Lewis, 'grandmother of Appalachian studies,' dies at 97; paper in her native Ga. county paid tribute before her death

Appalachian historian, sociologist, and women's rights activist Helen M. Lewis died Sunday at age 97 following complications from Covid-19. From her obituary: "Helen spent a lifetime as a radical educator and activist, working for justice from the Deep South to Appalachia and internationally. Helen taught in colleges and prisons; went to jail for civil rights and stood on picket lines; planted gardens and wrote poetry. In all her work she connected, supported, and pushed people to work together and go a little farther to build communities and make change."

Helen Lewis in a coal mine in the 1960s
(Appalachian State University photo)

Lewis often advised organizations such as the Center for Rural Strategies, which publishes The Daily Yonder. The Yonder called Lewis a "towering figure in the fields of Appalachian studies and scholar activism," and noted: "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while on the faculty of Clinch Valley College in Wise, Va. (now the University of Virginia College at Wise), she pioneered new courses that opened mountain students’ eyes to their history, culture, and pressing social issues like the environmental cost of strip mining. She later joined the Highlander Research and Education Center, where she developed techniques for communities to conduct their own solutions-oriented research on local social and civic issues. Her areas of scholarship and activism included environmental justice, community development, empowerment of women, and community health."

Mike Buffington of the Jackson Herald in Jefferson, Ga., in Lewis's native county, wrote a tribute to her last year, which concluded: "While she lived in Georgia with her sister, she gave a sermon to the small church she attended in Cherry Log. In that sermon, she said the following: 'We don't all have to be protestors, but let us remember those who have confronted pharaohs, governors, county commissioners, corporations and unjust laws. Let us remember those who broke the law to do the right thing, and those who are developing alternatives and building and rebuilding communities.' Helen Matthews Lewis lived a remarkable life of purpose and protest."

In its tribute, the Yonder excerpted two of Lewis's essays from a 2012 book with writings by and about her. In the essays, "She argues that rural community development must begin with a moral economy," the Yonder says. From "Rebuilding Communities: A Twelve-Step Recovery Program":

Rural communities are still part of national and international economies, the agendas of which do not include preserving or reviving small rural communities. Until the needs and agendas of these communities are included in national and international development plans, community efforts will be stalled and short-circuited. Rural communities will continue to be disposable, and the creativity and participation, which these grassroots movements encourage and develop, will be ignored. That is why communities must also enter the policy arena, change development policies so that this vigor, energy, and social capital can be used to develop socially responsible, democratic, and sustainable communities throughout the world.

From "The Highlander Center: Working for Justice and a Moral Economy": I am seeing the beginnings of a new social movement of students and young people questioning the status quo and asking for a new social order. There are many community grassroots groups trying to rebuild their communities, deal with environmental problems, develop coalitions. Many women have emerged as leaders trying to rebuild communities. But people seem less confident of what to do about the many problems. The inaccessibility of economic decisions leaves people feeling both frustrated and very vulnerable. We need something today to bring people together to deal with the destruction of our communities, degradation of the environment, growing poverty, economic distress and alienation and not just in our country but worldwide. We cannot hide from the fact that we are part of a global economy, but we can work to be cooperative, helpful and not exploitive. We live on a fragile planet—we are all spinning around together and need to come together to save us all.