Perceptions of Home
The Urban Appalachian Spirit
Appalachia is a large and diverse region consisting of 420 counties in thirteen states from Mississippi to New York. Defined geographically by the mountain range from which it takes its name, the Appalachian region is home to over twenty million Americans and to an important regional culture. It is also the homeland of millions of Americans who left its declining coalfields during the Great Migration from 1940 - 1970, and to their descendants whose cultural roots lie in that region.
During the Great Migration, Appalachia experienced a net loss of four million people. The peak period of 1953 - 1965 saw a quarter of a million Appalachian coal miners lose their jobs as the mines automated and cut production in response to competition from other fuels. Heeding the call for workers in manufacturing and service industries, most headed to industrial centers in the nation's Midwest. With over a quarter million first, second, and third-generation Appalachians, the greater Cincinnati area is the largest population center and the political and cultural center for these transplanted urban Appalachians.
Perceptions of Home: The Urban Appalachian Spirit is for and about these people, our people, who have made this historic journey, leaving family, friends, and ancestral roots in search of a more stable life. This American tale of the migration of a people and a culture is told through the stories of twenty-two families and individuals who through choice or circumstances made the urban environment of greater Cincinnati - their home away from home. We invite you to view the exhibit in its entirety below. You may also access the accompanying Exhibit Guide with in-depth interviews conducted by Don Corathers, information about Appalachian Migration, and background material regarding Perceptions of Home by clicking here.
Marlin Wightman
This Cumberland County, Tennessee migrant remembers his first impression Cincinnati while crossing the Ohio River in a 1937 Ford.
Virgil Preston
A schoolteacher born in a coal camp in Johnson County, Kentucky has lived in Cincinnati since his service in World War II.
Omope Carter Daboiku
“Home is where you want to be buried” says this Ironton, Ohio native who honors both her African and Appalachian roots.
Taylor Farley, Jr.
This third-generation banjo picker passes the music on to his own children and their generation of urban Appalachians.
Patty Cody
Born in Hazard, Kentucky, her current small Indiana town looks and feels like the place where she grew up, yet, "there's nothing that's nicer than sitting on my mom's couch.”
Ernie Mynatt
A Harlan County, Kentucky activist, advocate, troublemaker, and "Papa to His People” has shepherded a generation of Appalachian kids to adulthood.
Jerry and Becky Sebastian, Bill and Barb Herald, and Judy Turner
These Northern Kentucky residents all have close ties to Breathitt County community of Turner's Creek and to each other.
Connie Moore
A second-generation urban Appalachian and Lower Price Hill resident is inspired by her daughter to pursue her own education.
Clyde Brummett
An elementary school teacher from Whitley County, Kentucky helps children of other Appalachian migrants prepare for a life in the city.
Estel Sizemore
Hyden, Kentucky was home until age fourteen when he left the family's hard-scrabble farm and followed his father north for a job in Cincinnati.
Ray Kassow
A Lower Price Hill resident attributes his success in part to coming to terms with being an Appalachian.
Harriet Marsh Page
A West Virginia coalminer’s daughter lives in a gracious hundred-year-old home in Cincinnati's Clifton neighborhood, but has never broken ties with home.
Jerald Robertson
Though born in Webb's Crossroads, Kentucky, Cincinnati’s Elmwood Place is where this urban Appalachian calls home.
Katie Laur
From Paris, Tennessee by way of Detroit this bluegrass and jazz singer no longer felt "like an outsider looking in,” when she found at Aunt Maudie’s bluegrass bar on Cincinnati’s Main Street.
James E. Talkington
This West Virginia native and photographer (and dirt bike competitor) calls Cincinnati home—for now.
Charlene Ledbetter Dalton
A respected long-time neighborhood activist has made an uneasy truce with the city but still considers southeastern Kentucky home.
Percy Marshall
Though he has lived in northern Alabama, eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and longest of all, Cincinnati, home will always be Blanche, Tennessee.
Richard Hague
A poet and gardener with roots in Steubenville, Ohio has planted himself and his family in the Madisonville neighborhood of Cincinnati.