Melungeons gathering in Tennessee this weekend
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — For more than a century, researchers have been trying to figure out the exact origins of the people known as Melungeons, a multi-ethnic group first documented in the Clinch River region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia in the early 1800s.
And the Melungeons of the region have been exploring this heritage, as well.
The Melungeon Heritage Association will meet today and Saturday in Vardy and Morristown. The theme of this year’s event is Melungeons and the arts, according to a news release.
As with many groups that are multi-racial, the descendants of the Melungeons have been searching for answers about their identity for years. In the late 1960s, there was a large resurgence in this quest for answers about their origin as they reclaimed the term that was once considered a racial epithet.
According to Wayne Winkler, a Melungeon descendant and author of “Walking Toward the Sunset: The Melungeons of Appalachia,” the regional resurgence in Melungeon pride happened partly because of the play, “Walk Toward the Sunset,” which Winkler based his book’s title on.
This outdoor drama, which made its debut in 1969, was one of the first portrayals of the lives of Melungeons in the region.
“The outdoor drama was a pivotal event for Melungeons,” Winkler said. “It led to people of Melungeon ancestry proudly acknowledging their heritage. It was so important to Melungeon self-identity that I named my book ‘Walking Toward the Sunset’ in recognition of the important role the play had in that process.”
Winkler said the surge of
– WAYNE WINKLER, MELUNGEON DESCENDANT
Melungeon pride, which first started happening in the 1960s, was partly because of the political atmosphere of the time.
“There was a general feeling that came up partly from the civil rights movement, the American Indian movement and the Chicano movement,” Winkler said. “It was a time when people were demanding their rights, and on the other hand, becoming proud of who they were.”
As a frequent lecturer on the topic and past president of the Melungeon Heritage Association, he is proud of his ethnic identity, one that he says has had many stigmas attached to it in the past, causing many Melungeons to abandon their identity.
“Until the late 1960s, the word ‘Melungeon’ was an epithet, something other people called you if they meant to insult you,” Winkler said in 2014. “It didn’t just refer to your ethnic background; it was also a reference to a low socioeconomic status.
“It’s who I am because it’s who my father was. To be able to stand up in front of a group of people and say that I’m the descendant of a Melungeon — a term full of baggage that my grandmother was taught to keep quiet about — I’m content with that.”
Though there is a lot of debate about what it really means to be Melungeon in terms of ethnic lineage, Winkler said Melungeons probably originated from a mix of European, African and American Indian ancestry.
“My own belief is that what we were looking at was the population of free AfricanAmericans
“Until the late 1960s, the word ‘Melungeon’ was an epithet, something other people called you if they meant to insult you. It didn’t just refer to your ethnic background; it was also a reference to a low socioeconomic status.”
in Virginia and North Carolina,” Winkler said. “So you had this surprisingly large population that were [probably] at the heart of the Melungeon origin.”
He added that these free blacks most likely found themselves creating relationships with European indentured servants and indigenous peoples who, in a class sense, had a very similar socioeconomic standing in society.
Since reclaiming their identity, Melungeons across the region have come together as a community to learn more about their origins and to teach others about the once-marginalized group that wasn’t even allowed to go to public schools until the 1940s. This is what brings them together at events such as the one they will be holding this week.
“This is our 21st annual gathering,” MHA President Scott Withrow said in a news release. “We’re proud to partner with Walters State Community College and the East Tennessee Foundation to present this educational and cultural program.”
The weekend events will start in the Vardy community of Hancock County, Tenn., the site of the Presbyterian mission established in 1900 to serve the Melungeon population. The Vardy Community Historical Society will hold an open house beginning at 2 p.m. today during which visitors can visit the museum and see artifacts from the Vardy School, a state-of-the-art school that offered educational opportunities to Melungeon students who could not attend public schools in the county.
Visitors also can take a tour of the cabin of Mahala Mullins, the legendary moonshiner whose size rendered her “ketchable, but not fetchable,” according to law enforcement at the time. The cabin, which was first erected in the 1860s, was taken apart piece by piece, moved from its original location on Newman’s Ridge, and placed in its current location near the museum.
Today at 7 p.m., the heritage association will host a reception in the lobby of the Jack E. Campbell College Center on the campus of Walters State Community College in Morristown.
On Saturday, presentations will be made in the Vic Duggins Foundation Room in the Campbell College Center. Speakers include Dr. Tammy Stachowicz from Davenport University in Holland, Mich., along with students who will present posters relating to Appalachian art and culture. Other speakers include Dr. Katie Vande Brake, of King University in Bristol and author of “How They Shine: Melungeons in the Fiction of Appalachia,” and author Lisa Alther.
Also featured will be a discussion of the Melungeon outdoor drama “Walk Toward the Sunset,” which ran in Sneedville from 1969-76. Winkler will be joined by Dr. John Lee Welton, who directed the play.
At the end of Saturday’s panel discussion, there will be a discussion and performance from the play “Walk Toward the Sunset,” in which children will perform a scene.