Celebrating Georgia Davis Powers

As we close out African American History month and enter National Women’s History month, we wanted to take a moment to honor Kentucky’s very own Senator Georgia Davis Powers. Born in Springfield, KY in 1923, Powers moved to Louisville, Kentucky as a small child with her family. Always a hard worker, Powers estimated that by the time she was 40 she had worked about 30 different jobs, including a short stint riveting airplanes during World War II. She became involved in politics through her church congregation and in 1964 organized the march on Frankfort, KY in support of a bill that would open accommodation to African Americans, one of her first political accomplishments.

Powers later stated that “she did not know her calling in life until she was 45 years old,” and what a calling it was. In 1967, Georgia Davis Powers became the first African American and the first woman to be elected to the Kentucky state senate. In the 21 years of her service in the Kentucky senate, Senator Powers would work tirelessly for open house, equal rights, and issues of concern for women, people of color, the poor and those who could not speak for themselves. Senator Powers retired in 1988 and lived out the rest of her life in her beloved West End of Louisville. She passed away on January 30, 2016, at the age of 90.

We are proud to have these pieces in our collection to help to tell Senator Powers story which we hope will be an inspiration for other. This skirt suit belonged to Senator Powers, while the image is Senator Georgia Davis Powers in her senate seat surrounded by 37 white male senators in December 1988.

-Tish Boyer, Collections Manager