Lucretia Baldwin “Lukey” Ward (April 26, 1922 - May 22, 1996) was a political, civil rights, and feminist activist in Westchester County, New York, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Lukey was born in Manhattan, New York, on April 26, 1922, and died in Prospect, Kentucky, on May 22, 1996. Her mother was Mabel Georgia Schellenger Baldwin of Auburn, New York, and her father was Runyon Sexton Baldwin of New York, New York. After college graduation (Wells College, 1906-1910), Mabel taught folk dance, sold real estate, wrote for magazines, and worked at newspapers. In addition to being a real estate and stock broker, Runyon operated a nursery on family property  in Yorktown Heights, NY.  An only child, Lukey grew up in Scarsdale, New York.

She attended boarding school at the Episcopal St. Mary’s School, Peekskill, New York, and the Holmquist School for Girls, New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Lukey graduated from Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale, New York. At age 57, she attended classes at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (presently called Louisville Seminary).

She began her activism in Westchester County by working in local and national campaigns, from Carmine G. De Sapio (last leader of New York City’s famed Tammany Hall) to Adlai Stevenson (twice Democratic presidential candidate, 1952 and 1956). A respected journalist recalled her as the first woman he knew who was willing and able to do anything, from sweeping floors to managing campaigns.

When she spoke to college and high school students urging them to become involved in civic affairs, she described the importance of going door-to-door during voter registration drives, getting out the vote efforts, and organizing varied political events.

Lukey met her husband, Jasper D. Ward III, when she attended the Holmquist School for Girls and he was just down the road at the all-boy Solebury School. In 1949, the two day/boarding schools merged as the Solebury School. Jasper Ward, a prominent architect, died in 2002. Together, they raised five children.

When the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1956, she continued her interest in local and state elections. She worked in the campaigns of State Attorney General John B. Breckinridge, Lieutenant Governor Wilson W. Wyatt Sr., Governor Albert B. Chandler, and Mayor Frank W. Burke, to mention a few.

Her political involvement began to merge with civil rights. She was a co-founder of the Louisville chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Her co-founding of Allied Organizations for Civil Rights (AOCR) in 1963, and its focus on open-housing culminated in a March 5, 1964, march in Kentucky’s state capitol, Frankfort, and the eventual passage of a public accommodations act in 1966.

Her marching in Louisville during the 1960s, Frankfort (March 5, 1964), and Selma, Alabama (March 25, 1965), reflected her commitment and courage. For those traits, she received recognition and numerous awards. Among them from the Louisville chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the local B’nai Brith International. In 2001, Lukey was inducted into the second class of the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

She was a member of the Kentucky Council on Higher Education, the Kentucky Commission on Women, the Jefferson County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and the Louisville Free Public Library Advisory Commission.

In the early 1980s, Lukey co-founded the Women’s Alliance in order to bring together women of diverse backgrounds. Meeting monthly to hear a female speaker followed by questions and comments, the group heard from professors, union members, accountants, writers, lawyers, religious and lay activists. She oversaw a monthly mailing, and by arranging the meeting locations and entertaining speakers, Lukey expanded its reach.

As the late 1980s became the early 1990s, her belief in the power of feminism, study, pragmatism, and equality led her to encourage lesbian and gay rights. Not yet a local mainstream cause, her endorsement of fair treatment for all helped galvanize its Louisville profile.

On the May 24, 1996, editorial page of Louisville’s “Courier-Journal,” Lukey Ward was remembered as a “gentle warrior” with a sense of humor and an open heart, “whose perspectives give body to progressive thinking.” She is recalled as the mother of feminism by the community’s grateful crusaders.