Reformers to Radicals (29 page)

Berea College education professor Luther Ambrose at the Rosenwald School. At the center of the photograph are the Appalachian Volunteer “book boxes,” built in various shop classes in colleges in eastern Kentucky. While most volunteers worked in the local communities, shop class students became “volunteers” by building these boxes. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

One volunteer, while working on a renovation project, noticed that the school had absolutely nothing with which to work—no paper, no pencils, no books. This photograph shows what was, the Volunteers claimed, fairly typical of the resources that rural schools had. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

This photograph shows a school that underwent an Appalachian Volunteer renovation project. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

Along with the Books for Appalachia project, the Appalachian Volunteers included “curriculum enrichment projects,” which covered nearly everything from science experiments to world cultures demonstrations. Many Appalachian Volunteers believed, especially in the first few years of their organization's existence, that the poor quality of the schools and the depressed state of the environment resulted in a depressed populace and created the “culture of poverty” among the mountaineers. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

Curriculum enrichment included anything from remedial reading and spelling to art projects. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

A curriculum enrichment art project. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

By 1965, many projects combined renovation and enrichment. This photograph shows that this particular effort included fresh paint for the school and a basketball goal for the playground. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

Usually, men dominated “outside” work. Here, two Appalachian Volunteers erect a basketball hoop for a rural Kentucky grade school. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

Art, recreation, and creativity were quite important to the Volunteers' programs. Here, the Volunteers try to brighten the lives of poor rural school children with a puppet show. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

The Appalachian Volunteers tried to get the local community involved in their projects in some way. Here, the teacher at the Davidson school, Gilder Noble, helped prepare a pot-luck lunch for Appalachian Volunteers at her school. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

Many weekend projects had a social event, such as this bonfire sing-along. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)

By the end of the decade, the Appalachian Volunteers focused on issue organizing, with the issues including anti-strip-mining, improved education, and welfare rights. Along with this new focus came new tactics stressing confrontation rather than cooperation with county officials. (Courtesy Records of the Appalachian Volunteers, Southern Appalachian Archives, Berea College.)