Saturday afternoon I stopped downtown for Levi Peterson Jr.’s book signing and was fortunate to have a few minutes to talk with him in the lobby of the Pennyroyal Area Museum.
“I never set out to write a book,” he told me. “I never thought my life was at the level of a book.”
But family members kept after him to tell his story — and he did write the book, “The Transformation of a High School Dropout,” about overcoming early missteps and getting his life on track for a meaningful career in education.
Judging from the steady stream of former students and friends who also stopped at the museum Saturday, there has been plenty of interest beyond his family for a book about his life. Known as a supportive and stern disciplinarian to the students he counseled, Peterson still has many admirers years after his retirement from HHS.
I knew of Peterson for a good while but I didn’t meet him until a couple of years ago when he agreed to let me interview him for an African American oral history project the museum organized.
A native of Alabama, Peterson moved his family to Hopkinsville for a teaching job in 1968. He became the first Black administrator at Hopkinsville High School as an assistant principal in 1974.
If you want to learn more about how he got to Hopkinsville and about his influence on students, you should get the book. Copies are available in the museum’s gift shop, The Vault by Planters Bank.
Before I left the book signing, Alissa Keller, executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, reminded me that Saturday was the one-year anniversary of the grand reopening for the Pennyroyal Area Museum.
Although the museum had to close because of the coronavirus pandemic almost immediately after the ceremony to unveil improvements and a new exhibit space last year, the museum is now open again. If you haven’t seen the place in a while, it is worth a visit. The museum is in the former post office building on East Ninth Street at Liberty Street. (Full disclosure: I serve on the museum board and I believe it is one of Hopkinsville’s gems.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
