Driving on Route 329, near Athens in the spring is a welcome respite after another long COVID winter. The grass on southeast Ohio’s rolling hills is turning that bright-almost-neon shade of green. I’m on my way to visit Ada Woodson Adams, a historian and activist who has spent decades working […]
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Frederick Douglass is well known in history as a formerly enslaved person who became a prominent writer, activist and abolitionist. But his travels in Central Appalachia and the speeches he gave specifically around West Virginia are much less known. Community historian John Muller has been documenting Douglass’ life for more […]
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Appalachia’s people of color have borne greater social and economic burdens, on average, than their White counterparts, but their stories are often left out of policy discussions about energy and other issues in the region. A new coalition is now seeking to amplify those voices. The Black Appalachian Coalition is an initiative of […]
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William Turner’s “Harlan Renaissance” shows how Black Appalachians built sustaining communities in the midst of racism and discrimination. One of the oldest and most enduring myths about the Appalachian Mountains is that they are now and always have been overwhelmingly populated by white Scots-Irish. Dr. William H. Turner has written a […]
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Appalachia, in the popular imagination, stubbornly remains poor and white. Open a dictionary and you’ll see Appalachian described as a “native or inhabitant of Appalachia, especially one of predominantly Scotch-Irish, English, or German ancestry.” Read J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and you’ll enter a world that’s white, poor and uncultured, with […]
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In recent weeks, I’ve watched West Virginia make national headlines and receive praise for its seemingly efficient rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. Just last week, NPR interviewed the head of the state’s task force overseeing the vaccine rollout here to glorify his accomplishments, placing the interview under the headline West […]
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