Crenshaw made the most of chances

By GINA KINSLOW

FRANKFORT — Jesse Crenshaw doesn’t visit Barren County much these days.

He stays busy representing a Fayette County district in the House of Representatives.

Crenshaw, the son of Magdaline Crenshaw Bailey, was born and raised on a farm along the Barren-Metcalfe County line on Ky. 70.

He lived on the farm with his grandparents, Jesse Philmore and Elva Crenshaw, for much of his young life.

He helped his grandfather raise cattle and various types of produce, which the family sold to grocery stores in Horse Cave and Glasgow.

“In order to go to high school we rode a bus from (the farm), which was about 20 miles from Glasgow, back and forth,” he said.

Crenshaw attended Ralph Bunche High School in Glasgow and graduated in 1963.

“I left Glasgow to go to Frankfort to attend college, and upon finishing college I decided to go to law school,” he said.

Crenshaw studied history and political science at Kentucky State University in Frankfort and began law school in 1968 at the University of Kentucky.

During the 1960s, he spent a 7-month period seving in the military in Vietnam.

Becoming a lawyer was not a career people in his family typically pursued.

“Most of my relatives had been teachers and I just gravitated toward law rather than other possible careers," ;he said. “We’re talking about 1963-64 and many of the professions that are now available to people really didn’t exist back then.”

Education is a respected profession, he said, but added that law seemed a more appropriate profession to him than anything else.

It was also the principles his grandfather instilled in him that spurred him to seek a career in law.

“My grandfather had always taught us that a person should be in business, one, and secondly, that you owned your own business, and thirdly, to use his words, ‘You are your own boss,’” he said.

Upon graduating from law school, Crenshaw opted to stay in Lexington rather than returning to Glasgow.

“I went ot UK to go to law school and liked the city. At that time Lexington was a much smaller city, what I like to refer to as an over sized small town. It was nothing compared to the size it is now,” he said.

Crenshaw went on to become the first African-American attorney to be appointed assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

He served under U.S. Attorney Patrick Molloy from April 11, 1978 to July 31, 1980.

He said he was honored to serve.

“I enjoyed the time and I learned a lot,” he said. “I learned a great deal about how to prosecute a case.”

Crenshaw has maintained a private law practice since 1974, with the focus being criminal defense law.

He said he enjoys being a lawyer because it is challenging work. He also likes being able to help people and said if he can “convince them to not get into trouble in the future then I was helping them make sure they had a productive life and went about doing the things that would be good for all of us.”

In 1993, he ran for a seat with the House of Representatives and won.

Crenshaw, who is a Democrat, made the decision to run for a state office after helping many others with their elections.

“It was just a natural thing for me to run for office,” he said.

He now represents House District 77, which is composed of middle to working class people in Fayette County.

One piece of legislation he has sponsored this session is House Bill 70, which was received in the Senate on Thursday.

The proposed legislation calls for amending Section 145 of the state’s constitution to exclude a convicted felon from the right to vote only until expiration of probation, final discharge from parole, or maximum expiration of sentenced.

Crenshaw believes that if a person has paid their debt to society, served their time and done everything they are required to do, they should be allowed to have their right to vote restored without being granted a pardon from the governor.

Crenshaw has distant relatives who live locally.

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