Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Where Are the Hillbilly Nationalists in the Black Lives Matter Movement?
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In the 1970s, The Hillbilly Nationalists and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense often organized together—working against housing discrimination, unemployment rates and family hunger. Although a complicated relationship, there was unification with white, Appalachian groups and black power organizers. However, the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement is extending and redefining black, social justice values. Co-founder Patrice Cullors states: “Black Lives Matter is a re-humanizing project…Our imagination has only allowed for us to understand black people as a dying people. We have to change that. That’s our collective imagination, someone imagined handcuffs, someone imagined guns, someone imagined a jail cell.” Accordingly, what happens to the relationship with white, Appalachian organizers if the black sociopolitical emphasis shifts to include components of healing and cognitive restructuring? What happens when the conventional leadership and fixtures of blackness are also disrupted? More specifically, the current Black Lives Matter movement co-founders are queer, black, second-generation immigrant women focusing on principles of intersectionality, community and re-imagination as grassroots practices—a deviation from the male-driven Black Panther Party movement. In this paper, I will examine how 1970s white Appalachian organizers were collaborating with Black Panthers but how that relationship is changing due to the redefinition of blackness through Black Lives Matter. I will be utilizing such texts as Hillbilly Nationalist, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power by Sonnie and Tracy, The Sovereignty of Quiet by Kevin Quashie along with interviews from Appalachian and Black Lives Matter leaders.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Kimberly Williams is the current Assistant Director of the Black Cultural Center at Virginia Tech. She received her M.F.A. in poetry from Cornel University where she studied race, dance and poetry. She has been published in such journals like Gulf Coast, Drunken Boat, and Callaloo.
Where Are the Hillbilly Nationalists in the Black Lives Matter Movement?
In the 1970s, The Hillbilly Nationalists and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense often organized together—working against housing discrimination, unemployment rates and family hunger. Although a complicated relationship, there was unification with white, Appalachian groups and black power organizers. However, the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement is extending and redefining black, social justice values. Co-founder Patrice Cullors states: “Black Lives Matter is a re-humanizing project…Our imagination has only allowed for us to understand black people as a dying people. We have to change that. That’s our collective imagination, someone imagined handcuffs, someone imagined guns, someone imagined a jail cell.” Accordingly, what happens to the relationship with white, Appalachian organizers if the black sociopolitical emphasis shifts to include components of healing and cognitive restructuring? What happens when the conventional leadership and fixtures of blackness are also disrupted? More specifically, the current Black Lives Matter movement co-founders are queer, black, second-generation immigrant women focusing on principles of intersectionality, community and re-imagination as grassroots practices—a deviation from the male-driven Black Panther Party movement. In this paper, I will examine how 1970s white Appalachian organizers were collaborating with Black Panthers but how that relationship is changing due to the redefinition of blackness through Black Lives Matter. I will be utilizing such texts as Hillbilly Nationalist, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power by Sonnie and Tracy, The Sovereignty of Quiet by Kevin Quashie along with interviews from Appalachian and Black Lives Matter leaders.
