By Mike Templeton

Sometimes the most important thing we need to do in urban Appalachian advocacy is make it known just exactly who and what we are. It is easy for us within the circle to see it all as self-evident, but for people who have no ties to Appalachia, much less urban Appalachia, the very idea of the urban Appalachian can be something of a mystery. This is at the fore of the work of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, and it has been part of the central focus of two of our most respected scholars and allies, Thomas Wagner and Phillip J. Obermiller. I have had referenced the research of these men numerous times over the years as their work has come to form the backbone of scholarship on urban Appalachian life and history. Now, Wagner and Obermiller have published an article in the online magazine Appalachian Places: Stories from the Highlands called “Appalachians in Places Where There are No Mountains.” This article provides a fantastic survey of what it means to be urban Appalachian, the history of the Appalachian migration, and the emergence of a distinct demographic we now know as urban Appalachians. The article also provides a great introduction to the history of urban Appalachian organizations in greater Cincinnati.

I asked Tom Wagner was to explain the origins of the article. He said it was really quite simple. “It occurred to me that people may not really know what it means to talk about urban Appalachians beyond the world of those of us who study and write about these things, and I wanted to compile some of the work we have been doing over the years. I put together a draft and sent it to Phil Obermiller, my long-time research and writing partner who applied his magnificent skills, and we came up with this article.” Tom went on to explain that in addition to the information they had at their disposal, they had a wealth of photographs, many of which are included. Tom told me that over the years, he and Phillip Obermiller have written four books together. These are the works on which so much of the research on the urban Appalachian experience begins.  It is their career as Appalachian scholars and their long association with urban Appalachians in Cincinnati and beyond that puts them in the ideal position to write an article like this.

Tom’s work in the field of urban Appalachian studies began when he was in graduate school. “I was searching for a dissertation topic and came across some Appalachian migrant workers who has just gotten back to Kentucky after working in Cincinnati as temporary workers, and I thought this is an area that has not been well-explored,” he explained. It all sounds so matter of fact when we consider that Tom Wagner’s research and work now forms part of the bedrock of the study of the urban Appalachian experience and urban Appalachian history. Yet, this is exactly how it starts. Tom also said some of this early research coincided with UACC founder Mike Maloney’s return to Cincinnati from North Carolina. The enthusiasm of a young Appalachian community organizer, the stirrings within the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission toward recognizing urban Appalachians as a legitimate demographic, and Tom Wagner had what he needed to embark on a career that spans decades shaping our understanding of urban Appalachian life. The new article actually details the belief in the early days that Appalachian migrants were simply not capable of organizing in their own interests. The work of Tom Wagner, Mike Maloney, and so many others showed that assumption to be flawed in the extreme.

Tom worked with the Urban Appalachian Council, and, as he told me, his associations and work “go back to the earliest years when Mike Maloney, Louise Speigel, Virginia Coffey, and the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission were all actively working to address the needs of Appalachian migrants in greater Cincinnati.” Others mentioned in the article include Ernie Mynatt and Stewart Faber. Tom was on the board in the early years of UAC and thus instrumental in setting things in a direction that would come to influence not just the future of urban Appalachians, but the city itself in many ways. “Appalachians in Places Where There are No Mountains” goes into this period in depth, explaining the many connections that had to be formed in order to carve out a unique space for the voices of urban Appalachians. All of the people mentioned here can be seen in the photos Tom Wagner and Phil Obermiller provide.

Tom told me he has such magnificent memories of working with Frank Foster, another person who was instrumental in the founding of UAC and all that has come down to us. “Frank would hold meetings which included people like the principals of the schools in Over-the-Rhine and other urban Appalachian neighborhoods. He would have four or five people gathered for these meetings with the intention of creating what would inevitably become a floating group of people who became increasingly committed to working on behalf of urban Appalachian people. It was his way of doing community organizing without calling it that.” Along similar lines, Tom Wagner was quick to point out how effective an organizer and leader Mike Maloney could be, simply by inviting people along in projects that may interest them. Tom recalled that “Mike had a way of using people’s talents in the best ways to help Appalachians around the city.” After all the research and writing, Tom Wagner seems to emphasize that close human connection as the most important feature in the work of urban Appalachian advocacy.

Wagner and Obermiller’s article is careful to follow the many places where there are no mountains that Appalachians have come to call home. They follow the urban Appalachian impact in places like Chicago, Illinois; Ypsilanti, Michigan; Muncie, Indiana; and Baltimore, Maryland. The Appalachian migration to northern cities was wide and diffuse, and in each case, the influence of Appalachians in these cities can be felt to this day. Within this migration, Wagner and Obermiller write extensively of things like the Black Appalachian experiences in the form of things like the Eastern Kentucky Social Club. On this topic, Tom told me about how at one time “US Steel and Wisconsin Wire and Steel owned a mine in Lynch, Kentucky. This mining community became predominantly Black Appalachian, and the migrations from this region had a lasting impact all its own. Appalachian scholar William Turner is from this region, and has written extensively on this history. Tom said, “The families of migrants from Lynch wanted to have a gathering to celebrate their history. They expected about 100 people, and hundreds of people showed up. There are now chapters of the EKSC all over the urban Appalachian areas.”

Tom Wagner explained that a great many Appalachian migrants wanted to return to where they came from, but by the time they retired from factories in the cities, they had children and grandchildren who had grown up where they now lived. This, of course, is the lasting legacy of second and third generation urban Appalachians, those of us whose families spoke longingly of Appalachia but who had put down roots in the urban areas. We are now here, in places like greater Cincinnati, and we have come to shape the cities where we live. Tom told me that at the height of the Appalachian migration, places like Akron, Ohio was jokingly called the capital of West Virginia. The article in Appalachian Places explains that at one time, “So many Kentuckians moved north that in Hazard a suitcase was called a ‘Hamilton.” Tom Wagner pointed out that the Cincinnati neighborhood of Elmwood Place once held more subscriptions to newspapers in Casey County, Kentucky than Casey County, Kentucky.

As I was just about to get started writing this article, I got a call from none other than Phillip Obermiller to see how I was doing. Phil explained that he wanted to have Tom talk about the article because he has such a wealth of experience in the long history of urban Appalachia in Cincinnati. “Tom was the advocate for urban Appalachians up on that hill,” and by hill Phil means the University of Cincinnati. Tom Wagner was the one holding the lines of the university with respect to all that was unfolding around greater Cincinnati. From those early discussions with the Greater Cincinnati Human Relations Commission in which the very idea of the existence of the so-called “urban Appalachian,” to the Main Street Bible Center, the Urban Appalachian Council, and the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition today, “Appalachians in Places Where There are no Mountains” published in Appalachian Places: Stories from the Highlands will lead you through the long and inspiring history of urban Appalachians in greater Cincinnati and around the nation. Thomas Wagner and Phillip J. Obermiller are the preeminent scholars in the field of urban Appalachian history and culture, and they have brought the world one of the finest introductions to all that we have been and all that we are becoming.

“Appalachians in Places Where There are no Mountains” by Thomas E. Wagner and Phillip J. Obermiller can be found at this link: appalachianplaces.org/post/appalachians-in-places-where-there-are-no-mountains.

Cover photo source: Phillip J. Obermiller

Michael Templeton is a writer, and independent scholar. He is the author of The Chief of Birds: A Memoir published with Erratum Press and Impossible to Believe, published by Iff Books. He is also the author of Collected Apoems, forthcoming from LJMcD Communications and the awaiting of awaiting: a novella, with Nut Hole Publishing. Check out his profile in UACC’s Cultural Directory. He has published numerous articles and essays on contemporary culture and works of creative non-fiction as well as experimental works and poetry. He lives in West Milton, Ohio with his wife who is an artist.