Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman

by Memphis Tennessee Garrison, Ancella R. Bickley, Lynda Ann Ewen, Joe W. Trotter

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821413746
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2001
Series:	Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Ancella Bickley is a retired professor of English and Vice President for Academic Affairs at West Virginia State College.

Lynda Ann Ewen is a professor of sociology at Marshall University, where she directs the Oral History of Appalachia Program and is co-director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia.

Table of Contents

	Illustrations	vii
	Preface	ix
	Introduction	xiii
	Note on the Editing	xxxiii
I	Family History	1
Chapter 1	Remembrances of Slavery	5
Chapter 2	Origins	14
II	Family and Youth	17
Chapter 3	My Mother	21
Chapter 4	My Husband	28
Chapter 5	The Family Land	32
Chapter 6	Schooldays	35
III	Working Life	43
Chapter 7	Teaching	49
Chapter 8	Participation in Teachers' Organizations	66
Chapter 9	Beyond Teaching	71
IV	Life in the Coalfields	83
Chapter 10	The Coalfields	90
Chapter 11	Racial Separation in the Coalfields	95
Chapter 12	Churches in the Coalfields	99
Chapter 13	U.S. Steel	104
Chapter 14	Miners and Unions	107
Chapter 15	Labor Relations	119
V	Political Life	125
Chapter 16	Politics	131
Chapter 17	The Depression	138
Chapter 18	Association with the Republican Party	141
Chapter 19	The Negro Artists' Series	146
Chapter 20	Public Executions	155
Chapter 21	Finding the NAACP	158
Chapter 22	Local NAACP Activities	161
Chapter 23	NAACP Christmas Seals	168
Chapter 24	State and National NAACP Activities	174
Chapter 25	Problems of Integration in West Virginia	185
VI	Community Life	189
Chapter 26	Girl Scouts	193
Chapter 27	Books for Africa	198
Chapter 28	Awards	201
VII	Conclusion	205
Chapter 29	Epilogue	207
Chapter 30	Commentary	212
	Memphis Tennessee Garrison and West Virginia's African American Experience: Historical Afterword	215
	Notes	229
	Sources	237
	Index	241

Editorial Reviews

Originally recorded at Marshall University in 1969, Memphis Tennessee Garrison's memoirs tell of her life, her career as a teacher, and her political activities in the early civil rights movement. Based on those recordings, this book describes her childhood in Gary, a West Virginian coal mining town populated largely by black and immigrant workers. It also describes her participation in the NAACP, bringing black performers to the area in the 1920s, starting a Girl Scout troop for black girls in the 1950s, and serving on the NAACP's board of directors in the 1960s. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

One of the first books to show how Appalachian blacks—like those in the Cotton Belt South and the Northern migrants—successfully pitted their intellect against historical realities and contradiction, and won!”—William H. Turner, co-editor of Blacks in Appalachia


“Anecdotally rich. Memphis Tennessee Garrison: The Remarkable Story of a Black Appalachian Woman fills the gap in historical accounts of mining. Of particular interest is her work on the NAACP and her recollections of its less-remembered cultural mission in the black community—organizing the Negro Artists Series—as well as its political one.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher