W BLACKS IN APPALACHIA PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE Bill Turner Berea College © 2009 BLACK HISTORY...

W

BLACKS IN APPALACHIAPAST – PRESENT – FUTURE

Bill TurnerBerea College

© 2009

BLACK HISTORY MONTH - 2009

THE PRESIDENT’S FORUM

KCTCS – VERSAILLESDr. Mike McCall

Office for Cultural DiversityDr. Gwen Joseph

Ms. Natalie GibsonMr. Nashid Fakhrid-Deen

2

1915 – Carter G. Woodson, Berea College grad founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Bill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009

3

Why is history so important?Why is it taught, from the primary grades through graduate school?Why do politicians always refer to history?

•The past•Times gone by•The good ole days•Olden times•Once upon a time•An account•The record

History


4

Why Black History Month?

• African American scholars, beginning just less than a century ago, set out to show that the story and contributions of American citizens of African descent was not “a negligible factor” in American and -history.

1915 – Carter G. Woodson, Berea College 1899 grad, founded the Association for the Study of African American Life and History


5

History can be very

personal


http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/pics/alex-haley-TIME.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/gocek.htm&h=400&w=304&sz=14&tbnid=DfPs4lDINV6FhM::&tbnh=124&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dalex%2Bhaley,%2Bphoto&hl=en&usg=__3SvHw_c1ckDXj4GzgWP0QGrqBhE=&ei=-haeSe3PN6CiMuHvxNML&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=1

6

Who’s on the “other side” of your family tree?

Slaves and slave masters lived side-by-side, in close proximity, for more than 250 years

Slaves took their Masters’ surnames

THOUSANDS of “mixed-race” children

After the Civil War, out of shame or prejudice, both races found reasons to forget these blood connections

Marlene DavisLexington Herald-Leader

February 17, 2009


Black History Month… Now Obsolete?

Nov. 2008 -America transcends race?

Those who cannot remember the past (history) are condemned to repeat it.

-George Santayana-

A post-racial America that ignores race and doesn't discuss the ugly

history of (race in) America, intellectually, is not a good thing.

It isn’t race that divides us: it’s racism, bigotry and ignorance.

The study of Blacks’ history produces important knowledge that is

meaningful to the very idea of what America was, is, and can be.

7

How’d he do that?


8

FOOTPRINTS ON

THE SANDS

OF TIME

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sand of time.


9

Before looking at Black History in Appalachia…


10

• Slavery was practiced throughout Southern Appalachia, in every county of the Region.• The Cherokees held slaves: nearly 1,000 accompanied their masters on the infamous Trail of Tears in 1838.

“Been to the mountaintop


11

1. “History,” as taught in American schools, by Euro-centric historians, until recently, completely ignored the pre-slave existence of Africa.

2. Joseph Conrad, in Heart of Darkness – depicted “Africa as a continent full of sub-human savages.”

3. American original ideal of equality, justice, one-person/one vote: a vile contradiction.

4. Slavery: America’s original sin

History’s BIG

footprints


12

ABRAHAM LINCOLNMan “torn” over slavery

The young Lincoln

• Spoke and acted like most

• Did not believe in nor speak about the equality of blacks

The sun shines bright in my Old Kentucky Home‘This summer the darkies are gay’

• Lincoln….the politician

• Lincoln signed Emancipation Proclamation, after blacks helped in Civil War effort.

• Send freed slaves back to Africa


13

Ironton

Tupelo

Birmingham

Winston-SalemKnoxville

Pittsburgh

Tri-Cities, TN

Greenville

Appalachia

Charleston

Berea

Hagerstown

Poughkeepsie, NYAPPALACHIA


“…the number of Negroes in the Appalachian Region is such a small proportion of the total population [that] the social consequences of their presence is of no significance.” –John C. Belcher-

The Southern Appalachian Region: A Survey. Tom Ford. Editor. (1967) Sponsored by the Ford Foundation

14

Scholarship and the Black Experience in Appalachia

1967 1985


15

Me?“Devote my life to the study of African

Americans in Appalachia?”…I don’t think so!”APPALACHIAN WHITES:

Portrayed as Noble pioneers Dan’l Boone The Waltons Mayberry Beverly Hillbillies

Ridiculed as:InbredViolent

Barely civilizedDeliverance

Diane Sawyer“20/20”


16

Ironton

Tupelo

Birmingham

Winston-SalemKnoxville

Pittsburgh

Tri-Cities, TN

Greenville

Appalachia

Charleston

Berea

Hagerstown

Poughkeepsie, NYAPPALACHIA


The Appalachian Region

17

The Appalachia I’m talking about….

Central Appalachia

Coal Camps• Eastern Kentucky• Southwest Virginia• Southern WV

Central Appalachia:The Coal CampsBill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009

CumberlandBenhamLynchHarlanJenkinsEvarts

McRobertsHazard

HaymondWheelwrightBarbourville

PinevillePikeville

Middlesboro

KY Appalachian KCTCS Campuses

AshlandBig Sandy Valley

HarlanMiddlesboro

SomersetWhitesburg

18Bill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009

19

Black Mountain People:

1.Who are they?2.How did they get to the mountains?

3.Where did they come from?4.Why did they come?

5.What did they do (work)?6.What was life for them in the mountains “like,”

comparatively?7.What did they contribute…the essence of their lifeways?

8.Why did they leave the mountains – when, where did they go?

9.What is life like for blacks who continue to live in the coal camps of the Central Appalachian Region?


20

THOUSANDS of Blacks migrated from the “uplands” South to take jobs in the coal-producing areas of E. KY.

1880-1945

From ‘in-and-around Birmingham to in-and-around Black MountainBill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009

1. Descendants of slaves2. Most migrated, seeking wage labor

(beginning in1880s).3. Unique (among black migrants from

plantation south) because they went from one rural area to another.

4. Numbers grew precipitously during era of industrialization (1885-1935). Coal mine laborers. 275,000 by 1900.

5. 1930: 53% of miners in AL., 30,000 blacks in E KY & SW VA (alone).

6. Largest numbers in Southern WV7. Racial minority in midst of dispossessed

“white cultural” minority.8. Relatively small percentage of total

population.9. Presently less than 30,000 in E KY, SW

VA and Southern WV.

22

Black Appalachians Value

Hard working – where there is workHard working – where there is work

Family firstFamily first

ReligionReligion

Schooling – Achievement in Academics Schooling – Achievement in Academics

and Sportsand Sports

Neighborliness and community spirit, Neighborliness and community spirit,

active civic organizationactive civic organization

PatriotismPatriotism

Sense of HumorSense of Humor

Sense of humility Sense of humility

HonestyHonesty

NeighborlinessNeighborliness


23

Coal and steel and the richest man in America

Andrew Carnegie

Harlan Country & the United States Steel Company


24

1. They did NOT (could not!) own property in the coal camps.

2. “Company towns” were virtual corporate fiefdoms.

3. Towns highly segregated, regulated.4. “Colored” schools and churches, provided

by the companies.5. Laid off from job – move out of company-

owned house.6. Last hired, first fired.7. Generally assigned to most menial, most

dangerous mining jobs: underground, coal loaders.

8. Mechanization of mining (beginning in the late 1940s) impacted black miners first and most harshly.


25

The “colored” neighborhoodLynch (Harlan County) KY. 1980

WE LOVED MOUNTAINS…BEFORE

IT WAS THE POLITICALLY

CORRECT THING TO DO…WE HAD NO OTHER CHOICE


26

Black Mountain - Kentucky’s Highest PeakWhere our Papa went to work (under)….1938-1978


27

Portal 31 – Lynch (Harlan County) Kentucky


28

Papa and friends…standing straight and tall and proud! 1952

These men had 54 children to feed – and they did!Bill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009

29

Excellent (“segregated”) schools

Excellent (“segregated”) churches, “uncomplicated,

apolitical sermons”


30

The continuous mining machine – introduced widely in late 1950s


31

Mountaintop Removal


32

Kinship networks…worked in the coal camps for blacks, worked for them at the endpoints of outmigration –

• Massive outmigration beginning in mid-1940s• WV lost 75% of its black population between 1940 – 1985• • Great Lakes states (Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan• Pittsburgh and Birmingham•Sunbelt migrants – Atlanta and Charlotte•“Growth centers” that “ring” Central Appalachia

•Knoxville•Chattanooga•Cincinnati•Lexington (Central Kentucky)

Blacks’ out Outmigration – 1950 to present


33

• the banjo• Piedmont blues – O’ brother where art thou•Shape note singing

•Carter G. Woodson•Booker T. Washington•Bessie Smith•Bill Withers (Lean on Me)•John Henry – The Steel Drivin’ Man•Odetta

•Most ardent abolitionists•John Fee – Berea College•John Brown – Civil War•Highlander Center

Black Appalachian coal miners were key contributors to the industrialization of America


Bill Turner at KCTCS - 2-20-2009 34What is the nature of life for blacks in the (former) Appalachian coal towns today?

Much of Central Appalachia is still “The Other America”

Of the 6 KY counties that voted for President Obama, 4 were in Eastern KY?

Who will follow Black Mountain footprints into the future?

35

What do we learn when we follow the footprints of Blacks in Appalachia?

THE IMPACT OF CORPORATE POWER

You live in a company houseYou go to a company schoolYou work for this company

According to company rules

You drink company waterAnd all use company lights

The company preacher teaches us

What the company says is right.

Carl Sandburg

Sound familiar?


What happens when the company leaves the company town?

When there is no work?

What happens to communities?

Who cares about the people, their children?

The value of education

“No matter what they take from you, they can’t take your pride and what’s in your head.”

W BLACKS IN APPALACHIA PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE Bill Turner Berea College © 2009 BLACK HISTORY...

Documents

Transcript of W BLACKS IN APPALACHIA PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE Bill Turner Berea College © 2009 BLACK HISTORY...