American Basketball Association from 1967 to
1976, but did not participate in the merger with the NBA. Louisville
also had National Baseball League teams in the 1870s and 1890s, and the
National Football League in the 1920s.
Kentucky's two most
prominent college sports teams are the Kentucky Wildcats and the
Louisville Cardinals, which have achieved multiple NCAA men's basketball
national championships.
Valhalla Golf Club has hosted the 1996,
2000 and 2014 PGA Championship, as well as the 2008 Ryder Cup.
Additionally, Kentucky Speedway has hosted NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar
Series motorsports races. .
The Ironman Louisville, a
long-duration triathlon, is held in Louisville.