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Song for a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Antiracist Solidarity from a Coal Miner's Daughter
An Appalachian organizer’s excavation of the past, her own and her people’s, to spark a collective fight for a future where we all have what we need and deserve
In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard shares her story of growing up in Appalachian Kentucky—the economic struggles, trauma, and ever-present sexism along with the loving care of her close-knit rural community. These complex people shaped Howard’s sense of justice and solidarity, and taught her about the inextricable bonds working-class people share, despite our differences. But her childhood also left her with emotional wounds that threatened to destroy the life she built for herself. While healing her wounds is deeply personal, there’s no separating it from the people and place that made her.
Appalachia is often framed as a place to escape from, where people are hateful, lazy, and bring tragedy upon themselves. But in her quest to understand her home and her people, Howard uncovers the powerful history of white Appalachians fighting alongside Black and Brown people, pushing back against billionaires who gain power by using racism to divide them. Appalachia, she realizes, has not only been hit hard; it is the place to wage a freedom struggle.
Too many of us are denied the basic necessities of somewhere decent to live, good food to eat, health care that doesn’t break the bank, jobs that don’t kill us. As Howard reminds us, we haven’t got a chance—unless we organize.
In the midst of divisive rhetoric, violent repression, and grifters writing elegies, may this story be a song.
In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard shares her story of growing up in Appalachian Kentucky—the economic struggles, trauma, and ever-present sexism along with the loving care of her close-knit rural community. These complex people shaped Howard’s sense of justice and solidarity, and taught her about the inextricable bonds working-class people share, despite our differences. But her childhood also left her with emotional wounds that threatened to destroy the life she built for herself. While healing her wounds is deeply personal, there’s no separating it from the people and place that made her.
Appalachia is often framed as a place to escape from, where people are hateful, lazy, and bring tragedy upon themselves. But in her quest to understand her home and her people, Howard uncovers the powerful history of white Appalachians fighting alongside Black and Brown people, pushing back against billionaires who gain power by using racism to divide them. Appalachia, she realizes, has not only been hit hard; it is the place to wage a freedom struggle.
Too many of us are denied the basic necessities of somewhere decent to live, good food to eat, health care that doesn’t break the bank, jobs that don’t kill us. As Howard reminds us, we haven’t got a chance—unless we organize.
In the midst of divisive rhetoric, violent repression, and grifters writing elegies, may this story be a song.
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Published April 21, 2026
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July 31, 2026
An urgent and honest story of growing up poor in Appalachian Kentucky, and discovering both rage and redemption in organizing other working class whites to fight for a better life.
The Appalachian mountain range includes areas in the US states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The area has a long history of labor organizing, including the Coal Wars in the early 20th century. One such uprising, the Battle of Blair Mountain, is mentioned several times in this hopeful memoir as an example of multiracial cooperation. In 1921, some 10,000 striking coal miners, white, Black and immigrant, fought armed police and strike breakers who tried to stop them from unionizing.
It's a part of the country that has suffered immensely from environmental pollution, the atomization of coal mining, and the OxyContin epidemic. The people have been written off as ignorant, racist hillbillies. Howard's love for the land and people of this region shines throughout this story, which is gripping. If you've ever wondered why working class Americans voted for Trump, read this book. If you've ever despaired about finding solutions to the persistent problem of American racism, read this book.
There are few books that describe the lives of activists and organizers, and for reason alone I'm grateful for this very engaging memoir. But Howard's personal account of how racism is used to divide and conquer working class whites goes that extra mile, providing an analysis, and a concrete example, of how groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice (www.surj.org) are working to unite, not divide, working people.
This is an important book that documents one Appalachian woman's life for social justice. It can inspire many.
The Appalachian mountain range includes areas in the US states of Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The area has a long history of labor organizing, including the Coal Wars in the early 20th century. One such uprising, the Battle of Blair Mountain, is mentioned several times in this hopeful memoir as an example of multiracial cooperation. In 1921, some 10,000 striking coal miners, white, Black and immigrant, fought armed police and strike breakers who tried to stop them from unionizing.
It's a part of the country that has suffered immensely from environmental pollution, the atomization of coal mining, and the OxyContin epidemic. The people have been written off as ignorant, racist hillbillies. Howard's love for the land and people of this region shines throughout this story, which is gripping. If you've ever wondered why working class Americans voted for Trump, read this book. If you've ever despaired about finding solutions to the persistent problem of American racism, read this book.
There are few books that describe the lives of activists and organizers, and for reason alone I'm grateful for this very engaging memoir. But Howard's personal account of how racism is used to divide and conquer working class whites goes that extra mile, providing an analysis, and a concrete example, of how groups like Showing Up for Racial Justice (www.surj.org) are working to unite, not divide, working people.
This is an important book that documents one Appalachian woman's life for social justice. It can inspire many.
Displaying 1 of 1 review