2008 Woodie Awards
Lecture challenges stereotypes
Brittany Twohig
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
The victims of the 1972 Buffalo Creek flood included men, women and children of many ethnicities, and many of the survivors returned to the area to rebuild their lives after the traumatic experience.
These are just two of many facts Dr. Lynda Ann Ewen, founder of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia, and Julia Lewis, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, found in their years of researching the flood that disprove many Appalachian stereotypes.
Kai Erikson, writer and social psychologist from Yale University, published "Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in Buffalo Creek Flood" in 1976 without any background in disaster research, Ewen said.
"He violated the rules of social-science research," Ewen said. "He was paid by lawyers, and he only read the first 30 depositions."
His publication, like many others, didn't include stories such as Ora Hagood's, a black woman who returned to her community and assembled a group of ladies to make quilts as a therapy for dealing with the flood and reconnecting with one another, Ewen said.
It is estimated that in 1970, Logan County was 90 percent white and 10 percent black, but many smaller towns in the Buffalo Creek area were very ethnically diverse, Lewis said.
The lecture, which was sponsored by Multicultural Affairs, CSEGA and the Center for African-American Students' Programs, was 7 p.m. Thursday in the Shawkey Dining Room of the Memorial Student Center. It was the first lecture in the three-part series, Diversity in Appalachia.
Brittany Twohig can be contacted at twohig11@marshall.edu.
These are just two of many facts Dr. Lynda Ann Ewen, founder of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia, and Julia Lewis, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, found in their years of researching the flood that disprove many Appalachian stereotypes.
Kai Erikson, writer and social psychologist from Yale University, published "Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in Buffalo Creek Flood" in 1976 without any background in disaster research, Ewen said.
"He violated the rules of social-science research," Ewen said. "He was paid by lawyers, and he only read the first 30 depositions."
His publication, like many others, didn't include stories such as Ora Hagood's, a black woman who returned to her community and assembled a group of ladies to make quilts as a therapy for dealing with the flood and reconnecting with one another, Ewen said.
It is estimated that in 1970, Logan County was 90 percent white and 10 percent black, but many smaller towns in the Buffalo Creek area were very ethnically diverse, Lewis said.
The lecture, which was sponsored by Multicultural Affairs, CSEGA and the Center for African-American Students' Programs, was 7 p.m. Thursday in the Shawkey Dining Room of the Memorial Student Center. It was the first lecture in the three-part series, Diversity in Appalachia.
Brittany Twohig can be contacted at twohig11@marshall.edu.
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