In an event that was part homecoming and part reminiscence, the George Washington Carver Center hosted a gathering to celebrate the early days of the Shake Rag district and Bowling Green’s other prominent Black neighborhoods.

A series of speakers shared their memories of growing up in Shake Rag and the area located from High Street to Kentucky Street, telling stories and showing pictures of the area that served as a thriving African American community for decades.

“We want the people of Bowling Green to know that we have history and we’re going to keep our history alive,” said Bettie Turner, a member of the George Washington Carver Center, located on State Street across from the site of the old State Street High School. “It’s important to let Bowling Green know that this area was something and it still stands for something.”

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Shake Rag was the home and gathering place for the city’s Black residents, and housed the former State Street school along with several businesses and churches.

Bowling Green native Don Offutt, a retired educator, relished the opportunity to bring the history of the area back to life, giving a presentation that included several pictures and began with the pouring of libations, a ritual among the Asante people of Ghana to honor one’s ancestors.

“When there’s no memory, people can’t find the history,” Offutt said, mentioning during his presentation the legacy of Jonesville and other Black neighborhoods in the city’s history.

Offutt’s collection of photos and documents told the story of a bustling community – sports teams posing in front of State Street High School, church groups meeting to congregate, patrons dining at Nancy’s Tea Room on Third Avenue and well-dressed young Black men and women of a bygone era enjoying one another’s company.

“These aren’t broke-down, pitiful people,” Offutt said of the subjects in the pictures. “They’re bringing their sincere best.”

Little remains today of that era of the city’s history, but Saturday’s gathering marked one of a number of efforts to preserve the memories of that time.

Shake Rag has hosted an annual summer festival three years running, and the city recently purchased the old Southern Queen Hotel on State Street, which housed Black guests in the days of segregated lodging, with an eye toward restoring it.

“You had prominent Black people in Shake Rag, doctors, lawyers, teachers lived in Shake Rag,” said Curtis Cosby, a Bowling Green resident and one of Saturday’s speakers. “Everybody here needs to know about our community.”