Commentary

Loretta Lynn waves to the crowd after performing during the Americana Music Honors and Awards show Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, in Nashville, Tennessee. Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter who became a pillar of country music, died on October 4, 2022, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90. Photo: Mark Zaleski/AP Photo.
Loretta Lynn waves to the crowd after performing during the Americana Music Honors and Awards show Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, in Nashville, Tennessee. Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter who became a pillar of country music, died on October 4, 2022, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90. Photo: Mark Zaleski/AP Photo.

Remembering the Legacy of the ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ Who Rewrote the Appalachian Narrative

I don’t remember the first time I heard “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” The song has been a familiar hymn from infancy, a lullaby my grandmother would sing along with “You Are My Sunshine” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.”  You see, like Loretta Lynn herself, my grandmother was a coal miner’s daughter from eastern […]

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A student group from rural Southwest Virginia takes part in an exercise on water quality at a local community’s drinking water reservoir. Photo: Provided

The ‘Divisive’ School Lessons States Are Outlawing Have Been Improving Appalachian Education for Generations

Fog obscures the Clinch River on a Saturday morning this past October, as a group of educators gathers at St. Paul, Virginia’s Matthews Park. Shortly after arriving, part of the group moves to the riverbank, discussing how to tackle pollution from illegal dumping into the waterway. Another huddles around an […]

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