From the 1940’s to the 1970’s, Central Appalachia lost, in some cases 75% of it’s Black population due to out-migration. The patterns of the Great Migration saw the abandonment of once thriving cultural infrastructure in mountain towns and farming communities. This film explores a journey through the historic African American cultural, social and religious spaces in the Mountain South; churches, schools and clubs in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia & West Virginia. Black Mountain Spaces documents the effects of out-migration, loss and reuse from the era of segregation to today with the venues of full Black agency.

Director | William Isom II

https://www.blackinappalachia.org/
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