Life and Religion in Southern Appalachia by W. D. Weatherford and Earl D C. Brewer

W. D. Weatherford, Sr., (1875-1970) was a pioneer in encouraging attention to the problems of African-American and Appalachian Southerners and in promoting their integration into Southern society.  He had the kind of impact that encouraged Wilma Dykeman, the Tennessee State Historian at the time, to write a biography of him and then for Andrew McNeill Canady to write another biography of Willis Weatherford, Sr. The annual awards for outstanding regional books, given by the Appalachian Studies Association and Berea College, are named for him! He founded the Blue Ridge Assembly near Asheville, which was the first place I ever interacted socially as an equal with African-Americans - in the 1950s - and the first place I ever danced with an African-American woman. Almost no where else in the South could that have taken place at the time.  From 1902 until 1919 Weatherford was a campus traveler for the YMCA, encouraging thorough integration of foreign students on southern campuses. For the ne