Acclaimed author and scholar Dr. William H. Turner will speak at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky on Wednesday, February 7. The talk, titled “The Appalachian Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement," will be held at 7 p.m. in Conway Boatman Chapel and is open to the public, free of charge.
From the coal town of Lynch, Kentucky in Harlan County, Turner is best-known for his innovative research on African American communities in Appalachia. He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, most recently for his book “The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns,” published in 2021 by West Virginia University Press.
In recognition of the book’s significant contributions to Kentucky history, “Harlan Renaissance” won the 2023 Kentucky Historical Society Governor’s Award. The book also received the 2021 Weatherford Award for Non-Fiction from the Appalachian Studies Association and Berea College.
Western Carolina University honored Turner with the 2021 Individual Mountain Heritage Award, noting that he was “one of the first to combine African American studies and Appalachian studies, ultimately reshaping both fields.” That same year, he was inducted into the College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky (UK), where he had completed his bachelor’s in sociology in 1968.
