Америкалық саяхатшы және қоғам қайырмашысы Мэй Стрит Кидд

American politician

Mae Jones Street Kidd (February 8, 1904 – October 20, 1999) was an American businesswoman, civic leader, and a skilled politician during a time when both her gender and her inter racial background made such accomplishments more difficult than they would be today. She had a distinguished career in public relations, served in the Red Cross during World War II, and was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1968 to 1984, representing Louisville's 41st state legislative district. During her tenure in elective office, she was known for her sponsorship of landmark legislation. House Bill No. 27 which became law in 1972 created the Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) which promotes and finances low income housing in the state. In 1974, this particular bill was officially designated as the "Mae Street Kidd Act." Representative Kidd also led the campaign for Kentucky to ratify the United States Constitution's 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery), 14th Amendment (defining citizenship) and 15th Amendment (granting all men the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude). Known collectively as the "Reconstruction Amendments," all three of those constitutional amendments had become law shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War when a sufficient number of lawmakers in other states had ratified them. Representative Kidd offered and secured adoption of a resolution in 1976 to post ratify the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

Born on February 8, 1904, in Millersburg, Kentucky to Anna Belle Leer (1883–1984) who worked for a well to do white family with a large farm in central Kentucky. Kidd's father, Charles Robert Jones (February 6, 1875 March 15, 1972), was the son of her mother's employers; and, she was their second child together. Her older brother was George William Jones (July 18, 1901 July 6, 1986). As a girl she was called Minne Mae Jones. She attended Springfield Institute from 1948 to 1950, University of Louisville, and American University, 1966–67. Kidd spent her early years in Millersburg, a town in Bourbon County. When she was two, her mother married a tobacco farmer, James W. (Willie) Taylor (1881–1959), who later became a chicken breeder. Kidd's mother, meanwhile, had a thriving catering business and often served as a local midwife. Kidd knew that her real father had married and began a family of his own, "and they and their mother used to come visit my mother, who was very friendly with his white family," she recalled in an oral history interview with Wade Hall. "But I never wanted anything to do with them. I was hurt that he couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge me openly as his daughter. It was a painful part of my childhood, but I got over it." Millersburg's blacks lived in a section of the town called Shippsville, and Kidd went to school there until the eighth grade. As a youngster, she realized that her light skin made it possible for her to skirt the Jim Crow laws that were a feature of life in the American South at the time: under these acts, blacks were restricted to certain schools, seating areas of public transportation, and even drinking fountains and rest rooms. She recalled that she liked to go into the Millersburg millinery shops and try on hats as a little girl, and pointed out that all in the town knew that she was of mixed heritage. Kidd's mother eventually moved the family to Millersburg proper after asking her cousin, who was white, to purchase the house and have the deed transferred to her. Both Kidd's mother and stepfather worked hard to provide a solid home for the children, which included two more of their own: Kidd's half brother Webster Demetrius Taylor, and a half sister, Mary Evelyn Taylor. As a teenager, Kidd wanted to contribute to the household herself, but her mother refused to let her work for white families, telling her, "Mae, I have to serve other people because I don't have a choice. I want you to have a choice when you grow up."

Kidd was active in a number of charitable organizations throughout her life, including the Lincoln Foundation, which helped disadvantaged children at the facility that had once schooled her. Toward the end of her life, she lost her eyesight. She died in Louisville on October 20, 1999. Her biography, based on nearly 40 oral history interviews by Wade Hall, appeared two years before her death, and its title, Passing for Black, reflected her mixed heritage and the conflicts she often experienced because of it. "Most of us, whether white or black, are mixtures of many races and nationalities," she pointed out. "We all have tangled roots." She noted that though times had changed considerably, her childhood was particularly difficult. She likened it to "living in a no man's land where I belonged to neither race. Because I was neither completely white nor completely black, I've been stigmatized and penalized by both races."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presented to her its Unsung Heroine Award at a National NAACP Women's Conference, and she received a Louisville Mayor's Citation for Outstanding Community Service. She also received a Top Ten Outstanding Kentuckians Award; and the Humanitarian Service Award from the United Cerebral Palsy Association.