Prior to the 1960s, Virgil Bailey, along with other Black residents of Bowling Green, owned a vast swathe of the land in a neighborhood known as Jonesville. Community members knew it as tight-knit and self-sufficient, with businesses such as barber shops, beauty salons and drug stores. Then – in a campaign of urban renewal that would sweep the nation – Jonesville was destroyed so Western Kentucky University could expand.
Last month, the late Virgil Bailey’s great-grandson, Leonard Bailey, returned to the center of the former neighborhood. Standing beside WKU’s Downing Student Union, he turned to other descendants of Jonesville residents – people who, with him, are seeking a place to mark their families’ histories. “That’s it,” Leonard Bailey said, pointing to a small courtyard across from the student union.
“That’s the place. That’s the heart of Jonesville.” In July, 13 Jonesville descendants accepted an invitation from WKU for an informal gathering of residents and descendants from the neighborhood.
In the hourslong gathering, they recounted their family stories and discussed ideas for markers on campus that will honor the neighborhood and a location for it. And, they stood in the area that was once the neighborhood – a 34.7-acre space that spanned the modern-day soccer and softball fields through the water tower and Diddle Arena, according to WKU’s website.
“I never set foot in Jonesville because it was destroyed in the decades before I was b.