Daily Yonder, a digital magazine that provides news, commentary, and analysis about and for rural America, has published an interview with Dr. Yulonda Eadie Sano and Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch about Rural Black Studies, their new series with the University of Arkansas Press.
DY: What is the vision for the Rural Black Studies series? What do you hope it accomplishes and what kinds of questions do you hope it answers?
YES: Dr. Jones-Branch and I are both historians of the rural South, so we are looking forward to scholarly work that expands beyond the region. I think books in the series will speak to the diversity of African American stories – obstacles, ways of thriving, ways of surviving. I also look forward to scholarly work that will broaden the field in ways I’ve yet to imagine.
CJB: I hope the Rural Black Studies series attracts scholars who recognize that not all African Americans quit the South. And to be clear, I hope they recognize that Black people lived in rural areas outside of the South. We need those stories too. However, many chose to remain in the South because of their connection to the land and its history. This demands a rethinking and reframing of how we understand rurality and Black people’s place within it in more nuanced and complicated ways. Not all rural Black people were poor, landless, agricultural laborers. More than a few were deeply politically engaged within their communities. Some even developed and led all-Black communities. I think with this in mind the Rural Black Studies series will interest scholars who want to explore African American agrarians’ experiences in ways that focus on not only the oppression they endured but also the successes they realized in rural spaces.
Read the full interview at Daily Yonder.