"Education Empowers"

The Southgate Street School, 1873-1954

- Gina Erardi

The first mural installation, entitled “Education Empowers” depicts a teacher and student at a chalkboard; waves leading into a portrait of a college graduate, ostensibly the same student in the chalkboard scene. The schoolgirl represents Black Students who attended The Southgate Street School, the first school in the area that prioritized education for black children immediately following the Civil War.

The mural is the product of community voices. Residents of Newport and civic leaders from Newport provided their input as Northern Kentucky University students began designing public art projects to celebrate the history of The Southgate Street School. The School, opened after the Civil War to educate the sons and daughters of slaves, became very important to Newport’s African American residents. It closed in the 1950s.

Two of its former students, one in her 70s and one in his 80s, visited NKU’s art studio and told their stories to the students in two art classes, who in turned designed public art projects for Newport interpreting what they head.

One of those students, Gina Erardi, is the chief artist for the first mural panel, which will celebrate the role of the Southgate Street School in Newport’s history. It was a school that lifted up African American residents, empowering them to see that, with an education, they could dream big. Gina’s concept captures this. Here in Newport, in what had so very recently been a slave state, residents invested in the most dangerous thing the slave economy could fathom: A school for the sons and daughters of slaves. Few communities below the Mason Dixon Line were willing to do that.

This mural was funded by The Horizon Community Fund’s “410“. The 410 connects the new generation of civic and charitable leadership in Northern Kentucky. Funding was announced in December 2019.