The Harlan Renaissance by William H. Turner

Extended Synopsis

The Harlan Renaissance is an intimate remembrance of kinship and community in eastern Kentucky’s coal towns. Written by one of the luminaries of Appalachian studies, William Turner reconstructs Black life in the company towns in and around Harlan County during coal’s final postwar boom years. This era built toward an enduring bust as the children of Black miners left the region in search of better opportunities.

Turner invites readers into what might be an unfamiliar Appalachia: one studded by large and vibrant Black communities, where families took the pulse of the nation through magazines like Jet and Ebony and the news that traveled within local institutions. Unfolding through layers of sociological insight and oral history, the book examines the difficult choices parents made as they considered the unpredictable nature of Appalachia’s economic realities alongside the national movement toward civil rights.