Appalachian Movements

Abstract

Appalachian Movements Phillip J. Obermiller (bio) and Thomas E. Wagner (bio) Movement, n. 1) the act or process of moving or a change of place or position; 2) a series of organized activities working toward an objective or an organized effort to promote or attain an end1 The economic refugees who moved from Appalachian coalfields and farms during the Great Migration brought their heritages with them. Their foodways, religious practices, music, speech patterns, and family networks made them an identifiable group, not in their own eyes—all this came naturally to them—but to long-term residents in the migrants’ urban destinations.2 Today Appalachia remains the source of beliefs and behaviors that some revere and others revile. Already uncomfortable with urban ethnic and racial changes occurring during the twentieth century, established majorities used [End Page 67] prevailing stereotypes of white Southerners to discriminate against Appalachian migrants in the areas of education, health care, housing, public services, and civic life.3 In many cases Appalachians insulated themselves from this prejudice by coalescing in labor unions, churches, neighborhoods, and their extended families. They also formed groups that celebrated their heritage, engaged in self-help, promoted social service delivery to those in need, founded community schools, affirmed their collective Appalachian identity and, in a few instances, served as the basis for resistance and advocacy. Consequently, Appalachian migration and the organizing efforts of those migrants have become an essential component of the regional narrative for scholars and activists alike. While there is no general agreement among scholars on whether there is an Appalachian movement equivalent to the labor movement, the women’s movement, or the movement for civil rights, rural and urban Appalachians have established independent social movement organizations (SMOs).4 Elements of an Appalachian movement emerged in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, an era of organizing among both rural and urban Appalachians. The Appalachian People’s Service Organization (APSO) was founded by the Episcopal Church in 1965, along with the ecumenical Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA).5 These church-sponsored organizations were service oriented and at the same time concerned with uplifting the image of [End Page 68] Appalachians. In the 1970s and 1980s Appalachians formed social movement organizations including Tennessee’s Save Our Cumberland Mountains (1972), Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (1981), and Kentucky’s Community Farm Alliance (1985), to name a few.6 These latter groups were involved in issues on education, formulating and promoting new governmental policies, the environment, and promoting structural change.7 This essay describes the causes of Appalachian migration, the patterns of out–, return, and shuttle migration, along with the outcomes of these large population shifts. Similar to immigrant groups, some of these internal migrants established organizations celebrating and promoting their mountain backgrounds. After briefly discussing seven such organizations, the essay focuses on a social movement organization deliberately founded not only to provide services and celebrate Appalachian traditions, but to advocate for social change that would positively affect Appalachian migrants and their families: the Urban Appalachian Council and its successor, the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition.8 The essay closes with a brief look at what the post-coal future may hold for Appalachian migration and migrant organizations, as well as key questions about regional migration that remain in need of scholarly attention. Appalachian Migration Outmigration from the Appalachian Mountains has been ongoing since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Some early migrants [End Page 69] left the region looking for farming opportunities in the Ozarks and the Texas panhandle while others were attracted to logging work in Wisconsin, Washington, and Oregon. Others were recruited as “lint-heads,” becoming textile workers in the mill towns of the Piedmont.9 During the twentieth century some mountaineers became migrant farm workers, harvesting corn and wheat across the Midwest or onion and tomato crops in Ohio and Indiana. Still others relocated to large metropolitan areas, taking advantage of the growing number of blue-collar jobs in cities outside of the region.10 Studies conducted during the 1920s and 1930s identified high birth rates as an underlying cause of poverty in the mountains and recommended policies favoring migration to alleviate the problem.11 Road-building programs of the New Deal...