Ray Kassow

Photographs ©1996 Malcolm J. Wilson

Ray Kassow, the son of Appalachian migrants to Cincinnati, grew up in the Lower Price Hill neighborhood of the city, where statistically his chances of graduating from high school were about one in five. He beat the odds and is now attending Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, on a football scholarship. He attributes his success in part to coming to terms with being an Appalachian.  

"I thought, wow, Appalachian? How am I? The more and more I looked into it, the more I realized I was. Being an Appalachian doesn't just mean you come from that area. I think being Appalachian is a way of living and a way of your heart. It's like for me, I'm at peace when I think about it. I'm at peace when I think about the kind of people I'm involved with." 

Perceptions of Home: The Urban Appalachian Spirit ©1996 The Urban Appalachian Council (now Urban Appalachian Community Coalition)

Photographs ©1996 Malcolm J. Wilson; Interviews ©1996 Don Corathers

Photographs digitized by the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Genealogy & Local History Department.