The 23 miles between Lexington and Frankfort meant a change of worlds for UK Alum James Manly.

Manly transferred to UK as a sophomore in 1956 to pursue a degree in engineering. He spent his freshman year at Kentucky State, a historically black college without an engineering program.

“I had decided I wanted to go to engineering school,” Manly said. “It seemed to me the most logical thing to do was to go the 20 miles down the road.”

Manly wasn’t the first African American in the engineering department, but he said he was the only one at the time. Being a black student, he said he didn’t feel like he received any special treatment and that he never felt like his teachers hesitated to give him the education he deserved.

“In the classroom I was just another student,” Manly said.

In 1956, interracial friendships weren’t common.

“It just wasn’t possible at that time,” Manly said. “You just couldn’t do it”

He said the only way black and white students could gather was in the form of the protest and that none happened at UK that he could remember.

Manly joined the ROTC program at UK, and worked in a lab during his last year at UK.

“Although I didn’t intend to make it a career, I did just that,” Manly said.

Manly said UK taught him how to learn.

“It didn’t take me long to figure out how to be a good student,” Manly said.

Manly didn’t expect to work in Kentucky after graduation. He joined the Air Force after college and later entered the private aeronautics sector.

“That’s just the way I felt about it,” Manly said. “I always expected to have to leave Kentucky as a Black guy, as an engineer.”

Manly said that UK’s quiet approach to integration helped students, and that he never had any negative experiences.

“I wouldn’t have been surprised if hostilities had happened,” Manly said. “I was ready for it, but I wasn’t afraid.”

Few students at the time made a point to be Manly’s friend, but other than that he said he never felt he was given special treatment.

“I would explain it as nobody went out of their way to make my presence anything but normal,” Manly said.

Manly’s friends and family lived on the Kentucky State campus, where his father worked. It was those games and social events he attended, instead of UK’s. The lack of African Americans on campus and on sporting teams meant Manly didn’t gain any alliances to the university.

Overall, Manly said his experience at UK was a good one.

“It turned out to be a really good deal for me,” Manly said.