Students begin archeological dig at Kentucky School for the Blind to help uncover former Black schoolhouse

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Students at the Kentucky School for the Blind got their hands dirty Wednesday with an archeological dig at the site of the school's building from the 1800s.

Students dug up more than just artifacts, part of a summer archeological field school for University of Louisville and KSB students at the campus on Frankfort Avenue.

"It's really good for them to connect to KSB history and learn about the students that lived and worked here in the past," said Ashley Smallwood, an assistant professor of anthropology at UofL.

The students will use archeological field methods to help uncover the schoolhouse of the segregated KSB for Black students.

"When I first started coming here, I didn't know the school was segregated," said Wyatt Wilson, a seventh-grader at KSB. "I thought it was a brand new school."

They will participate in all aspects of the field investigation, including activities like excavations and the curation of recovered artifacts.

"The KSB students, I think, are really having a wonderful time," Smallwood said. "It's not just digging holes in the ground. We're trying to relocate the original schoolhouse."

The community can come out and help with the archeological dig on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

"I think it's important that we remember the things that happened in the past," said David Yeast, a seventh-grader at KSB.