BLACK, ISAAC E.
School and the new St. Mary High School. The coeducational St. Mary High School opened its doors to 32 freshmen in September 1950, and Bishop William T. Mulloy dedicated the remodeled building on October 22, 1950. The high school faculty for that first year consisted of Rev. Louis Brinker and a sister of Notre Dame. In each succeeding year, an additional grade was added, until all four grades of high school were offered. At the first high school graduation, in 1954, 25 students received diplomas. St. Mary High School grew quickly, and by 1961 an addition to the original building was necessary. That same year, Bishop Richard H. Ackerman named St. Mary High School a district school serving the parishes of St. Mary in Alexandria, St. Joseph in Cold Spring, St. Joseph in Camp Springs, Saints Peter and Paul in the town of California, and St. Philip in Melbourne. To reflect this change from a parish to a district school, St. Mary High School was officially renamed Bishop Brossart High School in 1962. Bishop Ferdinand Brossart had been the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Covington (see Roman Catholics) and a resident of rural Campbell Co. By the 1980s the building that served Bishop Brossart High School had become inadequate. Planning and fundraising for a new facility began under the direction of principal Tom Seither, who had been appointed to that post in 1978, and a new campus was constructed on the same site as the old building and dedicated as Hegenauer Hall and the Seither Center in 1986. Nine years later, in 1995, the original building was demolished to make way for the Crouch Center, the academic wing of the school. In 2006, in response to growth of both the school and the population of southern Campbell Co., Bishop Brossart High School’s athletic department initiated a football program. The Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, Alexandria, Kentucky 1860–1960—A Story of Faith. Alexandria, Ky.: Church of St. Mary of the Assumption, 1960. Reis, Jim. “Native Son, Man of God—Bishop Brossart Touched Many Lives in Early 20th Century,” KP, April 13, 1998, 4K. Ryan, Paul E. History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky. Covington, Ky.: Diocese of Covington, 1954. Tenkotte, Paul A., David E. Schroeder, and Thomas S. Ward. To Be Catholic and American in Northern, Central, and Appalachian Kentucky: The Diocese of Covington, 1853–2003. Forthcoming.
David E. Schroeder
BLACK, BRADY F. (b. July 31, 1908, Lawrence Co., Ky.; d. October 9, 1991, Edgewood, Ky.). For more than 64 years, journalism played the defining role in the life of Brady Black, the son of Fred Nixon and Melissa Cornwell Black. His newspaper career— from sports editor to vice president and editor— was followed by a teaching career in journalism. Departing their native Lawrence Co., Ky., the Black family moved to Ashland, Ky., when Brady was a teenager, and he graduated from Ashland High School. In 1927 he joined the Ashland Inde-
pendent as sports editor and later served as city editor. Black moved to Northern Kentucky, with his wife, Edra Dailey Black, and their children, to take a job as a copy editor with the Cincinnati Enquirer. Over the years from 1940 through 1956, Black worked his way up through the ranks. He covered the state government in Kentucky and worked as a correspondent; after he moved to Ohio, he served as the newspaper’s Columbus bureau chief, as managing editor, as the local political reporter, and as assistant city editor. In 1957 Black was appointed editor of the editorial page, and in 1959 he became executive editor. On January 22, 1964, he was promoted to editor and vice president and elected to the Enquirer’s board of directors. He continued in those roles until his retirement on September 1, 1975. During his years at the Enquirer, Black traveled extensively, chasing stories of international interest to five Latin countries in 1962; El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica in 1966; and Europe, South Africa, and South America in 1974. Black loved political conventions, public-affairs reporting, and telling humorous stories about his newspaper work. From 1963 to 1965, Black was a Pulitzer Prize juror. He was on the board of trustees of the Citizens Conference on State Legislatures, and in 1968 his remarks on the role of state legislatures in the federal systems were presented before the MidAtlantic Regional Conference on Strengthening the Legislature. His address, “State Government at the Crossroads,” was printed in the Congressional Record. In 1971 Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights hired Black to help in its public relations. In 1979 he served on the inaugural board of trustees for the Behringer- Crawford Museum in Covington. He also was vice president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and served on its board of directors. After his retirement from the Enquirer, Black became the Kiplinger professor of public affairs reporting at the Ohio State University School of Journalism in Columbus. Ohio State University Press later published a book of his writings, Fighters, Lovers, and Others. Black died in 1991 at age 83 at St. Elizabeth Medical Center South in Edgewood, Ky., and was buried at Highland Cemetery in Fort Mitchell. A mailbox marked with his name stood at the drive to his stately home in Fort Wright, along the west side of the Dixie Highway (U.S. 25), for at least two decades. “Black Is Hired to Polish NKU Image,” KP, November 10, 1971, 6K. “Brady F. Black,” KP, October 11, 1991, 8A. Elkins, Robert. “Enquirer’s Brady Black Dies at 83,” CE, October 10, 1991, B1. Highland Cemetery Records, Fort Mitchell, Ky. “Retired Editor Brady Black Dead at 83,” KP, October 9, 1991, 6K.
Nancy J. Tretter
BLACK, ISAAC E. (b. June 1848, Kentucky; d. April 18, 1914, Louisville, Ky.). The African American lawyer Isaac Black was born in Kentucky and
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lived his early years in Covington. In 1869 he resided at the Old Hotel Building across from the Kenton Co. Courthouse in Covington, where he served as janitor and law librarian. One day in the early 1870s, while Black was working at the law library, John G. Carlisle, an eminent attorney and politician, sparked in him an interest in legal matters. Carlisle noticed the young man reading paperback novels and suggested that he instead devote his time to reading law. According to Robert S. Tate’s biographical sketch of Carlisle, Black engaged in some law study under Carlisle’s direction and, furthermore, was the only African American who had that privilege. Black’s community activism embraced many areas, from education and voter rights to civil rights and politics. These challenges in Covington, an arena of confl ict between the heavily Democratic majority and an influential Republican minority, demanded much of him. Yet, he rose above the circumstances. As long as he remained in Northern Kentucky, even during the segregation of the Reconstruction era, the former slave was able to develop both personal and professional relationships with Kentuckians of both races. In 1869 Black, Jacob Price, and Rev. William Blackburn were members of a delegation representing Covington at the Freedmen’s Bureau for Education convention in Louisville. After the convention, Black and the other Covington delegates took the initiative and began to organize a board of trustees for the city’s proposed black schools. On February 25, 1870, the first statewide African American political convention was scheduled for Frankfort. Some of the newly enfranchised African Americans wanted to vote the straight Republican ticket. However, Black, Price, and Blackburn favored voting for anyone who supported policies that were in the best interest of Covington’s African American community. This political position later benefited the community by giving it a voice with politicians from both major parties. For example, William Grant, an influential businessman and a Covington City Council member, asked Black and other African American community leaders for their support. He said that if the African American voters supported him in his attempt to gain the Democratic nomination for the Kenton Co. district’s seat in the Kentucky General Assembly, he would have the city charter of Covington amended to provide for an African American public school. Grant won the election, and as he had promised, the new Covington city charter soon provided for an African American school. Black’s political wisdom had been demonstrated. In August 1870 Black took a break from the rigors of politics and education to become president of the Starlight baseball club. The club remained organized for only a short period and was the last organized African American amateur baseball club formed in Covington until the turn of the century. In early 1875, during the Easter holidays, a significant incident occurred when Black tried to attend Covington’s Trinity Episcopal Church. He was denied a seat downstairs among the “quality”