ETSU to host lecture, book signing by Dr. William H. Turner

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 15, 2021) – Noted scholar, educator and civil rights leader Dr. William H. “Bill” Turner will speak about his new book, “The Harlan Renaissance,” at East Tennessee State University on Thursday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. in The Cave on the first floor of the D.P. Culp Student Center. 

A book signing will follow, with copies available for sale. “The Harlan Renaissance” is an intimate remembrance of kinship and community from the treasured son of one of the most successful and diverse coal camps in Appalachia's history. The event is co-sponsored by the ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies and Black American Studies Program.

Turner, the fifth of 10 children, was born in 1946 in the coal town of Lynch, Kentucky, in Harlan County. His grandfathers, father, four uncles and older brother were coal miners. He has spent his professional career studying and working on behalf of marginalized communities, helping them create opportunities in the larger world while not abandoning their important cultural ties. 

Turner is known as the preeminent chronicler of the Black experience in Appalachia, co-editing the path-breaking textbook “Blacks in Appalachia” and writing thematic essays on Black Appalachians in the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and the Encyclopedia of Appalachia.

While Turner is best known for his groundbreaking research on African American communities in Appalachia, he has also studied economic systems and social structures in the urban South and burgeoning Latino communities in the Southwest. In his work with communities, he strives for what all individuals want: prosperity, understanding and respect.

Turner has served as chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Winston-Salem State University, as dean of Arts and Sciences and interim president at Kentucky State University, as vice president for Multicultural Affairs at the University of Kentucky, and as Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies and regional ambassador at Berea College. His many honors include Kentucky’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Person of the Year, membership in Kentucky’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame, and the Appalachian Studies Association Lifetime Service Award.

For more information, contact Dr. Ron Roach, chair of the ETSU Department of Appalachian Studies, at 423-439-7494 or roachr@etsu.edu. For disability accommodations, call the ETSU Office of Disability Services at 423-439-8346.