Journalist and Hopkinsville native Ted Poston’s collection of short stories, “The Dark Side of Hopkinsville,” is the August read for the Books at the Bar.
The group will meet to discuss Poston’s stories for its monthly gathering, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 23, at Hopkinsville Brewing Co. on East Fifth Street. The book discussion series — a collaboration between the brewery and the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library — is open to the public.
Jennifer P. Brown, editor and co-founder of Hoptown Chronicle, will join the discussion and share historical background on Poston’s life in Hopkinsville and his career in journalism after he left his hometown. Brown learned about Poston through his biographer, the late Kathleen Hauke, and she led an effort to have a Poston historical marker installed at Hopkinsville’s Founders Square in 2017.
Born in Hopkinsville in 1906, Poston graduated from Attucks High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Tennessee Agriculture and Industrial State University.
Poston was the first Black journalist to make a career at a white mainstream newspaper and became known as the Dean of Black Journalists. He retired from the New York Post in 1972 and died in 1974. He is buried at Cave Springs Cemetery. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
“The Dark Side of Hopkinsville” describes Poston’s childhood in Hopkinsville. Most of the stories were published for the first time after his death.
“I’ve often described this collection of short stories as Poston’s barely fictionalized account of growing up in racially segregated Hopkinsville in the 1910s,” Brown wrote earlier this summer in a Hoptown Chronicle newsletter. “Poston and his childhood buddies in the African American community are the heroes of these stories that suit young readers and adults alike. In a light-hearted narrative style, Poston found ways to confront prejudice, racism and myths. And thanks to Poston biographer Kathleen Hauke’s footnotes, you can also learn something about the factual background of the characters and places that Poston used to regale his readers.”
