100 Days in Appalachia

Five Years After It Became a National Park, There’s a Growing Divide In West Virginia’s New River Gorge

Many long-time West Virginians see the divide between their reality of the area — a community that still faces long-standing ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘This Isn’t a Dying Coal Town,’ It’s a West Virginia Community Rethinking Health Care and Succeeding

This is the first story in Critical Condition, a three part series. Read more here. In his history of Williamson, West Virginia, Okey P. Keadle – a member of Williamson High School’s inaugural, 1918, ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Federal COVID Money Could Help Solve One Largely Black Community’s Complex Problems. W.Va. Leaders Invested it Elsewhere.

Karen Williams’ father, Charles Price, was the first Black graduate of West Virginia University’s College of Law, one of two land grant institutions in the state. His office once sat on Court Street, ...
100 Days in Appalachia

‘An Ecosystem of Dysfunction:’ West Virginia Still Has a Child Welfare Worker Shortage, and It’s Taking a Toll on Foster Kids and Families

This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Documenting the Appalachian Intifada: A Review of ‘So Much to be Angry About’

Liberation movements around the world and throughout history have always created our own media: to tell our own stories, to teach our own people and to strengthen our movements and organizations. In ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Holler, Y’all and Appalachian Drawls: My Childhood of Code Switching in Appalachia

When I was in elementary school, a teacher told me that I needed to speak “properly.” She said my twang made me sound unintelligent. When I began serving on a state leadership board for high school ...
100 Days in Appalachia

For This W.Va. Family, Legislative Attention on ‘Warehousing’ People with Intellectual Disabilities at State Hospitals Is too Late

Richard Rothermund was healthy and generally happy before he was confined to Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington in 2020, according to Sue Rouse, his mother. There, Sue says, a lack of ...
100 Days in Appalachia

In Southwest Virginia, Reestablishing a Rural Hospital System Requires Rebuilding Trust

This is the second story in Critical Condition, a three part series. Read more here. When the sun rises over the Cumberland Mountains of southwest Virginia in mid-spring, it’s hard to imagine all’s ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Explore How Appalachia Voted in 2020

Although the media called the 2020 President race weeks ago, states across the country are finalizing their recounts and certifying their tallies this week, but the outcome is unlikely to change. Vice ...
100 Days in Appalachia

W.Va. Opioid Settlement Funds are Supposed to Reverse Years of Crisis. In Several Counties, They’re Being Used to Pay Regional Jail Bills.

In rural Wyoming County, West Virginia, Ann Reed is the sheriff’s department’s only social worker. Funded through a temporary grant from a local mental health center, Reed provides resources and care ...
100 Days in Appalachia

Tyler Childers’ Appalachia: How the Country Singer Challenges our Relationships with Addiction and Religion

The first time I heard Tyler Childers’ voice I was riding in the passenger seat of a 15-year-old car late at night through the back roads of West Virginia. It was 2019, and I was 17 years old. And ...