Appalachian Homecoming

Appalachian Homecoming

Appalachia
History
Activism
Folkways
Social Life and Customs

Appalachian Homecoming was conceived as a series of programs all taking place at the Washington County (Va.) Public Library highlighting positive aspects of Appalachian life and culture. While planning the program I talked to people like Randy Sanders, Managing Editor, Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine and Public Relations officer at the Center for Appalachian Services and Studies at East Tennessee State University, and Steve Fisher, Professor Emeritus at Emory and Henry College's Appalachian Center for Community Service. Through them I found a greater appreciation for the Appalachian experience. The writings and stories of program participants, which includes Helen Matthews Lewis, Monica Appleby, Amy Clark, Fred Sauceman, Wendy Welch, and others served to reinforce this impression.

Of additional interest:
You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South, a film by Lucy Massie Phenix
The Highlander Research and Education Center, established in 1932 as the Highlander Folk School, serves to encourage those who struggle for justice by teaching them to become leaders of social movements. It educated some of the most monumental leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, leaders of change for labor laws, and citizens who fought to protect their communities against environmental destruction. Though outlawed in 1961 by the Tennessee Supreme Court for being accused of Communist behavior, the school reopened in Knoxville, Tennessee under the name it carries today. Today, the group continues to educate, inspire, and encourage community leaders in current fights for justice.
(Helen Lewis and Stephen Fisher are credited with Production assistance. Helen Lewis became a member of the Highlander staff in 1976.)

William Stein

Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia, Helen M. Lewis (2014)
Mountain Sisters: From Convent to Community in Appalachia, Helen M. Lewis (2004)
Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change, Stephen Fisher (1993)
Rural Community in the Appalachian South, Patricia D. Beaver (1992)
Talking Appalachian: Voice, Identity, and Community, Amy D. Clark (2014)

Mountain Feminist: Helen Matthews Lewis, Appalachian Studies, and the Long Women's Movement Southern Cultures, a publication of the American Center for the Study of the South, University of North Carolina, Southern Cultures, UNC Press