The History of Corbin, Kentucky

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For decades after the race riot, Corbin was known as a white man's town with a visible clan presence. Journalist Elliot Jaspins says most people in Corbin and the other towns where racial expulsions took place don't know this part of their history either. Silas House: By failing to publicly own up to the 1919 expulsion, Corbin has missed the chance to move past it.

In 1919, a white mob forced the entire black population of Corbin, Kentucky, to leave, at gunpoint. It was one of many racial expulsions in the United States. What happened, and how such racial cleansings became “America’s family secret.”

The history of Corbin as presented by the Corbin city government, with no mention of the 1919 racial expulsion.

Elliot Jaspin’s book, Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansings in America