Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia

The Final Word

The FinalWord After reading Helen’s influential writings, innovative ideas, and world-travel stories, coeditors Pat Beaver and Judi Jennings invited her to meet with them to discuss her thoughts and reflections on more than eighty years of living social justice. Steve Fisher was then working on the introduction, and he wanted to participate, too, because he had a few questions to ask Helen. The four of us gathered at the annual homecoming weekend at the Highlander Center on September 6, 2010.We all agreed that Helen should have the final word in this book, so what follows are the highlights of what she said that day in response to the questions we asked. Pat:What advice do you have for young people today?Where is the hope and courage? Helen: In 1946, when I graduated from college, the United Nations and World Court were just coming into being. I remember giving talks to Kiwanis Clubs, speaking about my hopes for the world and for world peace.The U.S. had just won the SecondWorldWar, and I had the feeling that personally I could do anything I wanted and that the world was opening up to me.Young people today may not have that feeling, but they may be more realistic. Graduating from a women’s college with a lot of suffragette teachers, I believed that women could do anything. I thought women could do anything until the 1950s started pushing women back into the kitchen. That’s when women started facing discrimination in the workplace. Today’s youth understand the environment in ways we did not 222 Helen Matthews Lewis because we were still into being master over the earth.Today, many young people have good educations, more experience in the world, and tools we didn’t have. Young people today are facing a whole different world from what I was facing.We are at a real turning point in environmental and economic conditions in the world. Big changes are going to have to happen . Opportunities for cleaning up the environment and economy are enormous. I want to tell young people to be creative and take risks. Don’t get settled into a secure job. Create changes, take chances, follow your passion.They understand greening and global economic systems.They know all about the world.They have a great opportunity to develop some creative solutions. Judi: Do you think unions will still be active players, fighting for social justice? Helen at the Highlander homecoming weekend, 2010 (left to right): Pat Beaver, Helen Lewis, Judi Jennings, and Steve Fisher The FinalWord 223 Helen: Unions were the grassroots organizing groups when I came out of college. I wanted to be an organizer for the CIO [Congress of Industrial Organizations], work for anAtlanta newspaper, and become a correspondent inWashington,D.C.Then,I would buy a county newspaper and run for governor. Politics, union organizing, and journalism were my three big interests. Instead, I became a teacher and ended up organizing students. My pedagogy was getting the students involved. The Pittston Coal Strike [in 1989–90 in southwestern Virginia] is a wonderful example of a community solidarity union. Everyone pulled together: teachers and high school kids and college teachers and ex-nuns.The whole community was dealing with the health care of retired miners. Nothing is pulling together diverse groups in the communities anymore. Now middle-class people have concerns about aging and retirement, and young people can’t get jobs of any kind. Churches are one of the few places that can still make a difference, if they can do it. Some of us are working to push social justice issues at the congregational level, for example, showing that health care is not about Republicans or Democrats but a human rights issue. But sometimes retired conservatives with good pensions have a hard time making that move. So I try to worm my way into situations where I can have some influence and try to make a change and get them working on certain issues. My church is feeding Honduran and Guatemalan kids in the trailer courts. By doing that, we are forming relationships and changing minds about the people as a result.We can look at service work and push it further. Service relationships can develop deeper relationships, and then folks can see why people are in the situation they are in and look for root causes...