Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments OUR FIRSTTHANKS must go, of course, to Helen Matthews Lewis for her lifelong commitment to social justice.This book would not have been possible without her faith, her vision, her words, and the time, care, and patience she gave us over the last three years.Although we have managed to keep the focus on Helen here, it was no easy task. In her generosity of spirit, she constantly guides and deflects us to the important work of all those whom her life has touched.We are deeply grateful and truly humbled by working with her on this enterprise. Gurney Norman, novelist, poet laureate of Kentucky, and Appalachian studies activist, first inspired the book by suggesting the value of a Helen Lewis reader to Laura Sutton, who was then an editor at the University Press of Kentucky.Gurney further suggested that Judith Jennings take a leading role in putting together such a reader.Judi consulted with Helen and other women friends attending the conference of the Appalachian Studies Association in Knoxville in 2007.At a gathering at the home of MaryThom Adams, a happy band of women—including Helen, MaryThom, Beth Bingman,Amelia Kirby, Judi, Patricia D. Beaver, and others—agreed to work together to develop a reader that would capture the range and diversity, the challenges and joys, the lessons and reflections, we all witness in Helen’s life. That same year, Pat Beaver began acquiring Helen’s papers for Appalachian State University (ASU). Pat moved boxes of files, clippings, notes, and photographs from Helen’s house in Georgia to the ASU campus in Boone, North Carolina.These treasures went first to Pat’s office, on their way to their permanent home in the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection archives. As an x Acknowledgments important first step, graduate assistant Zach Fulbright compiled an initial list of all the published and unpublished papers and reports in the collection. Helen, Judi, and Pat began working together on this manuscript in brainstorming sessions at the Center forAppalachian Studies atASU in 2008. Zach volunteered to help and enthusiastically converted the extensive written notes from a whiteboard into the first spreadsheet of texts, tracking all those preliminarily selected to be excerpted. Graduate assistant SeatonTarrant traveled with Pat back to Georgia to gather up final items, taking notes as Helen narrated names and places from her photo albums. Seaton scanned and prepared the first full-text digital files of Helen’s papers. Several cohorts of graduate student assistants then organized, cataloged, and retyped the papers selected for inclusion in this collection. Graduate assistants Brittony Fitzgerald,Tracey Jerrell, Katie Phillips, Danielle Rector, andRachelWestrom and undergraduate students Hayley Sherman and Ashia Tabb retyped Helen’s unpublished speeches and papers, proofread and cataloged material, and moved the book process forward in many other valuable ways. Graduate student Donna Corriher proofread the entire final manuscript. Office manager Debbie Bauer supervised the work of each of the students, deflected telephone calls, and applied her MLA skills to the bibliography. During the first work session in 2008, Pat’s neighbor and retired Spanish teacher Mary Boyer helped us come up with the title: Living Social Justice. Subsequently, Jeff Boyer, ASU anthropologist and Highlander Center board member, provided encouragement and a bibliography for chapter 2. Sandra L. Ballard, editor of the Appalachian Journal, offered editorial advice, friendship, and wise counsel from the beginning of the project to its completion, as well as editing the final text of the bibliography. Fred Hay, professor and librarian of theW. L. EuryAppalachian Collection atASU, provided editorial advice, as well as sure attention to Helen’s papers in his oversight of cataloging them, along with reference librarian Greta Browning. We are grateful to the NewYorkTimes andTemple University Press, respectively , for permission to use the photograph of the Children’s Campaign of 1946 and excerpts from It Comes from the People. Appreciation also goes to Sandra Ballard for permission to reprint excerpts from four articles published in the Appalachian Journal, which she edits. Dr. Fred Hay of ASU’s University Archives and Records generously gave us permission to use a wide range of writings from the Helen Matthews Lewis materials in theW. L. Eury Appala- Acknowledgments xi chian Collection. SusanWilliams, who oversees the library at the Highlander Research and Education Center, granted permission to use their printed materials . Dr. Patricia A. Gozemba gave us permission to reprint excerpts from her essay “No Ordinary Teacher,” which appears...