Examines housing conditions and attitudes of 46 predominantly Black residents of substandard single family houses in a rural Georgia community. Finds houses lack indoor plumbing and need serious repairs, but residents like their homes, prefer to stay, and would welcome housing assistance programs. Offers recommendations for improving rural…

Traces the establishment of the Salem School and Orphanage for African Americans in Elk Park, North Carolina in the late nineteenth century, when mission work on behalf of African Americans in Appalachia was rare. The school was started by Emily Prudden and run by White Mennonite missionaries who faced threats and racism from the surrounding…

Focuses on the academic decision making of several female African Americans in a rural southern (primarily African-American) town by considering their personal school experiences and their interpretations of the value of education in their community contexts. Preliminary findings show many contradictions between educational beliefs and actual…

Examines the language of race in a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina, focusing on the Civil War, social interactions, school before desegregation, the closing of the town's elementary school, and school dropouts. The roles of repression and denial in socializing talk about racially charged issues are illustrated. (SLD)

Summarizes the history of education in a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina as one of denial used as a coping mechanism for disappointment. Denial of real problems by blacks and whites has contributed to the town's weakened sense of community and its lack of a local school. (SLD)

Explains how land conditions and local land ownership patterns have contributed to the educational change that left a rural, primarily African-American town in North Carolina without its own school. The town's history, largely interpreted by one elderly African-American man, shows how economic structures have evolved over the past century. (SLD)