Walter F. White of Atlanta, Georgia, joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918 as an assistant to Executive Secretary James Weldon Johnson. When Johnson retired in 1929, White replaced him as head of the NAACP, a position he maintained until his death in 1955. During his long tenure, White was in the vanguard of the struggle for interracial justice. His reputation went into decline, however, in the e...
This volume of the Journal of Appalachian Studies Association includes contributions by Gordon B. McKinney, Jean Haskell Speer, Rodger Cunningham, Thomas A. Arcury, Rhonda England, Roger A. Lohmann, Richard P. Mulcahy, Kate Black, Beth Degutis, Garry Barker, Roberta Campbell and Alan J. DeYoung, and Barbara Ann Starnes.
In 1880, forest covered two-thirds of West Virginia, but by the 1920s lumbermen had denuded the entire region. This work explores the transformation in the mountain counties precipitated by deforestation. West Virginia provides a site for studying the broader social impact of deforestation.
Aspiring to Greatness: West Virginia University since World War II chronicles the emergence of WVU as a major land-grant institution. As a continuation of the work of Doherty and Summers in West Virginia University: Symbol of Unity in a Sectionalized State, this book focuses on the modern historical developments that elevated WVU from a small regional institution to one of national prominence. West Virginia University's growth mirrors the deve...
In 1890, more than 100, 000 Welsh-born immigrants resided in the United States. A majority of them were skilled laborers from the coal mines of Wales who had been recruited by American mining companies. In the first history of this exceptional community, Ronald Lewis explores how Welsh immigrants made a significant contribution to the development of the American coal industry and how their rapid and successful assimilation affected Welsh Ameri...
In 1897 a small landholder named Robert Eastham shot and killed timber magnate Frank Thompson in Tucker County, West Virginia, leading to a sensational trial that highlighted a clash between local traditions and modernizing forces. Ronald L. Lewis's book uses this largely forgotten episode as a window into contests over political, environmental, and legal change in turn-of-the-century Appalachia.
