Race, Paternalism, and Educational Reform in the Twentieth-Century South

Two new historical works from the University Press of Kentucky, Sam F. Stack Jr.'s The Arthurdale Community School: Education and Reform in Depression Era Appalachia and Andrew McNeill Canady's Willis Duke Weatherford: Race, Religion, and Reform in the American South, examine the efforts of reforming individuals and institutions to alleviate poverty in the South and southern Appalachia from the Progressive Era through the modern civil rights movement. Stack explores the history of the Arthurdale school, a New Deal–era program designed to aid West Virginia miners affected by the decline of the coal industry, while Canady uses the biography of Willis Duke Weatherford (1875–1970) to trace the evolution of southern liberalism through Weatherford's leadership in institutions such as the YMCA's Blue Ridge Association for Christian Conferences and Training, Fisk University, and Berea College. Each author illuminates a history that may not be widely known outside the field and, through careful research and critical analysis, provides fresh insights into the broader history of progressive movements in the South.

Sam F. Stack Jr. The Arthurdale Community School: Education and Reform in Depression Era Appalachia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. 218 pp. 20 b/w illus. ISBN: 9780813166889 (cloth), $50.00.

In The Arthurdale Community School: Education and Reform in Depression Era Appalachia, Stack recounts the history of the homesteading community of Arthurdale, West Virginia, championed by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Stack explains how the school built on the educational philosophy of adviser John Dewey, who contended that the social and economic transformations in American society at the turn of the twentieth century had created a sense of individual "alienation" (5). He therefore viewed the creation of "community" as a central goal to creating a more democratic society, and he saw education as the vehicle for this social change. In following with Dewey's philosophy, Arthurdale's planners intended it to "restore community life, community itself forming the basis of democracy and the democratic way of life" (1). The school's first director, Elsie Ripley Clapp (1879–1965), a former student of Dewey's, sought to instill in students a "sense of identity and place" and used Appalachian folklore, handicrafts, and history to promote this sense of community pride. The Arthurdale homesteading experiment may have been short-lived (lasting from roughly 1933 to 1947), but through the history of the school, Stack explores an important historical issue—how American reformers sought to use education to ameliorate the negative impacts of the nation's rapid modernization and, specifically, the upheaval of the Great Depression.

A scholar of education, Stack contends that the Arthurdale school's curriculum evolved in response to the community's needs and that this community-based approach is the very component missing from education today. He notes, "The current focus of educational reform, driven by economic interests over democratic ones, is the antithesis of a community-centered approach and has been largely detrimental to both the urban and the rural poor and certainly the poor in Appalachia" (2). The book thus presents an opportunity for contemporary students and scholars in the field of education to evaluate the effectiveness of progressive education by examining closely the successes and failures of the Arthurdale school.

Andrew McNeill Canady. Willis Duke Weatherford: Race, Religion, and Reform in the American South. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2016. 348 pp. 24 b/w illus. ISBN: 9780813168159 (cloth), $50.00.

In Willis Duke Weatherford: Race, Religion, and Reform in the American South, Canady evaluates the career of Willis Duke Weatherford, one of the earliest white liberals in the South, whose role in social and educational reform spanned from the 1890s to 1970. Canady emphasizes how Weatherford's religious faith spurred his leadership on social issues, and he effectively positions Weatherford within a network of liberal reformers operating in the South. A Texas native educated at Vanderbilt, Weatherford became a key leader in the YMCA during the first two decades of the twentieth century. He pushed the organization to address the issue of...