In the history of the Somerset City Council, there has been only one African-American individual: Grant Paul Wilson, Jr., known by “Paul.”
Wilson, who passed away in 2007 at age 64, was not only the first such person to be elected to the city council, he was the first African-American to be elected to public office in Pulaski County.
In the years since, his wife Elaine (as well as former Somerset High School principal Jeff Perkins) have both won spots on the Somerset School Board. But for a while, Paul was it.
Paul served 18 years on the city council, taking the seat in January of 1982. When he was elected, however, Elaine said they didn’t really see it as a milestone for the black community in Somerset — it was just something Paul wanted to do. In fact, Elaine was more of a political mind than Paul was.
“Not really,” said Elaine, Somerset Community College’s Cultural Diversity Director, when asked if they considered the significance of Paul being the first. “He joked that he liked to be around people but wasn’t familiar with politics. I had studied city politics when I was in graduate school. So I taught him all of that.”
Elaine said that Paul — whose mother was a teacher and father the principal of the old Dunbar School for black students in Somerset — had served on a textbook commission for the state previously, “but then he was looking at the city to see what he could do there. We didn’t think it was a big deal but it was something he wanted to do and thought he would be good at. So we proceeded to campaign and get him on there. Since then, there hasn’t been anyone else to step up and want to do it.”
And he was good at it, as it turned out.
“A lot of people liked the fact that he would stand up for them,” said Elaine. “He used to get calls all the time. Anytime anybody called him about anything, he always looked into it and tried to help them.
“He tried to help the people who worked for city, the utilities committees and that kind of thing,” she added. “The employees appreciated the fact that he stood up for them.”
One of the issues about which Wilson cared about strongly was realizing the dream of the Rocky Hollow indoor facility, which was completed in 1999.
Paul was born in Harrodsburg, but spent all of that first month of his life as a resident of Somerset. However, Paul was living in Lexington at the time that he met Elaine, a resident of that city, at a party via mutual friends in 1973. Three months later, they were married.
“He wanted to live in Somerset, for some reason,” she joked.
The two of them had three children together — David, Jonathon, and Nic.
Beyond the city council, Paul had a significant impact on the community. He worked for the hospital as a qualified lab medical technologist.
“Most of the people who work in the labs have a two-year degree and are called lab techs, but (Paul) had a four-year degree in zoology from Tennessee State University,” she said. “Most people don’t have those kinds of degrees.”
Lula Winchester, who oversaw the laboratory at the old Somerset City Hospital, gave Paul his start as a young man fresh out of the U.S. Army (a service for which he was awarded the National Defense Service Medal) in the 1970s. Winchester told the Commonwealth Journal following Paul’s passing that he had “the most winning smile,” a trait which couldn’t have hurt his chances of landing the medical technologist position that found itself available. When Winchester left the lab, Paul took over as supervisor and moved over to what is now Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, continuing his work testing patient specimens.
Paul attended South Maple Street First Baptist Church and sang in the choir, taught children’s services, and “did whatever they asked him to,” said Elaine. He also helped youth by taking up the whistle and clipboard and coaching of the Redskins team in the Lake Cumberland Youth Football League, and he liked to play basketball at the YMCA. Moreover, he and Elaine were the first African-American members of the Eagle’s Nest Country Club, where Paul enjoyed playing golf.
He also served on the city’s Board of Adjustments since 2004, doing work on behalf of the Planning & Zoning Board, and the Lake Cumberland Community Action Agency. He regularly attended meetings of the Kentucky League of Cities as an extension of his city council duties. Paul also worked for the Somerset Housing Authority.
“He got totally involved in a lot of different things,” said Elaine.
Elaine would love to see Paul be only the first black member of the Somerset City Council, rather than the sole one.
“I’m absolutely certain there is a need” for more representation of the African-American community in city government, she said. “But I’m not sure who to get to step up.”