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Size | .5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 125 items) |
Abstract | The papers of African American coal miner Major Brown and his spouse Leona Brown are chiefly financial items reflecting their household expenses and income from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s in Lynch, Ky., a United States Steel Corporation company town in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Bills, receipts, cashed checks, and account balances for utilities, department and specialty stores, medical care, and life insurance form the bulk of the collection. Other materials include employment and pension documents, property records including taxes paid on their home in Lynch, documents related to the Lynch Independent Public Schools, funeral programs and death notices, and vital records for the birth of one of their children, social insurance, and the 1920 census. The collection contains only two letters, both from former Lynch residents, one post card, and a few greeting cards. |
Creator | Brown, Major, 1898-1978.
Brown, Leona, 1916-1987. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
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Born in Pritchard, Ala., Major Brown (1898-1978) migrated to Lynch, Ky., where he worked for U.S. Coal and Coke through the mid twentieth century and raised a family there with wife Leona Myrick Brown (1916-1987). Leona was also born in Alabama. Major Brown and Leona Brown both died in Lynch, Ky.
Karida Brown and the Brown Family
Sociologist Karida Brown (1982-) was born in Uniondale, N.Y., to Arnita Davis Brown and Richard Brown. Karida Brown received a bachelor's degree in administration from Temple University in 2004, a master's degree in public administration in 2009 from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree (2013) and doctoral degree (2016) in sociology from Brown University. Her PhD dissertation was titled Before They Were Diamonds: The Intergenerational Migration of Kentucky's Coal Camp Blacks .
Karida Brown's father Richard Brown (1947-) is a sanitation worker residing in Atlanta, Ga. Richard was raised in Lynch, Ky. He is the son of coal miner Major Brown and homemaker Leona Brown.
Karida Brown's mother Arnita Davis Brown (1953-) is a physical therapist residing in Atlanta, Ga. Arnita was raised in Lynch, Ky. She is the daughter of coal miner Thornton Davis and homemaker Mamie Davis.
Born in Boligee, Ala., Thornton B. Davis (1903-1991) migrated to Lynch, Ky., where he worked for U.S. Coal and Coke through the mid twentieth century and raised a family there with wife Mamie Lee Davis (1918-1993) born in Bessemer, Ala. Both Thornton B. Davis and Mamie Lee Davis died in Cleveland, Ohio.
Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project
The Eastern Kentucky African American Migration Project (EKAAMP) is a public humanities initiative directed by sociologist Karida Brown in partnership with the Southern Historical Collection (SHC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2013, the SHC joined Brown in her efforts to document a multi generational African American community with familial ties to coal mining towns in Harlan County, Ky. Brown has conducted oral history interviews with community members and helped the SHC collect manuscript materials from the community and its social organizations.
The community which Brown studies has its origins in the coalfields of the Appalachian South and specifically the surrounding area of Lynch, Ky. Appalachia was a destination for thousands of African Americans, who left the rural deep South in the early twentieth century during the Great Migration.
A company town, Lynch was established in 1917 by U.S. Coal and Coke Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. The company supplied housing, health care, social services, commissary, churches, schools, and recreation for coal miners and their families. At its peak in the mid twentieth century Lynch's population reached 10,000 and included African Americans and whites with eastern European and British heritage. Although the mines were not strictly segregated, most areas of life, including schools, churches, commissary, and recreation, had separate facilities for blacks and whites until the mid 1960s.
Neighboring Benham, Ky. was also a coal mining camp and company town operated by Wisconsin Steel Company, a subsidiary of International Harvesters Company. The Benham mines closed in the 1970s.
U.S. Steel withdrew its operations in the mid 1960s, and the population of Lynch and the surrounding areas dwindled as families, who had spent only one or two generations in Appalachia, began to move across the country, settling in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, California, Missouri, and other states. Despite the long distances now separating this close knit community, individuals and families from the Harlan County coal towns Lynch, Benham, and Cumberland retained close ties with each other and nurtured what sociologist Karida Brown has called a "post-migration diasporic identity."
Back to TopThe papers of African American coal miner Major Brown and his spouse Leona Brown are chiefly financial items reflecting their household expenses and income from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s in Lynch, Ky., a United States Steel Corporation company town in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Bills, receipts, cashed checks, and account balances for utilities, department and specialty stores, medical care, and life insurance form the bulk of the collection. Other materials include employment and pension documents, property records including taxes paid on their home in Lynch, documents related to the Lynch Independent Public Schools, funeral programs and death notices, and vital records for the birth of one of their children, social insurance, and the 1920 census. The collection contains only two letters, both from former Lynch residents, one post card, and a few greeting cards.
Back to TopFolder 1 |
Family documents: 1961-1972Includes a census record for Major Brown in Mobile County, Ala., in the 1920 census, certificates of social insurance for Major Brown and Leona Brown, and a doctor's certification of the live birth of Linda Faye to Major and Leona Brown. |
Folder 2 |
Employment records: 1961Major Brown's statements of earnings and deductions from United States Steel Corporation, a court document for a hearing of Major Lee Brown vs. United States Steel Company before the Kentucky Workmen's Compensation Board, and pension documents with the United Mine Workers of America. |
Folder 3 |
Property records: 1960-1985Includes mortgage documents for a house in the United States Steel Corporation's Lynch Subdivision, car loan documents, and property tax records. |
Folder 4 |
Consumer credit documents: 1968-1993Includes Leona Brown's credit card for Roaman's and a court document dismissing Creech Department Store vs. Major Brown. |
Folder 5 |
Bills: 1968-1973Includes receipts for automobile insurance, telephone service, loan payments, and furniture. |
Folder 6 |
Bills: 1974Includes receipts, account balances, and cashed checks for utilities, groceries, church membership, department stores, a vinyl record store, a whiskey store, and a hardware store. |
Folder 7 |
Bills: 1975Includes account balances and receipts for utilities, telephone service, automobile insurance, home improvement including storm doors and aluminum awnings, department stores, and the Lynch Burial Association. |
Folder 8 |
Bills: 1981-1982Includes account balances and receipts for utilities, life insurance, medical care, and "t.v. service" in the city of Lynch, Ky. |
Folder 9-10 |
Bills: 1983Includes account balances and receipts for utilities, life insurance, medical care, the Lynch Burial Association, furniture, "t.v. service" in the city of Lynch, Ky., and telephone service. |
Folder 11-12 |
Bills: 1984Includes account balances and receipts for utilities, life insurance, medical care, "t.v. service" in the city of Lynch, Ky., and telephone service. |
Folder 13 |
Bills: 1985Includes account balances and receipts for utilities, telephone service, "t.v. service" in the city of Lynch, Ky., furniture, life insurance, and medical care. |
Folder 14 |
Checking account statements: 1974-1975The Guaranty Deposit Bank, Cumberland, Ky. |
Folder 15 |
Household accounting: 1975-1985Chiefly handwritten lists of bills to be paid. |
Folder 16 |
Checkbooks: 1973The Guaranty Deposit Bank, Cumberland, Ky., and the Bank of Harlan, Harlan, Ky. |
Folder 17 |
Health and healthcare: 1984-1985Chiefly explanation of medical benefits for Leona Brown from the United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds. |
Folder 18 |
Life insurance: 1968-1975Chiefly certificates and policies with Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company. |
Folder 19 |
Letters and greeting cards: 1971, 1984, and undatedLetters are written to Major Brown from Du Quoin, Ill., and to Leona Brown from Cleveland, Ohio and Atlanta, Ga., from friends and family who formerly lived in Lynch, Ky. |
Folder 20 |
Lynch Independent Public Schools: 1969-1972 , and undatedIncludes an elementary school report card and an invitation to high school commencement exercises. |
Folder 21 |
Church: 1974 and undatedSong list for the choir at Christmas, an income statement for the church and mission, and certificate of membership for Pilgrim Rest [Baptist Church]. |
Folder 22 |
Death notices and funeral programs: 1968-1971, and undatedAlso includes obituaries and receipts and account balances from funeral homes. |
Folder 23 |
Climer Fomby: 1960-1968 and undatedScattered items related to Climer Fomby [family relation to Leona Brown?] of Chattanooga, Tenn., including a credit union account statement, certificate of social insurance, rental agreement, receipts, and a funeral program. |
Folder 24 |
Miscellaneous items, 1977 and undatedNewspaper clipping, menu, and an advertisement for a china pattern. |