Black in Appalachia

06/17/2026

We would like to send our congratulations to our own Tina McDaniel, who’s working on our Souls of Bristol’s Black Bottom. The City of Bristol, Virginia recently approved a resolution that will help support her work on The Souls of Bristol’s Black Bottom public history initiative!

We appreciate all the members of the City Council, advisory committee, and our friends in the community for showing love during her presentation. We can’t wait to see what’s next for Tina! 🐌

05/29/2026

The Black churches of Appalachia, for a long time, have served as places of community, restoration, and worship. Our 'Wayne Street Years' collection features the congregation of Mt. Zion Pentecostal Church in Bluefield, W.V., participating in various moments of baptism.

Explore the full 'Wayne Street Years' collection below: blackinappalachia.omeka.net/files/show/2796

05/12/2026

Alumni near & far! Save the date and make plans to attend this year’s Reunion of the Ages.

If you or your relatives attended Morristown College, Pineville, Nelson Merry, West High, Judson S.Hill, Lowland or Miller Boyd, it’s time to fellowship, catch up, make new connections & celebrate these educational legacies.

For more info: https://reunionoftheages.com/

05/01/2026

A huge thank you to Brimer Monuments for helping us reset two of Mysterious Ten Cemetery’s large headstones recently. It was hard work but good work.

If you don’t know, the stone featured belongs to Mrs. Mary Callie Hemmons-Beattie. A lovely woman born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1857, but who later moved to Knoxville with her husband Alexander. The two rented a room in The Bottom with their two sons, Samuel and Warren.

Mrs. Callie was tragically killed in an accidental shooting during a disagreement between Samuel and Warren, when she was only 44 years old.

Seeing her stone upright again is an important step in making sure her legacy lives on.

Join us on Saturday, May 16, from 11am to 2pm for another round of work and history resetting. We will be at 3945 Oakland Drive focusing on weedeating, shrub removal, and locating lost tombstones. Bring a weedeater if you have one. See you then! 🛠️

Funding support provided by Tennessee 250

4 likes. "Resetting Tombstones, Mysterious Ten Cemetery, Knoxville, TN"

04/24/2026

It’s taken 2 years to get Historic Henderson Chapel Church AME Zion in Rutledge, TN up off the ground. This week, the chapel was finally lowered onto its new foundation. Kenny Dailey would be proud 👏👏

04/21/2026

Say hello to Mysterious Ten Cemetery’s Mr. Henry L. Brown!

He was born in Snow Hill, Greene County, North Carolina to Sidney Brown and Sophia Edwards.

In 1917, he registered for World War I with the address of 603 E. Vine Street in Knoxville. He worked as a porter, employed with Kulman's Drug Store.

By 1918, he had entered service and was sent to Camp Taylor, Kentucky right outside of Louisville. He then served overseas from October 1918 to February 1919.

By 1920, Henry had returned home and married Carrie Hankins.

Six years later, at the age of 30, he passed away from tuberculosis and was laid to rest at this Mysterious Ten gravesite.

Funding support provided by Tennessee 250

04/14/2026

Join our friends Ty Murray & Jazmin Witherspoon up at Relay Ridge for the opening reception of 'Nurturing Nature: An Afrolachian Prayer' this Friday, 6–9pm. 🌿

Come through for a live poetry reading, craft-based works, and a nature sound session to help us honor the spirit of the land. Check out the event below:

A duo exhibition by Ty Murray & Jazmin Witherspoon, come celebrate the opening with us!

04/08/2026

Check out these photos from the annual homecoming celebration up near Entry Mountain in WV.

Gatherings like these from over the decades are how we’ve celebrated Black Appalachia and our roots. Live music, catching up and making good food have all been ways for us to honor where we come from. As our 4th Affrilachian writer-friend Halle Hill would put:

“We make up these valleys, and hollers, and gullies, and switchbacks. This is how we’ve always been.”

See y’all this Saturday at our homecoming in Whitesburg! It’s gonna be an old good time. 🐌