Thomas E. Wagner and Phillip J. Obermiller's "African American Miners and Migrants" documents the lives of Eastern Kentucky Social Club (EKSC) members, a group of black Appalachians who left the eastern Kentucky coalfields and their coal company hometowns in Harlan County. Bound together by segregation, the inherent dangers of mining, and coal company paternalism, it might seem that black miners and mountaineers would be eager to forget their past. Instead, members of the EKSC have chosen to celebrate their Harlan County roots. "African American Miners and Migrants" uses historical and archival research and extensive personal interviews to explore their reasons and the ties that still bind them to eastern Kentucky. The book also examines life in the model coal towns of Benham and Lynch in the context of Progressive Era policies, the practice of welfare capitalism, and the contemporary national trend of building corporate towns and planned communities.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
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A heritage to treasure,
By Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: African American Miners and Migrants: THE EASTERN KENTUCKY SOCIAL CLUB (Paperback)
Between the 1890s and the mid 1920s, a million people moved into the coal fields of Kentucky,Southern West Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia. Between a quarter and a third of these people, including my grandparents who went to the US Coal and Coke (US Steel)company town of Gary West Virginia, were African Americans.
Given that since the end of the coal boom in the 1920s, the depression, mechanization of the mines after WWII in a way that hit Black miners the hardest, most of these Black people and most of the whites have moved away since the 1940s. However, this is an important part of the heritage of both African Americans and working people. This book provides the history of African Americans in Eastern Kentucky in the old cold camps of Benham and Lynch near Cumberland Kentucky and the national organizations they and their descendants formed to keep their heritage alive. There is a lot of overall discussion of the problems all miners faced finding unity against the companies fighting for a union, as well as the battles Blacks in the coal fields waged against Jim Crow in the mines and in Kentucky in general. The book also talks about the special bonds of pride that Black miners forged and how that heritage remains strong for those who have moved away and their children.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The African American men and women who were recruited to work and live in the coal towns of Benham and Lynch were not the first blacks in Appalachia. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
model coal towns, black miners, black coal miners, coal camps, white miners, coal operators Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Harlan County, African American, Eastern Kentucky Social Club, West Virginia, International Harvester, Looney Creek, United States, Gean Austin, Memphis Tennessee Garrison, Bill Bosch, Joe William Trotter, Woolford Griffey, Della Watts, World War, Jim Crow, Willie Watts, Deep South, Janet Greene, Memorial Day, William Turner, Civil War, Black Mountain, Johnnie Jones, Poor Fork, Mattye Knight Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The African American men and women who were recruited to work and live in the coal towns of Benham and Lynch were not the first blacks in Appalachia. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
model coal towns, black miners, black coal miners, coal camps, white miners, coal operators Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Harlan County, African American, Eastern Kentucky Social Club, West Virginia, International Harvester, Looney Creek, United States, Gean Austin, Memphis Tennessee Garrison, Bill Bosch, Joe William Trotter, Woolford Griffey, Della Watts, World War, Jim Crow, Willie Watts, Deep South, Janet Greene, Memorial Day, William Turner, Civil War, Black Mountain, Johnnie Jones, Poor Fork, Mattye Knight Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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