Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780821413739)

As a black Appalachian woman, Memphis Tennessee Garrison belonged to a demographic category triply ignored by historians.

The daughter of former slaves, she moved to McDowell County, West Virginia, at an early age and died at ninety-eight in Huntington. The coalfields of McDowell County were among the richest seams in the nation. As Garrison makes clear, the backbone of the early mining work force-those who laid the railroad tracks, manned the coke ovens, and dug the coal-were black miners. These miners and their families created communities that became the centers of the struggle for unions, better education, and expanded civil rights. Memphis Tennessee Garrison, an innovative teacher, administrative worker at U.S. Steel, and vice president of the National Board of the NAACP at the height of the civil rights struggle (1963-66), was involved with all of these struggles.

In many ways, this oral history, based on interview transcripts, is the untold and multidimensional story of African American life in West Virginia, as seen through the eyes of a remarkable woman. She portrays a courageous people who organize to improve their working conditions, send their children to school and then to college, own land, and support a wide range of cultural and political activities.

Author: Memphis Tennessee Garrison
ISBN-10: 0821413732
ISBN-13: 9780821413739
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/30/2001
Pages: 282
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.38w x 0.95d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 06/01/2001 pg. 1830
Foreword 09/01/2001 pg. 66
Choice 01/01/2002 pg. 946
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2002 pg. 112 - Strongly Recommended