The Harlan Renaissance Previewed & Reviewed

Harlan County native Ronnie Blair discusses *The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns.*

WILLIAM TURNER GIVES WV LIVING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CENTRAL APPALACHIAN COMMUNITY HE GREW UP IN.

**The WBUR Read-In: High Water in Appalachia:** WBUR arts and culture fellow Lauren Williams recommends three books about the history of the Appalachia region.

The Harlan Renaissance has been named the winner of the 2021 Weatherford Award for Non-Fiction!

Since 1970, the Weatherford Awards, presented jointly by the Appalachian Studies Association and Berea College, honor works of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry published in the prior calendar year that “best illuminate the challenges, personalities, and unique qualities of the Appalachian South.”

What the Judges had to say about The Harlan Renaissance

“The Harlan Renaissance is an invaluable piece of Black Appalachian history and should be celebrated as such. William H. Turner weaves together years of historical research and a personal family history/narrative that is full of rich sociological analyses and detailed memories. In a through-generational voice, Turner sheds light on the harsh historical realities of Black Appalachian life while also envisioning a future of Appalachia in which Black communities and their stories are central.”
“The Harlan Renaissance is a masterful tale that captures the souls of Black Appalachians coal camps’ social histories covering a century of coal boom and bust. The author’s passions behind each event, relationship, story, and connection to the land are evident. The book covers nearly every angle of Black life with contemporary analysis that connects the past with the future and what can happen in the future. Documentation is thorough, relying on personal experiences, interviews, and print/photo sources. Destined to be the lead volume on Black people who lived under the mountainous shadows of racism, White supremacy, company controls, and not mattering within the structures of the region.”
“Dr. Turner writes a book for the ages about Black Appalachians in the heart of Appalachia, Harlan County, KY. Mixing personal stories of growing up in Eastern Kentucky with regional history and broader figures in the fight for Black recognition and identity, Dr. Turner weaves memoir and history in a way that expands our views of place, identity, and community. This is a seminal work and will become required reading in Appalachian Studies.”

“I’m finishing Bill Turner’s excellent The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns. Highly recommended, and not just as Appalachian history. ”

— Bill Bishop, author of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart, and co-founder/contributing editor of the Daily Yonder

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“Bill Turner’s new book (The Harlan Renaissance) is one of the most important books about Appalachia to appear in the last 50 years.”

— Dr. Jim Gifford: CEO & Senior Editor of the Jesse Stuart Foundation.

*Dr. Turner takes questions from Notre Dame Magazine. He earned his Ph.D. from the University in 1974.*

The Harlan Renaissance Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns is remembered as one of The Daily Yonder’s top stories of 2021.

The Appalachian Places staff speaks with Dr. Turner about his motivations for writing The Harlan Renaissance and any changes he’s seen for Black people in the region since his first book, Blacks in Appalachia, was published in 1985.

A former Kentucky State University interim president and director of the Center for Research on the Eradication of Educational Disparities recently published a new book about Black life in Harlan County, Kentucky.

*Celebrating Black History Month in Appalachia: An early look at William Turner’s Harlan Renaissance*

Linda Blackford speaks with Bill Turner about his new book The Harlan Renaissance

Appalachian Book Review says: The title of this book makes the point that not only did African Americans experience a renaissance in New York City’s Harlem in the 1920s, but that a kind of renaissance occurred in Lynch, Kentucky, in Harlan County, i… — ***Appalachian Book Review*** says: The title of this book makes the point that not only did African Americans experience a renaissance in New York City’s Harlem in the 1920s, but that a kind of renaissance occurred in Lynch, Kentucky, in Harlan County, in the 1950s. To say that Turner’s book has been eagerly anticipated for some time is an understatement.

William Turner’s “Harlan Renaissance” shows how Black Appalachians built sustaining communities in the midst of racism and discrimination.