Thread by @aundrelarrow

#UnitedShades heads up Appalachia and I’m live tweeting so we can all learn together.

We was outside for real on this one.

Let’s start with a few ground rules. Appalachia is much bigger and much more diverse than previously knew.

It spans 13 states and has over 26 million people (2.5 million black people) and is over 206k square miles.

#UnitedShades

This episode hinges on resisting the erasure of Black History. Throughout the episode, we traveled to BlackAF places that I had never been to before.

this episode we the most out of any episode I have ever been on.

#unitedshades

“American black folks keep losing our connection to the places we come from. A place many people don’t realize that black people still live.”

-- @wkamaubell

What does Appalachia actually look like?

Man, it is black AF. It's sad I had no idea until we got to go. During our time we went to
Big Stone Gap, VA
Lynch, Kentucky
Harpers Ferry, WV
Charlestown, WV
and Knoxville, TN

Our guide was @cgoodwoman founder of @BlackByGodWV

Did you know the story of John Brown?

In 1859, he, a white radical abolitionist led a raid focused on freeing Americans 4 million slaves.

Can we pause and acknowledge that number?

4 million slaves. the 1869 census had the total US population at 31 mil.

britannica.com/biography/John…

That means more than 10 percent of the population was voiceless. #unitedshades

"People don’t think of Harper’s Ferry as the place where the first shots of the civil war were fired, they don't think of it as the place where the civil rights movement started." -- @cgoodwoman

#unitedshades

Crystal is referencing that Storer College of Harpers Ferry was the site of the Niagara Movement's first meetings.

hmdb.org/m.asp?m=70829

#unitedshades

Appalachia is not a place, its a region.
13 states.
206,000 square miles.
26 million people.
2.5 million black Appalachians are the largest minority here.

With the discovery of easily extractable high-quality coal in the west, the mines in Appalachia shut down and people of all races left the region.

WV lost 75% of its black population in the last 40 years.

#UnitedShades

Side note: West Virginia is beautiful! #UnitedShades

Yes, squirrel gravy was made.

No, I did not eat any.

#UnitedShades

What does a Pawpaw taste like?
just ask noted food critic @wkamaubell #UnitedShades

The squirrel call was something else. It was much harder than one would think. But then again squirrels are trying their best to stay alive so #UnitedShades

Marcus Oglesby on hunting: "If you grow up doing these things how can you be a bad person. You learn patience, you learn sustainability. (Hunting)

"I understand how hunting works and respect people who do it., but there’s still a stigma about going out there and killing stuff." -- @wkamaubell

"You know a lot of people want to think its nature and us. But we are nature. We are predators, we are animals." #UnitedShades

Bruh this squirrel cleaning was disgusting but I will warn y'all it is not the grossest thing we did this season.
#unitedshades

"Make good with what you got."
"Necessity is a good teacher."
"Growing up in the coal fields, there were no deer. The only things my dad taught us how to hunt were squirrels and rabbits."

this is a sentiment we got a lot during this week. Nikki Giovanni even said it!

"I think there is something around black people in West Virginia have to survive that we ourselves don't explore enough. I think a lot of times that outside of here, black communities don't necessarily see us." - @cgoodwoman

#UnitedShades

Now we head to Lynch, Kentucky.

You can imagine my face when Mo and Crystal told us we were headed to a town called Lynch next.

#UnitedShades

“Some of the most well-known people in American history have their roots in Appalachia. Booker T. Washington. He was a coal miner in Charleston, WV, You’ve heard of John Henry, steel-driving man, Betsy Smith, empress of the blues." -- Dr. Bill Turner #UnitedShades

Dr. Turner not only wrote the book on the area but is a true man of the people. Several times while filming people stopped their cars to greet him and us.

One of my favorite moments of that week was @WilliamHTurner1 teaching kamau an old appalachia song. #UnitedShades

A few things to know about Lynch:

United States Steel (the largest company in the US at the time) owned the town of Lynch.
1 in 5 coal miners was black.
The 1920s and 30s, they employed 150k people.
At its peak Lynch had a population of 10k.
Now it’s 533.

Hearing @WilliamHTurner1 talk about the town and meeting the remaining residents I could feel their nostalgia.

When we got there it was pretty empty. #UnitedShades

You can buy @WilliamHTurner1's book the Harlan Renaissance and learn more about the area here:

whturnerphd.com/book-sales

#UnitedShades

Lolol the internet is spotty all of a sudden. Will be back soon

The discussion Kamau has with Lynch residents was a microcosm for the entire trip.

That night they sent us all home with to-go plates of every delicious food you could imagine. And right before that told us about having black lung and losing all their young people.

Ms. Drena Thomas was a badass woman.
It struck me how she told us she had health issues from working in the mines but would happily go back if they opened up.

It's amazing to me that no matter what time or place there is always misogyny.
#UnitedShades

"We have been here forever.” Since a lot pf people didn’t see us, they didnt know we were here."

-- @WilliamHTurner1

.@cgoodwoman on losing all the young people from Appalachia:

"Back in the day when you had 5 kids when they graduated you’d get a bus ticket. Because they could see the economic change coming. The young people, once they left high school, get out of here and don’t come back.

Man, we got Nikki Giovanni in here!!!!! #UnitedShades

“The whole thing about food is who you’re cooking with and who you’re cooking for. I teach writing, and one of the things I say to my students its not what you’re writing it’s why and cooking is the same thing."
— Nikki Giovanni

#UnitedShades

for the curious folks: What are chitlins? They are the intestines.

learn more here: bgdblog.org/2014/01/chitli…

courtesy of @BGDblog and writer @CDubbTheHost

#UnitedShades

What is @HighlanderCtr?
The highlander center is like a university of civil disobedience.

highlandercenter.org
#UnitedShades

Buried in the hills outside of new market Tennessee, it was founded by miles Horton in the 1930s to originally to train union organizers but but the 1940s the centers focus expanded to the civil rights struggle. It's a place we all need to learn from.

highlandercenter.org

fun fact: the banjo originated in Africa. #UnitedShades
npr.org/2011/08/23/139…

.@wkamaubell mentions the @BlackAppalachia podcast.

here is the link so you can listen more: blackinappalachia.org/podcast
#UnitedShades

I wasn't present for this scene so I'm watching it along with y'all!

the crux of it though: We say we can't tell the story of the American south without black folks, yet somehow the narrative surrounding Appalachia is so quick to erase it's black population.

#UnitedShades

The quotes from this whew:

"If I am in a place with black people and mountains it feels like home. I am at home. It's the land that makes you Appalachian."-- @_AshDashLee_

"My family has been here since before there was such a thing as Tennessee."

"I don’t exist without this place."

#UnitedShades

"Clearly, this identity of being from this place is stolen, we are in an uphill battle against a multitude of things that are trying to keep this story very whitewashed and I don’t think that’s by accident."
-- @_AshDashLee_

#UnitedShades

Nikki Giovanni wraps the scene up so so well:

"I’m a big fan of we need to tell ourselves what the history is. We are beginning to lose the people who know those stories."

#UnitedShades

"It’s easy for some people to say why don't you just leave but it’s not really an option for most folks to just leave. It’s not free to just start your life somewhere else."

-- Geonoah “Geonovah” Davis
#UnitedShades

"It’s not this homogenous narrative of just white folks here. There is a rangae of people of different backgrounds and experiences in Appalachia."

-- Geonoah “geonovah” Davis

#UnitedShades

A bit more about Geonoah “Geonovah” Davis

wvpublic.org/section/arts-c…

The two organizations mentioned @STAYproject:
The STAY Together Appalachian Youth Project is a network of young people, aged 14-30, who are committed to supporting one another to make Appalachia a place we can and want to STAY.

thestayproject.net

And BAYR: Black Appalachian Youth Rising.

thestayproject.net/black-appalach…

Why stay?
"We are the 5th generations that went through this house we are in. We are like 8th-generation Appalachians. I just think about the ancestral land we are on."

-- Mekyah & Geonoah Davis

#UnitedShades

"I think really rooting on how special that is, having this tangible piece of property in our family that’s been passed down, it gives us the ability to stay. There’s almost a spiritual element, our people's lives and souls are tied to this place and this community."

"Being able to gain more appreciation for where I come from has helped me grow as a person and as an artist, and now that I have a daughter on the way I want to show her that this area can be whatever we want it to be. I want to show people that there are artists in Appalachia."

"In Ghana they have a saying SANKOFA, return to your roots."

--- Jason Tartt

This was an episode where our subjects fed us. and lunch this day was HEARTY!

if you have any interest in the tastes of Appalachia, please check out appalachiagold.com.

Jason has his mama's meat sauce for sale there.

#UnitedShades

aundre why don't you have any more photos of the bees close up?

...... they only had three bee suits and I'm not as brave as Mo Fallon

#UnitedShades

but seriously, this honey represents an opportunity for Appalachians to continue to shift away from the mono-economy of coal.

https://twitter.com/wkamaubell/status/1548841030463758337?s=20&t=xdbVwAejxQ3medh0E12w7A

"I think a lot of people think why is this black man in the middle of rural WV doing agriculture, they don't see it as an act of resistance. This is the protest. This is everyday work, this is planting a seed for a vision of cooperative economics and how can develop this land.

"My ancestors/grandparents were planting fruit trees on these hillsides, raising hogs, chickens, sustaining themselves for years so bringing back that sense of pride in being a producer, a creator yourself. Ultimately the goal is to leave a legacy."

-- edge-us.org

"My goal is black excellence. We are very capable. We have shown it time and time again and when left to ourselves to do our thing that's the result, it’s always been the result."

-- Jason Tartt, edge-us.org

"Give us the opportunity to do what we do, it doesn’t matter what industry it doesn’t matter where we are, we will turn nothing into gold."

-- Jason Tartt, edge-us.org

"I think that opportunity is through agriculture, I want these young African Americans that come through my program to understand what you have been taught and what you have been shown about your own community and your own abilities is not true."

#UnitedShades

that's a wrap for this week y'all!

next week we talk about mental health in sports in boston! #UnitedShades