Placing the global struggle for Black liberation in East Tennessee

In recent years, scholarship on Black presences in Appalachia has gained momentum, excavating Black stories, placemaking, and placekeeping practices in the region and disrupting continued attempts at Black erasure in Appalachian geographies. This article continues this important work by placing the Appalachian South as an incubator of Black liberation struggle. Black liberation is characterized by undertaking work that guarantees the survival of Black people and communities. Using a case study approach, the article examines three sites in East Tennessee—Highlander Research and Education Center, the Children's Defense Fund—Alex Haley Farm, and BattleField Farm—to elucidate nearly a century of placemaking practices undertaken in the call for Black liberation. We argue that the complicated formation of the Appalachian South region necessitates queries into structures of power. Further, we assert that the field of Black geographies offers an opportunity to understand these structures, and the region, anew. Our work elucidates the ways the Appalachian South can be considered a site of liberatory possibilities.