Everything is influenced and or shaped by another, we call this cultural rhetoric. This can be easily defined as a way to frame words and ideas of another group through a lens that filters and judges another group’s rhetorical power and value. We see this practice being prominent in the relationship between the civil rights movement and regions of Appalachia. By highlighting the impact and development of the social, economic, and cultural factors, we can see how the civil rights movement inspired and helped propel similar movements in Appalachia.
Social changes in fields like education took a turn in 1954 when the Supreme Court ruled separate educational facilities are inherently unequal, also known as the Brown versus Board of Education case. Although this case was not explicitly in the Appalachian region, it affected them as well as the nation as a whole. A man named Henry Louis Gates Jr, who later became an Ivy League professor teaching African American literature and history, “recall the late sixties and early seventies as a time of ‘glorious black awakening’…” (Williams 351). This was a time were direct action on issues were called into affect. Activist then confronted and those that were said to be violent and corrupt. The poverty warrior’s were also applying direct action while “joined by another group of white activist, veterans of the civil rights struggled in the lowland South who found themselves shouldered out of leadership positions there by the rise of the Black Power Movement” (Williams 350). Appalachian communities saw the impact, influence, and drive the civil rights movement had, which prompted them to either join in or change something within their own communities. For example, Stephen Fisher, who became involved with civil rights after he says he realized he was lied to about these issues. He then moved from “good liberal to angry liberal to oppressed minority” (Billings, et al. 189). This was true for many activist who were locals and natives to the Appalachian region.
Another social change was the desegregation of national parks. This change was a direct correlation of culture rhetoric between civil rights and Appalachia. Jourdan Keith says that “both the Civil Rights Act and the Wilderness Act became laws that govern the land and the people of the United States”. The Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and sexual origin, and it required the desegregation of public areas. The Wilderness Act also signed in 1964, created a preservation system that protected large areas of land. Both ” these monolithic acts make it possible for me to occasionally enjoy outdoor experiences in remote places that would be out of reach without the combination of their protections” (Keith). Parks like the Shenandoah National Park within the Appalachian region were direct targets for both acts.
To establish their cultural identity,Appalachian activists followed activist of the Civil Rights Movement by raising awareness on their culture. According to the Appalachia Encyclopedia, local governments were not willing to recognize the existence of Urban Appalachia as a distinct group. This designation made it hard to understand their social needs and cultural strengths. “They seek to change community culture by confronting local governments, social service agencies, and education institutions with facts on the Appalachian community”. For example, the Urban Appalachian Council ” published a series of working papers that fostered further research on the Urban Appalachian population. In 1993, advocates in Cincinnati, “persuaded the city council to include persons of Appalachian origin alongside categories related to race, gender, religion…” (Abramson, et al). Asserting recognition of their existence had a lot to do with those fostered within the community such as minorities. These community members took a stand on a fight against the treatment from local governments.
The Appalachian region was very impoverished until the railroad, coal, and lumber companies dominated employment.
In 1972, just a few years after the Civil Rights Movement, a strike took place that changed economic conditions in Appalachia. Over 200 people walked off their jobs at a large Kentucky hospital in Pike County, most of which were women. This strike change the nation’s labor laws. ” Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act that resulted from the strike extended coverage to employees of nonprofit Healthcare institutions and greatly expanded the possibility of organizing unions among service workers in the healthcare industry” (Billings, et al. 228). This brought national attention to Appalachia, improved their economic situation, and paved the way for cultural rhetorics of the region. One year later another strike was underway in hopes to continue the economic improvements in Appalachia. The Civil Rights Movement became a foundation for other movements to leverage the needed economic and social change.
Due to the growing interest in Appalachian culture, young people begin to flock to the area. Change was underway to those considered to be in an isolated cultural environment. We see this in folk life and crafts such as music, which was one of the most influential factors on the youth. Folk music is a combination of traditional music as well as music from that perspective era in the region. “The folk like music Revival of the 1950’s – having made Tom Dula a household name among college-age listeners – provided a way for further explorations in folk, traditional, Bluegrass, an old time, as well as a host of innovations that mingled in blurred those genres” (Williams 357). This old time music is often seen and thought to be played by primarily white musicians. However, “African Americans have a long time tradition with instruments like the bass drum, banjo, and fiddle” (Durman). Not to mention the artists were native to the Appalachian region. Music served as an escape goat for labor struggles during this time. Many of the same people grew up listening to rock and roll which was a combination of black and white artist like: Ike Turner, Hank Williams, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly. Majority of these American musicians were Central figures in the mid nineteen-hundreds during the Civil Rights movement.
A good example of the cultural change is in the early nineteen-hundreds, songwriters created “event songs” which are songs that talk about incidents that may have occurred. “We Shall Overcome” was a popular song by folk singer Pete Seeger. This was considered to be the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. However we see a switch of attitudes in the late nineteen-hundreds where music begin to mock the identity struggles of both black and white’s. Stereotyping begin to evolve and genres expanded. African Americans kicked off hip hop, this became their new genre of event songs. People of the region flocked towards country music. It paved the way for calling Appalachian people names like Hillbillies and Rednecks. ” The Stereotype is to dehumanize; to make ridiculous; to ignore history, politics, economics, and culture” (Billings, et al. 158). Stereotypes about Hillbillies and rednecks are said to be define by where they live, what they look like, and how they act. This is very similar to the stereotyping of blacks during this time who were said to be poor, uneducated, and animals. It’s all the same, Hillbillies and rednecks are “similar to what it means to be black, to be powerless, and at the bottom of the social economic ladder” (Turner). The static images of both the African American community and the Appalachian region have grown and we continue to see it every day through social media, books, and films. These two communities model each other in many ways. Both blacks and hillbillies, exaggerations of what they are, are seen as fools. I find it interesting that a fool is considered to be traditionally an outsider that acts outside of the social hierarchy, and whose abilities to speak truth to power is key. Unfortunately we don’t often see nor hear it being spoken of in such a way. Instead we rely on a broad generalization of people which embodies limitations to these cultures in which are often attributed to those living outside these populations.
The Civil Rights Movement became the gate way to overall change in Appalachia. We see this change reflected within areas like societies leadership, education, and music.. Places within the Appalachian region modeled many of the persuasive techniques the Civil Rights Movement used. Factors that influenced this change, whether being social, economic, or cultural, has some effect on what the Appalachian region is today.
Work Cited
Abramson, Rudy, and Jean Haskell, eds. Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville: U of Tennessee, 2006. Print.
Billings, Dwight B., Gurney Norman, and Katherine Ledford, eds. Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes. Lexington: U of Kentucky, 2001. Print.
Carter, Alice E. “Segregation and Integration in McDowell County.” West Virginia Division of Culture and History. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.
Durman, Chris. “African American Old-Time String Band Music: A Selective Discography.” Notes 64.4 (2008): 797-810. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Oct. 2016.
Keith, By Jourdan Imani. “Desegregating Wilderness.” Orion Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct.
2016.
Turner, William H. “Reactions to “Organizing, Culture, and Resistance in Appalachia: Past, Present, and Future”: Si Kahn Sings to a Harlan County Choirboy.” Journal of Appalachian Studies 18.1/2 (2012): 25-27. Web.
Williams, John Alexander. Appalachia: A History. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2002. Print.