Affrilachia: A Guide to Exploring African American Life in Appalachia

Writers whose works contribute to the social context in race relations, economics, and migration.

                                        Image: A 1935 Farm Security Administration photograph of kids in Omar, West Virginia. Library of Congress

 Dr. Ronald L. Lewis, Black Coal Miners in America: Race, Class, and Community Conflict 1780-1980 , The University Press of Kentucky, 1987.

Gibbs, C. R. "Affrilachia?" - Yes, there are Black People in the Land of Mountains, Moonshine, and Coal Mines.Print. 

This article gives an overview of the history of black people in Appalachia and the legends featured in historical folklore.

Spriggs, L. B. (2017). Black bone: 25 years of the affrilachian poets

Part of a multivolume anthology book called Black Bone: 25 Years of Affrilachian Poets. This book features Affrilachian poets, including P.C. Taylor's "Call Me out of My Name: Inventing Affrilachia." 

Troutman, S. (2017). Fabulachia: urban, black female experiences and higher education in Appalachia. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(2), 252-263.

Based on group interviews and discussions around the theoretical analysis of the term  "Fabulachia," a term related to black college students leaving the "hood" to attend rural colleges in Appalachian areas. 

Walker, C. N. (2022). Asheville, North Carolina’s hood huggers: Rebuilding ‘Affrilachia’.

This article highlights  African Americans in  Asheville’ known as  "Hood Huggers,"  and their contributions to arts, environment, and social justice in the region.

Davis, & Nia. (2020). Asheville reparations resolution is designed to provide black community access to the opportunity to build wealth.

This article focuses on the Ashville City Council acknowledging systemic racism and passing a resolution to support reparations for the black Ashville community. 

Dixon, E. (2023). Black workers helped build Appalachia’s economy. today, they’re still shortchanged. 

Eric Dixon gives an overview of how essential African Americans were to the Appalachian economy using historical context and data comparisons charts. 

McLaughlin, K. D., Lichter, T. D., & Matthews, A. S. (1999). Demographic diversity and economic change in Appalachia. ().Appalachian Region Commission. 

Appalachian Region Commision report that gives an overview picture of the demographic diversity and economic change in Appalachia from 1980-1996. 

Tams Jr., W. P. (2010). Smokeless coal fields of west Virgina : A brief history West Virgina University Press. 

This book offers a unique perspective on the business of the coal mining industry and also the lives of the workers . 

African American coal miners: Helen, WV. (2020).

National Parks Service article that gives an overview on African American migration to Appalachia and the coal mines. 

Dulken, D. (2019, sept 9,). A black kingdom in post bellum Appalachia .

Tells the hidden history of the black community forming in Appalachia after the Civil War. 

Fain, C .Early black migration and the post-emancipation black community in cabell county,west virginia, 1865-1871.

Voluminous work that studies the historic movement of black people in post emancipation America 

Lewis, R. L. (1989). From Peasant to Proletarian: The Migration of Southern Blacks to the Central Appalachian Coalfields. The Journal of Southern History, 55(1), 77–102.

Sheds light on African American migration during the nineteenth to twentieth century.