Clyde Brummett
Photographs ©1996 Malcolm J. Wilson
Leaving his home in Whitley County, Kentucky, was "probably one of the most difficult things I ever had to do in my life," says Clyde Brummett. An elementary school teacher in Appalachian neighborhoods of Cincinnati for thirty years, he has devoted his career to helping children of other Appalachian migrants prepare for a life in the city.
"The streets are filled with our dropouts, and that's the worst thing. It's hard to reach them because they're second-generation dropouts, a lot of them.
"The parents value education. They know what they missed. But they also know what they went through. And they don't want their children to go through the same thing.
"We've got to get parents to realize, yes, you may have had a bad experience in school, but you cannot allow your child to have those same experiences. You must insist on them being in junior high; you must insist on them staying in school."
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.