Robert Jefferson, who led fight to desegregate Fayette County schools, dies at 90
According to his son, Robert Jefferson was two things.
Publicly, Jefferson was a revered Lexington civil rights advocate. At home, he was “daddy.”
Jefferson, who was instrumental in further desegregating Fayette County schools, died on Friday. He was 90.
“Robert Jefferson, the civil rights activist was somebody that I admired and looked up to, because I know in his heart, what he was trying to do was make things better for me, my brother, for other young people coming up, for people in general,” said Stanley Jefferson, Robert’s son.
Jefferson was among a group of parents who sued the district in 1971, arguing that by “design or neglect” Fayette County maintained a segregated school system below high school. The case, Robert Jefferson et al. v. Fayette County Board of Education, would lead to local protest, uproar and eventually change.
A judge would side with the parents in the case, forcing the school district to design a plan to further desegregate the school system, according to a 2003 article on the case in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.
But the public didn’t see the man who went with his son to the park for junior high football practices.
“He’s the person that taught me different things in life as a boy, things about being a man,” Stanley said.
Jefferson would later serve on the Lexington Fayette County Urban County Council for 13 years, becoming an expert on the city’s budget, a mentor for many and a trailblazer for Lexington’s Black community.
“As a mentor, he was direct and straight up and understood the rules,” said Rep. George Brown Jr., who represents part of Fayette County in the statehouse. “He was a no-nonsense kind of legislator, a no-nonsense kind of advocate for the community.”
Brown served with Jefferson on Lexington’s council, noting that Jefferson knew more about the budget than some of the local government’s financial experts. He said they both voted in 1999 to approve the city’s Fairness Ordinance, which outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Brown, the third-ever African-American member of Kentucky’s general assembly, said that Jefferson was key in working with the county and state Democratic parties to carve out a seat that represented Lexington’s Black community.
Jefferson was a “friendly, giving person” who felt obligated to be a “spokesperson for the community,” said Rev. Bishop E. Carter, III, who knew Jefferson for over 60 years and is the pastor at Bethsaida Baptist Church.
“His historical work for the city of Lexington was monumental,” Andrea James, who defeated Jefferson in the 2006 election, wrote in a statement. “He had a mind and gift for local politics.
“He had a particular way he spoke that let you know that he was thumbing through an internal file cabinet of decades of facts and strategies as he was speaking,” James continued.
Jefferson would try not to be the center of attention, but would try to highlight the people he was with, said Charles Duke, a friend, mentee, fraternity brother and campaign manager for Jefferson.
“He made sure that I got to meet everybody that was considered important,” Duke said.
Jefferson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from what was then Kentucky State College, now Kentucky State University, Duke said, adding that he was also an Air Force veteran.
Audrey Grevious — a longtime local Civil Rights leader and educator who led peaceful protests calling for the integration of Lexington businesses in the 1950s and 1960s — was Jefferson’s sister. She died in 2017.
Jefferson’s visitation will be on Tuesday, Dec. 27 from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Unity Worship Center. The funeral service will be the next day, Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 10:30 a.m. also at the Unity Worship Center. Jefferson will be buried at 1:30 p.m. on that day at Camp Nelson.
