Young, Appalachian whites are changing the conversation about race in rural communities that are predominately white. It is a joy to behold. I have watched, with unbridled joy, the crowds of predominantly young white people who have poured into the streets, chanting “Black Lives Matter” in places as overwhelmingly white […]
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This piece was originally published by Ohio Valley ReSource. Toddlers yelling, running around the hardwood floors and leaving cracker crumbs on the ground. A laptop screen dented by a soup can dropped by a kid. At one point, a room covered from ceiling to floor with hand prints after kids […]
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The Postal Service delivers economic access and democracy to small communities during the COVID-19 crisis, says a rural letter carrier. Privatization would leave rural America behind, he says. Alex Fields delivers mail to rural communities outside the city limits of Knoxville, Tennessee. He’s worried that lack of federal support and […]
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As statues of Confederate generals have been toppled or ordered down across the American South, all still stand in West Virginia, the only state born out of the American Civil War. One hundred fifty-seven years ago last Saturday, West Virginia seceded from Virginia to join the Union and reject the […]
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One of the first collections of scholarship at the intersection of LGBTQ studies and Appalachian studies, Storytelling in Queer Appalachia, edited by Hillery Glasby, Sherrie Gradin, and Rachael Ryerson, amplifies voices from the region’s valleys, hollers, mountains and campuses. It blends personal stories with scholarly and creative examinations of living and […]
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Juneteenth is a joyful ritual of collective memory and cultural cohesion. A summer tradition commemorating the end of slavery, Juneteenth is also an opportunity to challenge facile understandings of the past and reckon with a national heritage of racism. But over 155 years of observance, Juneteenth celebrations have often been […]
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