BOOK OVERVIEW

The value of life lies not in the length of days but in the use we make of them.
A man may live long yet live very little.
— Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

Betty Jamerson Reed unfolds the pioneer experiences of influential educational leaders, especially women and minorities. She leads readers on journeys into unnoticed Appalachian communities and shows how it takes a trailblazing visionary to create a village of successful learners.

River Poets Journal (2016, 2017, 2018) Judith A. Lawrence (Editor & Publisher)

The Brevard Rosenwald School: Black Education and Community Building in a Southern Appalachian Town, 1920 – 1966  (2004) Certificate of Commendation — American Association for State and Local History “a thorough and impressive study” — Appalachian Heritage; “complemented by photographs… well indexed” — The Journal of Southern History; “valuable” — Journal of Appalachian Studies; “outstanding…meticulously documented, engagingly written, and insightful” — American Association for State and Local History School Segregation in Western North Carolina

A History, 1860s – 1970s(2011) Award of Merit — American Association for State and Local History

“from reconstruction through integration, this study illuminates Western North Carolina’s segregated black schools” — Appalachian Heritage; “a detailed, thoroughly researched and well documented history…well written and interesting to read” — AASLH Narrative; “a needed contribution to an underrepresented area of study in Appalachian and African American history” — The Journal of Southern History; “in these 264 pages are found failures and successes, laughter and tears, statistics and inspiration. All blend together to both explain and preserve a century and more of educational yearning, neglect, striving, and, to some extent, success” — The Transylvania Times; “provides a historical account of the struggles faced by the relatively small population of African-Americans” — Reference & Research Book News

Echoes across the Blue Ridge: Stories, Essays, and Poems, (2010) Nancy Simpson (Editor)

Lucidity Poetry Journal — Ted Badger, Editor

It’s All Relative: Tales from the Tree (2015) Nancy Dillingham and Celia H. Miles (Editors)

 Eno Magazine (2017, 2018, 2019), the premier arts and literature magazine for the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University