Books in Print About Black Appalachians

Books in Print About Black Appalachians George Brosi Although the majority of the written information about black Appalachians is found in periodicals and in sections of books with a broader focus, there are some outstanding books in print about the black experience in the southern mountains. The following list contains a number of good examples of this wealth of material. Berry, Wendell. The Hidden Wound. San Francisco: North Point Press, a 1989 reprint of a 1970 release. 137 pages with a new afterword by the author. Trade paperback. $9.95. The topic of this nonfiction book is racism. Berry approaches it autobiographically, describing in detail his relationship with the black couple who worked for his grandfather , and using their intermingled, but sharply defined, relationship to illustrate more abstract points. "A profound, passionate, crucial piece of writing . . . ." — Larry McMurtry (author or Lonesome Dove) in the Washington Post. "Berry has Produced one of the most humane, honest, liberating works of our time. It is a eautiful book. More than that, it has become at one stroke an essential book." — Hayden Carruth, The Village Voice. Convicts, Coal, and the Banner Mine Tragedy. Robert David Ward and William Warren Rogers. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987. 192 pages. Hardback in dust jacket with photos, index, and bibliography. $19.95. While this impressive book centers on the mine explosion in 1911 that killed 128 convict miners, it also illuminates many other important issues as well. The Banner mine was located in Jefferson County, Alabama, and much industrial and Alabama hill-country history is included in this book. Since so many convict miners were black, the book illuminates black history as well as criminology and the convict lease system. *George Brosi is the proprietor of a business called Appalachian Mountain Books and publishes a periodical by that same name twelve times a year. He sells books, both new and out-of-print, through the mail and brings a display of books for sale to regional events. His address is Appalachian Mountain Books, Route 2, Box 238, Whittier, North Carolina 28789. His phone number is 704-5865319 . 71 Green, Ely. Ely: An Autobiography. Athens: University of Georgia Press, a 1990 reprint of a 1966 release. 246 pages. Trade paperback. $14.95. Say you want a book almost as good as your favorite, The Education ofLittle Tree by Forrest Carter? Well, here it goes! While Little Tree was part white and part Cherokee and raised in the East Tennessee mountains, Ely Green grew up enjoying the advantage of both the mountainsides and the town of Sewanee, Tennessee. He was the son of a wealthy white man and a housemaid—the grandson of both an officer in the Confederate Army and a black slave! In addition to the introduction by Lillian Smith that appeared in the original edition, this new edition includes a new foreword by Bertram Wyatt-Brown and a new afterword by Arthur Ben Chitty. "A touching and unforgettable memoir."—Walker Percy. Green, Michelle Y. Willie Pearl. Temple Hills, Maryland: William Ruth and Company , 1990. 45 pages. Trade paperback. $9.95. The author's father still lives in Number 6 Holler, Jenkins, Kentucky, where she was raised. This is an upbeat story about a black family living in an Eastern Kentucky coal camp and is presented very attractively on high-quality paper with excellent illustrations. It is particularly appropriate for fourth- or fifth-grade girls. Illustrations are by Steve McCracken of Washington, D.C. Montell, William Lynwood. The Saga of Coe Ridge: A Study in Oral History. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1970. 235 pages with index, bibliography , and photographs. Hardback in dust jacket. $30.00. Trade paperback. $15.00. This study of a rural black community in Cumberland County, Kentucky, is oral history at its best. The author, a scholar at Western Kentucky University, is one of America's premier oral historians. Proudfoot, Merrill. Diary of a Sit-In. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Second edition of a 1962 release. 220 pages. Trade paperback. $11.95. The author of this careful account of the lunch-counter sit-ins of the early 1960s in Knoxville, Tennessee, is a white Presbyterian preacher who was working at the...