GLASGOW — As the citizens of Glasgow speed through another month of the new year, we pause in the middle of Black History Month to reflect on one of Glasgow’s own history-makers.

Luska J. Twyman was 54-years-old when he became Kentucky’s first African-American mayor and remained the only one for some time.

He was also the first African-American to serve on the U.S. Commission of Human Rights and the U.S. Commission of Agriculture.

But a lot of fond memories of Twyman come from before that time.

After serving four years in the military, in the early ’50s, he came back home and helped start construction on the Bunche School, later becoming principal.

“He was an excellent principal and such a good person,” said Alma Glover, director of the Ralph Bunche Community Center, formerly the school. “He wanted everything just right in order to make sure all of his students were well taken care of and got a good education. He was just one of those people you wanted to be around, but he meant business. He wanted his students to excel and he made sure we had what we needed to be successful as students. He fought to get what we had. He was one of the great educators of his time and I have great respect for him.”

In 1950, a revenue bond was passed and the Bunche School structure was started, to be completed in 1955 with a gym and industrial arts shop.

This was the most complete school program — housing grades first through 12th — ever provided for Glasgow and the surrounding area.

The school remained the African-American school for the area until 1964, in the midst of national disorder, the Bunche School was consolidated with the Glasgow High School, converted into an elementary and the schools were intergrated.

Twyman served as assistant principal for Glasgow High School until 1975.

While serving Glasgow’s youth, Twyman entered another arena: city government.

In 1963, he ran for and was elected to the Glasgow Common Council (now the city council), the first African-American to become an elected official in Barren County.

He led the entire ticket of 12 men, repeating this effort for two additional terms.

Joe Lane Travis, the city attorney when Twyman was in office, said he thought Twyman was “a nice fellow.”

“He was a gentleman,” Travis said. “I got along with him well and I liked him.”

Twyman’s turn as a government leader went a little further than he could have imagined when the mayor at that time, Robert Lessenberry, resigned from his post and the 11 other city councilors elected Twyman as interim mayor.

Twyman was quoted in the Oct. 25, 1968, edition of Jet Magazine as saying on the subject: “I felt if it (the mayorship) came my way, I would accept it, but I would not solicit it.”

The magazine also quoted him as saying he would not be disappointed if the council chose someone else as mayor.

The next November, he ran for the title against now Senior Status Judge Barlow Ropp and continued as mayor of Glasgow for the next 17 years.

The event was significant not only because Twyman was the first African-American mayor of a Kentucky city, but also because he was elected by an electorate from 1968 that was 90 percent white.

When he ran against Ropp, he carried all nine precincts.

“Luska Twyman was one of the finest people you’d ever meet,” Ropp said Friday, thinking back on Twyman. “He was civic-minded, very open to people suggesting things and he had the City of Glasgow at heart and did a good job. If I had to be defeated by anybody, I’d pick Luska. He was also a very highly respected educator. He was quite a fellow and I respected him in every way.”

A popular and respected man as he was, Twyman, who died in 1988, understood that it was not possible to please everyone, but his personality dictated that he would try to serve the citizens the best he could.

“There are always people who feel you should have done more or done differently,” Twyman said during his mayorship. “Usually those whom you have done the most for, or the ones who complain the most and expect most. No one has ever satisfied all people, so I try to do the best for the most people. That’s all I can do.”