Alberta Jones statue may be state's first of a Black woman. Here are other Kentucky statues

Supporters of a trailblazing Louisville attorney are looking to cement her place in history.

Alberta Odell Jones was the first Black woman to pass the Kentucky bar, first female city attorney, first female prosecutor for the Domestic Relations Court, first attorney for a young Black boxer the world would come to know as Muhammad Ali.

But she was murdered in August 1965. The case remains unsolved by Louisville police and the FBI.

Now, nearly 60 years later, her family, the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. and Jefferson County attorney Mike O'Connell are pushing for Jones' legacy to live on with the first life-size statue of a black female in Louisville .

Here are other statues of black pioneers and females around Kentucky:

Statues of Black pioneers around Kentucky

Elmer Lucille Allen

A bronze bust of Elmer Lucille Allen was unveiled on Juneteenth at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville. Allen was a chemist and the first Black woman scientist hired by Brown-Forman.

The Wildcats who integrated the SEC

In September 2016, the University of Kentucky unveiled a statue of the four men who integrated football in the SEC , including Nate Northington, Greg Page, Houston Hogg and Wilbur Hackett. Northington was the first Black athlete to play in a football game involving two SEC teams in September 1967 when Ole Miss came to UK. Page played with Northington. Hogg and Hackett joined the team in 1968. The statue is located outside the Wildcats' football stadium.

York

Dedicated in the fall of 2003, the bronze statue of York, a slave who accompanied famed explorers Lewis and Clark, stands atop the Belvedere, at the corner of Fifth and Main streets, overlooking the Ohio River. Louisville commissioned the sculpture, created by renowned Louisville artist and sculptor Ed Hamilton , to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the historic expedition.

Civil War soldiers

While not a statue of a singular person, The Kentucky African American Civil Veterans Monument, previously known as the Colored Soldiers Monument, is one of only four such monuments in the nation. It honors the lives of Black Civil War soldiers. It is located in Green Hill Cemetery in Frankfort. It was commissioned by the KY Woman's Relief Corps No. 8, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in July 1924. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Other statues of females around Kentucky

Alice Allison Dunnigan

A civil rights pioneer, Alice Allison Dunnigan was a journalist who started writing news briefs for the Owensboro Enterprise, one of the state's Black newspapers, at age 13. She braved racism and sexism to become the first Black woman to cover the White House, Congress and Supreme Court. A life-size bronze statue was unveiled of her in 2018 at the now-closed Newseum, a museum dedicated to journalism in Washington, D.C. Her statue was also created by Allison Matthews, who sculpted the statue of Kentucky educator Nettie Depp. The statue now stands outside the SEEK museum in Dunnigan's hometown of Russellville .

Mary Breckinridge

The bronze statue in Hyden (Leslie County) is of the founder of the Frontier Nursing Services . Breckinridge is on horseback, leaning to touch a child's hand reaching toward her. The statue, erected in 2010, is down the street from Mary Breckinridge ARH Hospital.

Mary Gaylord McClean

Located at the entrance to the Shelbyville Fairgrounds, Mary Gaylord McClean is a champion American Saddlebred show horsewoman . She also breeds, owns and sells horses. The bronze sculpture shows her riding world champion equine Santana Lass. It was dedicated in 1997.

Mother Catherine Spalding.

The bronze statue in downtown Louisville honored the co-founder of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth . The long-time educator founded several Catholic schools across Kentucky. Spalding University is named in her honor. Her statue, created by Louisville artist Raymond Graf and unveiled in 2015, stands before the Cathedral of the Assumption on Fifth Street. It portrays her with two children and was the first statue of a woman on public land in Louisville.

Nettie Depp

The monument of Nettie Depp came following several years of lobbying state officials for a monument honoring a woman. Depp was the first woman to be elected as Superintendent of Barren County Schools, but also built and repaired schoolhouses and advocated for fair pay for teachers, according to the Monumental Women of Kentucky Committee. It was the first monument honoring a woman on state-owned land. The statue, designed by Lexington-based sculptor Amanda Matthews, was unveiled at the Kentucky Capitol in 2021. Matthews also designed the statue of Alice Allison Dunnigan, a Kentucky journalist.

Olivia Hatcher

Octavia Hatcher's marble statue stands above her grave in the Pikeville Cemetery (which now sits on the University of Pikeville's campus), across town from the famous grave site of the McCoy family of the Hatfield and McCoy Feud. The story behind Hatcher's statue is one of Pike County lore of her being buried alive, but more likely was erected by a grieving husband in honor of his wife.

Wooldridge Family Monument

Erected in Maplewood Cemetery, the series of monuments is a statuary, or a memorial to loved ones, according to the Kentucky Historical Society . The monuments include several marble statues of family members and loved ones of Col. Henry G. Wooldridge life, including multiple statues of women.

S tephanie Kuzydym is an enterprise and investigative reporter. She can be reached at skuzydym@courier-journal.com . Follow her for updates at @stephkuzy .

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Alberta Jones statue may be state's first of a Black woman. Here are other Kentucky statues