Updated Nov. 29, 2012 3:55pm

Harry N. Sykes passed away Wednesday, November 28, at the age of 85.

Harry Sykes was born April 1, 1927 in Mississippi and was raised outside Chicago in Maywood, IL. He came to Kentucky to attend what it now known as Kentucky State University and play basketball. There he majored in physical education, but that was not his first choice of major. He wanted to major in Mathematics however, there was not a degree offered. However, he took many math classes even subbing for a math professor when he was away.

Mr. Sykes married his college sweetheart Geraldine while they were still students in 1951. He shared, during a Key Conversations Radio interview, that during college breaks he played pick-up basketball games at a Chicago YMCA and played with many Harlem Globetrotters. So when the team came to Louisville, Sykes got permission to leave his Frankfort college campus with Ms. Geraldine by his side, to watch the game. When his globetrotting friends saw him, they asked him to suit up and he played the entire game.

Soon he found himself traveling the US and Canada with the team from 1952-54, seeing his wife and young son only a few times a year. He decided to leave his life on the road and put down roots here in Lexington.

In 1954 Sykes became a high school mathematics teacher at the original Dunbar High School and was the assistant to famed Black Coach S.T. Roach.

Harry Sykes then joined the effort to combine Fayette County with the city of Lexington. Sykes had a leadership position and found himself being criticized by Lexington Leader newspaper publisher Fred Wachs, Sr. who said that Sykes was not qualified to handle anything for the city. It was then that Sykes decided to run for commissioner, which is the equivalent of city council today.

Using his mathematical background, Sykes organized voters and asked voters to vote only for him in the at-large style race which allowed voting for several candidates. Sykes was part of a ticket that was endorsed by the Leader but he asked voters to separate the ticket and vote only for him because a vote for an additional commission candidate would cancel out the vote for him, making them equal. His tactic worked and he was elected in1963, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, becoming Lexington’s first Black city commissioner (councilman).

It would be more than forty years before Lexington would elect a Black woman to city council.

“The time in which Mr. Sykes made his distinct mark in our community is arguably a time where it was the most challenging time to do so,’’ said Andrea James, Lexington’s first Black councilwoman who was elected in 2007.

James marvels at his accomplishments during such a divisive time in history. How fantastic of a statesman he must have been to advocate for all and be certain to glean benefits for the blacks of Lexington while not coming off as a sell-out or an uncle tom. I stand in awe of how masterfully he must have framed his conversations during such a new creation of time in Lexington as a prominent black leader in a town run by whites. I often called upon these thoughts while sitting as the first black woman on our city council. I thought back to his time and realized that if he could prevail in such a trying time, I could, too.’’

From 1964 until 1969, Sykes was also an insurance salesman for Commonwealth Life Insurance selling burial insurance to Blacks and also managed the bowling alley on Georgetown Rd. He was well known throughout the Black community.

Mr. Sykes was reelected in 1965, 1967 and 1969 and in 1971, he ran for mayor of Lexington and lost narrowly to Foster Pettit showing that he had the respect and support of whites too.

Sykes also founded the Lexington chapter of the National Urban League in 1968 and served as its president until 1972.

Chairwoman of Lexington’s Roots and Heritage Festival, Kimberly Henderson-Baird,