Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia

Introduction

Introduction Stephen L.Fisher Many in the Appalachian studies community have been urging Helen Lewis for years to find the appropriate context to tell her story, to reflect upon a life that has been at “the nexus of social movements in the region calling for social, economic, and environmental justice” and in “the forefront of a new pedagogy , which envisioned student empowerment and community engagement” (see Patricia Beaver’s introduction to chapter 2).At long last, Patricia Beaver and Judith Jennings, working in close collaboration with Helen, have created Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia. Using a chronological and thematic format, this book presents Helen’s many accomplishments and contributions, viewing her life as a vantage point for exploring key aspects of the Appalachian movement during the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first. Iamhonoredtohavebeenaskedtowritetheintroductionforthisimportant book. I have known Helen since the early 1970s, have benefited immeasurably from her spirit and mentoring, and have spent much of my political and intellectual life learning from and building upon her ideas and examples. Countless others could offer similar testimony on the various ways Helen has touched their lives, and some of them do so in brief essays throughout the book. There are a number of ways to assess the legacy of a person’s life work.The chronology and bibliography included as part of this book offer some notion of why Helen is considered by so many to be the most important public intellectual in Appalachia. She helped give birth to Appalachian studies and has taught and lectured at many of the leading educational institutions in the Ap- 2 Helen Matthews Lewis palachian region, mentored seminarians working in the mountains, and been involved in participatory research work and adult and community educational programs throughout the region and abroad. She is the author or editor of ten monographs and almost fifty articles, book chapters, and reports and is the subject of at least ten published interviews. (For a complete listing, see the bibliography.) She has served as president of the Appalachian Studies Association and in major leadership roles at two of the region’s most well-known and -respected community-based institutions, the Highlander Research and Education Center andAppalshop. She has been a consultant on a wide variety of projects and an advisor to the Kellogg Foundation International Leadership Program. She has received four honorary degrees, is the recipient of more than a dozen awards, and has had three “named” awards created in her honor. This listing underscores many of Helen’s accomplishments and the respect she has earned regionally, nationally, and globally. Standing alone it makes the case for this book, but in no sense does her justice.There is far more to her story.Who are the people and what are the events that helped shape Helen’s intellectual, political, and spiritual growth and led her to a life of activism and scholarship intimately connected to the major social movements of her time? In what ways have her moral courage, intellectual honesty, empathy, and faith in people enabled her to have such a profound impact on so many people and communities?What is the full nature of Helen’s legacy, and what can we learn from that legacy and her life that will help us more effectively fight for social and economic justice in our communities, region, nation, and world?Answering these questions lies at the heart of this book. Helen’s story spans much of the previous century and the opening years of this one, and her impact on Appalachia is in a sense comparable to that of contemporary cranky and courageous antiracist white women, such as Lillian Smith, Virginia Durr, and Anne Braden, whose profound impact on southern history is well known. Like Helen, these unruly women were always a step ahead of their time, outside of traditional academic life and the accepted public arena, and they paid a heavy price for their vision of a just and humane world.Their stories, and others like them, have offered important new insights into the civil rights and women’s movements and provided muchneeded examples of women’s social justice activism in the South. Comparable studies are hard to find for Appalachia, and Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia helps fill this crucial void. Introduction 3 Moreover, a book on Helen’s life and work is especially timely...