Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 16, 1994 TAG: 9405160062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CINCINNATI LENGTH: Medium
But others celebrate it, especially during the 25th Appalachian Festival at the old Coney Island amusement park held this weekend.
About 50,000 visitors were expected for the three-day festival, where they could listen to storytellers and bluegrass musicians, buy mountain crafts and examine a moonshine still.
Malcolm Wilson, festival co-chairman and a native of Harlan County, Ky., said the festival is intended to give "urban Appalachians a trip back home without having to go down I-75."
It's also meant to educate non-Appalachians in hopes of dispelling the negative images that have surrounded the mountain people for years.
Cincinnati has one of the largest populations of Appalachians - an estimated 213,000 - outside Appalachia.
Pauletta Hansel, a Jackson, Ky., native, became one a few years ago when she moved into Cincinnati's Northside. A neighbor told her he was glad "those Appalachians were moving out."
Hansel doesn't have the telltale accent associated with the hills of eastern Kentucky. But she's a "hillbilly and proud of it" and didn't hesitate to set her new neighbor straight.
Bob Moore, education coordinator for the Urban Appalachian Council, one of two agencies that serve Cincinnati's Appalachians, said one problem is that stereotypes are reinforced in schools.
He tells about a recent incident in which a Cincinnati high school class was discussing the Greek myth "Antigone." When one student said she didn't understand what an "Oedipus complex" was, a teacher replied, "If you were from Kentucky, you'd know what it was" - an allusion to incest. The parent of a student in the class reported the incident to the council.
Phyllis Shelton, who works for the council, said her daughter told her that a teacher at her private school told a group of rowdy students they were "acting like a bunch of Appalachians."
Appalachians began moving to Cincinnati from Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and eastern Ohio about 1940. They were looking for high-paying factory jobs in defense-related plants as the United States was gearing up for war.
Many settled in Cincinnati because of its location. "My daddy used to say it was a tank of gas away from home," said Becky Sebastian, whose family moved from Breathitt County, Ky.
Appalachians kept coming during the 1960s as machinery replaced men in the coal mines and as companies turned to stripping the land as a cheaper way of mining.
But they were never accepted, said Hansel, an assistant director of the Urban Appalachian Council. They spoke with distinct accents and listened to bluegrass music.
"There always has to be one group that people make fun of, and we're it," she said. "The thing is, whereas some folks wouldn't even think about making jokes about another ethnic group, they don't think twice about it when it's Appalachians."
With high dropout rates and high unemployment, Appalachians in Cincinnati face the same problems that black residents encounter in urban areas throughout the country, said Bob Moore, the council's education director.
The council is trying to combat the dropout rate by raising Appalachian children's self-esteem through programs in elementary and high school and by offering high school equivalency courses - and even some associate degrees through a local college - if they do drop out.
by CNB