William Greer died on August 28, 1921. He had been a coal miner living at the Stone Mountain Coal Camp in Mingo County, West Virginia. On May 19, 1920, Baldwin-Felts Detectives evicted Greer and his family because he had joined the United Mine Workers Union. Most of the detectives who […]
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Fifty years ago, Anne Lawrence found herself travelling from her college classrooms on the campus of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania south to the coalfields of Central Appalachia. Then a junior studying history and sociology, the Massachusetts native was hired by Miners for Democracy to collect the oral histories of Appalachian […]
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The Appalachian woman archetype is rough, hardened and traditional. Men are the head of the household; women mind the house. The labor of men brings money and professional prestige; women’s accomplishments are brushed aside as familial expectations. Cleaning, minding children, providing a refuge for emotional vulnerability, these are all duties […]
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Seven years before my dad was born and six years before my mom, the Stonewall Riot took place in New York City. My parents were two and three years old when Pres. Ronald Reagan’s press secretary laughed off the AIDS epidemic and referred to it as “the gay plague.” Decades […]
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If you’re not from Appalachia, Kendra Winchester wants to help you better understand the region. If you’re from Appalachia, she hopes to help you read about yourself. It’s why she started the ”bookstagram” account @readappalachia – an Instagram account focused on highlighting the work of Appalachian authors. “Bookstagram is the […]
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During Black Lives Matter rallies that swept Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, last summer, Madison Mellinger and LeShan Wilkinson, both 20, began documenting the movement in the community as part of a personal photo project. The image that stands out most in their minds a year later is the same for both: Mom […]
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