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Corbin Black Community

Corbin, Whitley and Knox Counties, Kentucky · Southeast

Black Railroad Labor Community

Forced Expulsion

Categories: Forced Expulsion & Racial Cleansing

What was built

Established or development period
1900s–1919
Peak period
1910s
Who built the community
Black railroad construction and yard workers and their families, many housed in rail camps.
Black population
Roughly 200 Black residents in and around Corbin in 1919.
Businesses
Railroad labor and service work.
Financial institutions
Not yet documented
Churches
Not yet documented
Schools
Not yet documented
Hospitals
Not yet documented
Newspapers
Not yet documented
Entertainment & cultural institutions
Not yet documented
Other community institutions
Not yet documented
Black land & property ownership
Limited; much of the Black population lived in company and rented housing.
Economic significance
Black labor sustaining the Louisville & Nashville rail operations in southeastern Kentucky.

What happened

What happened?
On the night of October 31, 1919, a white mob of several hundred rounded up Black residents at gunpoint, marched them to the rail depot and forced them onto trains out of town. No mass killing was recorded, but the Black population was removed and Corbin remained a sundown town.
Trigger or precipitating event
A robbery and assault on a white man, blamed on Black railroad workers.
Underlying historical context
Red Summer-era violence, labor competition on the railroads and Appalachian sundown-town formation.
Method of destruction / displacement
Expulsion · Threats and Intimidation · Forced Departure
Date or period of destruction
October 31, 1919
Confirmed / documented deaths
No deaths confirmed.
Estimated deaths
Not yet documented
People displaced
Nearly the entire Black population, roughly 200 people.
Homes destroyed
Not yet documented
Businesses destroyed
Not yet documented
Acres or property lost
Personal property and housing abandoned in the forced departure. Totals not yet documented.

Afterward

What happened to the land?
Black residence in Corbin effectively ended.
Was compensation paid?
None.
Was the community rebuilt?
No
What was rebuilt?
Not yet documented
Destroyed or displaced again?
Not yet documented
Second displacement date
Not yet documented
Second displacement cause
Not yet documented
What exists there today?
A majority-white city; the expulsion is documented in the film Trouble Behind and in Kentucky public history.
Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts
Documentary and oral-history projects and local reconciliation efforts.
Historical significance
A documented forced expulsion without a massacre, showing how intimidation alone emptied Black communities.

Sources

  • Source lookup

    Robby Henson, Trouble Behind (1990, documentary)

    Find
  • Book or scholarly work

    James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns (New Press, 2005)

    Find
  • Source lookup

    Kentucky Historical Society collections

    Find
  • Primary record

    Library of Congress, Chronicling America: 1919 Kentucky newspapers

    Find

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Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.