Gov. Beshear, Calipari and others salute P.G. Peeples as ‘one of the best’
Former University of Kentucky Coach John Calipari got a text around 7 a.m. on April 28 from P.G. Peeples, the long-time president and CEO of the Urban League of Lexington.
The text was one of encouragement for the now University of Arkansas head coach. Later that day, Peeples met with people about an affordable housing project before dying at his office on Deweese Street, Calipari said.
“He worked until the very end for everyone else,” said Calipari at a funeral service Monday at First Baptist Church of Bracktown for Peeples.
Peeples, 80, worked for 55 years leading the Urban League of Lexington and was active in civil rights in Lexington for five decades.
Hundreds attended Peeples’ funeral Monday, including Gov. Andy Beshear, his father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, Calipari, former UK Coach Tubby Smith and former UK assistant coach Leonard Hamilton, the first Black assistant coach at UK. Also in attendance were dozens of other elected leaders including Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton, former New Orleans Mayor and National Urban League President Marc Morial, current and former Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council members, state representatives and state senators.
Calipari said Peeples helped him navigate the pressures of his job at UK. But the now University of Arkansas coach said he also learned a lot from watching how Peeples worked.
For 50 years, Peeples showed up for Lexington, he said.
“He believed people mattered. He believed every child deserved a chance. Every family deserved a home. Every person deserved to be seen,” Calipari said.
Peeples’ impact on Lexington stretched far beyond the Urban League and its mission, multiple speakers said Monday. He pushed for equality in Fayette County Public Schools, the University of Kentucky, city government and other institutions during his more than half-century in public service.
He served on multiple boards and commissions, often working behind the scenes to forge consensus and nudge policymakers into making public and cultural institutions more inclusive and more equitable, those who worked with him said.
Gov. Andy Beshear praised Peeples for his work to create more affordable housing decades before it became a campaign issue.
“He left us with stronger organizations, a stronger city, a stronger urban league, and a stronger commonwealth,” Beshear said. “He also left us a better Lexington, hopefully a better and kinder Kentucky, especially at a time when that kindness is more important than ever. “
From Lynch to Lexington
Born October 29, 1945, Peeples was one of nine children raised in the segregated coal mining town of Lynch in Harlan County. His father was a coal miner for U.S. Steel.
He attended Southeast Community College, now Southeast Kentucky Community Technical College, in Cumberland before attending the University of Kentucky.
At just 24, he was tapped by Harry Sykes, the first Black city commissioner, to head the still nascent Urban League of Lexington in 1972, becoming the youngest director of the Urban League in the country. Peeples had previously served as education director of the organization before becoming its executive director.
For the next 55 years, Peeples worked with local and state officials to expand job training, scholarships and other programs that helped Black Kentuckians and all poor people.
Helping UK recruit Black athletes
He was also instrumental in helping UK recruit Black athletes, including Jack “Goose” Givens.
Givens said Monday he was “snotty punk kid” playing basketball in Douglass Park when Peeples, who he had seen but had never met, approached him and told him he should play for UK.
Givens said in the Black community in the late 1970s, many were leery about Black players at UK. Peeples wanted him to attend UK not to play basketball, but to help change people’s perceptions about the school. Peeples was one of the few Black UK graduates Givens knew at the time, he said.
“We need you to change people’s perceptions about UK,” Peeples told Givens, who later led UK to a 1978 NCAA championship.
His wife, Wilma Peeples, said P.G. Peeples was the same person at home he showed the rest of the world. He had a passion for UK sports but also loved the outdoors, including hunting and fishing, she said.
“He had a gift for stillness, for listening before he spoke, for thinking before he acted,” Wilma Peeples said.
Jim Host, founder of Host Communications, said Peeples often worked behind the scenes to get people to do the right, but often very hard, thing.
The two were friends for more than 40 years.
“Simply stated, he was one of the best, if not the best human being I ever met, and he became one of my best friends for the last 40 years,” Host said.
