Becoming Melungeon: Making an Ethnic Identity in the Appalachian South

Chapter 3: Playing the First Melungeons

chapter three Playing the First Melungeons Melungeon legend transformed in a fundamental way in the mid-twentieth century. The change involved the staging of the outdoor drama about Melungeons, Walk Toward the Sunset, in Hancock County in the mid-1960s. With the drama, Melungeonness secured a public presence in the community for the first time, and the media gained a foothold to talk about Melungeons in a tangible way. The inception of the play launched a process by which individuals tentatively laid claim to a Melungeon identity and the community as a whole began to stake claims in the Melungeon debate. This chapter explores the transition of the Melungeon legend with the establishment of the outdoor drama. I focus on the process by which the drama and the topic of Melungeons were formally introduced to the Hancock County public and reproduced through the local, regional , and national media. I then draw from interviews conducted in Hancock County to reflect on local responses to the drama and the phenomenon of Melungeonness. Walk Toward the Sunset In 1966 a small group of individuals working on the Hancock County Resource Development Committee collaborated with Carson Newman College professors Gary Farley and Joe Mack High to identify potential resources available 70 Playing the First Melungeons to aid economic development in Hancock County. The study resulted in the proposal of an outdoor drama based on the Melungeon story. According to Ivey (1976), which cites Farley and High’s 1966 report extensively, they concluded that, given the terrain and isolation of Hancock County, industrial development was unlikely and “attention should be given to other types of possible economic input.” They focused on one possible type: A natural possibility for such input is the idea of a drama featuring the mystery of the Melungeon settlement in the county . Interest in these people has been recently heightened by Jesse Stuart’s novel, Daughter of a Legend. Similar projects have been successful nearby—Big Stone Gap, Berea, and Abingdon. This proximity to other successful dramas should enhance the chances of success in Hancock. In addition, the natural spinoff from the drama would be an outlet for handicraft items. It would also provide the basis for the development of food and lodging services for tourists and other economic impetus . (quoted in Ivey 1976) Claude Collins, a prominent leader on the development committee, recalls the meeting in which a local pastor suggested the topic of Melungeons for the drama: “And my pastor spoke up and said, you have a good story. Just tell it. And somebody asked him what it was. And he said, tell the story of the Melungeons. And I thought, oh dear. They’ll run him outta here next week” (Interview by author). According to Ivey (1976), the sensitivity of organizing a drama about Melungeons was not lost on High and Farley, as they wrote: “This project is not without potential problems . There is a history of tension between the Melungeons and the Scotch-Irish settlers. . . . Parenthetically, some of the town’s people reacted negatively to this book” (quoted in Ivey 1976). Farley and High continued to recommend that the local leaders of what came to be organized as the Playing the First Melungeons 71 Hancock County Drama Association (hcda) seek Melungeon support in the endeavor. As longtime residents of Hancock County, Collins and other hcda leaders realized that a drama about Melungeons would need to be introduced carefully to the community . According to one hcda member, the strategy was to familiarize the community with the drama through weekly articles in the Hancock County Post and in public forums and meetings: We went around and visited schools, sort of a small group of us, explaining what the play was about and so on ahead of time. We worked, I guess, a year, close to a year, just getting the people acquainted and talking about it. And I know there was one man over here, he got so mad he couldn’t stand it. He was in one of the meetings, and he got mad and he left, you know. Another thing, too, that made it pretty good was that Martha Collins was a Melungeon. Everyone knew she was a Melungeon, and she was the President of Sneedville Bank. She was the treasurer at that time. And, you know, with her backing too, and her so active, because she wanted to see the name Melungeon more...