The Interests of My People

The Civil War had little impact on Green, who continued to travel between Maysville and Paris. In August 1865 he attended a meeting in Louisville of black clergy that set in motion plans for a black institution of higher learning. In the same month, he had not only paid off the $850 but was able to buy the house he had been renting behind the Methodist Church. Slavery was slow to end in Kentucky, and Green had to fight to free his children in 1866. That year, he negotiated for the creation in Paris of Clayville, a neighborhood of black-owned houses. In 1867 he was a delegate to the State Convention of Colored Men held in Lexington reporting on the condition of freed slaves in Mason County. In 1868 and 1876 he campaigned for Republican candidates. In the 1870s he was embroiled in various religious disputes with younger pastors in Paris.