EARLY LIFE AND CHILDHOOD

 

Born February 8, 1904, in Millersburg, Kentucky Mae was an interracial girl born to a black mother Anna Leer, and a white father Charles Jones (the son of Anna's Master's) who decided to remarry and neglect Mae due to her "mixed" background. she was their second child together.  As a young girl she was called Minne Mae Jones as a nickname. Though her and her biological father had their issues James Taylor (stepfather) picked up where Charles left. He helped provide a stable household and structured enviornment for Mae and her 2 half siblings Webster Demetrius Taylor and Mary Evelyn Taylor.  Though Mae's circumstances were grim she was a bright child and due to this her mother sent her away to school in Simpsonville after Kidd was promoted from the 8th grade. She left in 1919 to attend the Licoln institute until issues back home forced her to return. Kidd found a part-time job selling insurance as an agent for an insurance firm, "At the time, black-owned insurance companies were an important part of the African-American economy and some of the largest black-owned businesses of their era. Like black-owned banks, they served a community that was often discriminated against by mainstream American institutions". with her degree she went into public relations and with this experience allowed her to start helping local camapaigns and then soon after state. This gave her the start to begin working in the senate.