Overview

Since the 2016 presidential election, Americans have witnessed countless stories about Appalachia: its changing political leanings, its opioid crisis, its increasing joblessness, and its declining population. These stories, however, largely ignore black Appalachian lives. Karida L. Brown's Gone Home offers a much-needed corrective to the current whitewashing of Appalachia. In telling the stories of African Americans living and working in Appalachian coal towns, Brown offers a sweeping look at race, identity, changes in politics and policy, and black migration in the region and beyond. Drawn from over 150 original oral history interviews with former and current residents of Harlan County, Kentucky, Brown shows that as the nation experienced enormous transformation from the pre- to the post-civil rights era, so too did black Americans. In reconstructing the life histories of black coal miners, Brown shows the mutable and shifting nature of collective identity, the struggles of labor and representation, and that Appalachia is far more diverse than you think.

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9781469666068

Table of Contents

Reviews

In Gone Home, Brown fills the pages with stories of people who lived in Benham and Lynch; she uses many of their own words to express their lived experiences. In combining historical and sociological methodologies, Brown successfully shows that although physical elements of these Black communities in Appalachia have largely disappeared, the communities themselves still thrive in migrants' memories and their continued connections with one another.--Journal of African American History Like the best of such case studies, Brown's intimate portrait of African Americans' ties to a single place--much of it cast in the form of back home nostalgia--tells us much about their resilience and resourcefulness.--Journal of American History Engaging. . . . By helping to make visible a population too long neglected, Karida L. Brown is doing work that is especially important today.--American Historical Review Brown is an engaging writer . . . This book provides insight into the interconnected issues of identity formation, social and geographic mobility, and the concept of homeplace, along with the effects of quality education and the movement of civil rights. Gone Home: Race and Roots through Appalachia does all of this superbly.--Journal of Appalachian Studies Karida L. Brown's work continues to complicate Appalachian history by surveying the lived experiences of black residents in Harlan County, Kentucky. . . . The personal stories of black Appalachians provide useful data for seasoned researchers.--Journal of Southern History In this tale of the collective African-American search for a place to call home, Brown provides an insightful look at 20th-century American culture.--Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Karida L. Brown is assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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