Black in Appalachia

Home
United States
Whitesburg, TN
Black in Appalachia

We work to document the history, culture & contributions of Black families in the Appalachian region

09/01/2026

Mother and daughter tombstones revealed at the Mysterious Ten Cemetery! 🕊️

Mother, Cordelia (Jennie) Hemmons-Hankins-Taylor was born in Abingdon, Virginia, to parents Lewis and Melvina Hemmons. She later married Virginia native James Hankins in 1876, and the family lived at 535 Campbell Street, Knoxville (The Bottom). Around 1907, Jennie married another Virginia native, Len Taylor, who worked as a Laborer at a concrete company.

Her daughter Alberta Hankins was born in Knoxville to Jonathan Heiskel in 1898. Fourteen years later, Alberta would have her only son, William Alexander Harris. On December 1, 1917, she was shot and killed on Brigham Street, Knoxville.

Ida Bewer and Will McGhee were accused and acquitted of the murder, claiming self-defense.

08/27/2026

Now up on the Community History Database! 🗃️ Hawkins County, TN Black School Registers.

Included are the records of: New Canton Colored School (a Rosenwald school), Swift Memorial High School and Swift Memorial Elementary School (Swift Memorial College campus), Freedom School (Edison), Zion Hill, Saunders Chapel (Persia), Petersburg School, Mooresburg and Guntown.

Find out more here: https://blackinappalachia.omeka.net/collections/show/110

Photos:
New Canton School Images. Fisk University. John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library.
Saunders Chapel School. Tennessee State Library & Archives

08/21/2026

Huge news for the BIA family! 🥳 Our amazing social media manager Malcolm Bamba just started his first week at Yale's School of Drama!

He’ll be up in New Haven for the next couple years learning to tell stories for live theater using projection designs. He tells us he’s super excited to bring his double bass skills and love for Appalachia to the folks in CT.

Wish him well on this new chapter!!! 🐌

08/18/2026

Shout out to another one of our interns, Molly Nagin! 🌟

Molly is a grad student with Communication and Development Studies at Ohio University!

This summer, she interned with BIA at the John Gee Black Historical Center in Gallipolis, Ohio. Here, she helped build systems to preserve visitor and exhibit records, strengthen volunteer coordination, and better our communication tools to connect the Center to its community!

She'll return this fall to facilitate story circles for her capstone research, "Where the Map Turns Red," exploring how Ohioans practice social change in a rural community.

Thank you Molly!! ✏️

08/13/2026

Check out the new materials on the Community History Database! These are the Washington County, TN Black School Registers, which include the records of the County's Black schools: Jonesboro Colored, Booker T. Washington, McAllister (Limestone/Washington College area), and the very old Warner Institute records from the 1890s!

*Photo: McAllister School, courtesy of Washington County Schools.

Read more below:
https://blackinappalachia.omeka.net/collections/show/111

08/11/2026

Not all is lost! We recently were lucky enough to see new preservation efforts coming out of Keystone & Bluefield, West Virginia! We Are The Teachers - WATT is making steady progress on converting Whittico Presbyterian Church into a community center for youth programming. The Hotel Thelma Project 's restoration is also well underway, along with the Traveler's Inn "North Side and East Side" Black History mural by Virginian artist Ellen Elmes!

Let’s celebrate their hard work! 🪚

08/09/2026

HAPPY 8TH of AUGUST! We'll be set up at Fulton-Hill Park in Morristown today selling books. What's the 8th of August? It's our region's Emancipation Day, credited to this man: Samuel Johnson, formerly enslaved by Andrew Johnson who helped spread his own manumission date as a regional celebration.
- Find out more here: https://www.blackinappalachia.org/8th-of-august
- Also! Keep an eye out for our forthcoming book 'Black Space: Photography of Appalachian Reunion, Celebration & Homecoming' via West Virginia University Press

08/04/2026

Meet our newest intern, Tanja Crouch 🐌

Tanja is a second-year graduate student in the master’s degree program in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee Knoxville.

She has worked with Black in Appalachia as a practicum student, contributing transcription and genealogical research for the school records and related family history of Claiborne County, TN! She is counting her work with us as volunteer service.

However, come early September, Tanja will begin an internship in collaboration with Byte4Byte and Black in Appalachia to develop digital preservation for our many Colored School Registers.

Welcome Tanja to the BIA family!!! 🖤

07/24/2026

Thanks to a generous donation, Black in Appalachia is now making our tombstone cleaning kit available for use for African American graves in the counties around our Field Office!

📍 Eligible Counties:
Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, and Sevier

For more information see:
Link: https://www.blackinappalachia.org/tombstonekits

07/22/2026

There's history beneath our feet...

A Special THANK YOU to Miguel Vazquez, Laboratory of Environmental Archaeology & Dr. Hannah Hoover, University of Tennessee Department of Anthropology for their labor in GPR'ing (ground penetrating radar) the historic Russellville Cemetery.

Their work will be invaluable to the ongoing mapping, history, and identification of unmarked graves in this sacred space.🐌

Address

8004 E Andrew Johnson Highway
Whitesburg, TN
37891

Website

http://BlackInAppalachia.org/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Black in Appalachia posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Black in Appalachia:

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Whitesburg?