Monument Program Wins Grant to Highlight Appalachian VA Stories

The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project will create new monuments to share untold histories of the region.

Mar. 16, 2026 at 7:09am

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The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project, led by two faculty members at Virginia Tech, has received a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to continue its work in creating monuments that highlight the histories, stories, and challenges of people living in Appalachian communities. The project has already produced nine monuments focused on historical events in Appalachia, and the new funding will support the creation of 10 to 12 additional monuments.

Why it matters

The project aims to give people in Appalachia the opportunity to share their stories and histories in public spaces, rather than having them confined to archives, descendants' communities, or tribal communities. The monuments will help counter the dominant narrative about Appalachia being a region of poor, white, and rural people who passively accept their fate, by showcasing the diversity and resilience of the region's residents.

The details

The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project launched in 2023 with a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. One of the projects, titled 'Green Pastures,' focuses on the history of a group of Black Appalachians who fought to have the Works Progress Administration build a recreational area for African Americans in 1936. Another project, 'Raising the Shade,' is a monument honoring 70 members of the United States Colored Troops from Franklin County, Virginia, who fought in the Civil War. Moving forward, the project leaders will seek out people to tell other notable and untold stories of the region, such as the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster and the Pittston Coal Company strike in 1989.

  • The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project launched in 2023 with a $3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.
  • The project recently received an additional $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation in 2026.

The players

Emily Satterwhite

The director of the Appalachian Studies program in the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Tech and one of the co-leaders of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia.

Reverend Hugo Austin

The leader of a group of Black Appalachians who fought to have the Works Progress Administration build the Green Pastures Recreation Area for African Americans in 1936.

Clifton Forge Chapter of the NAACP

The local NAACP chapter that worked with Reverend Hugo Austin and the Black Appalachians to establish the Green Pastures Recreation Area.

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What they’re saying

“We're not unearthing the stories. There are people who have been protecting these stories and preserving these stories in oral tradition. … We're really enabling people to share beyond that close circle of caretakers of these histories, and to share it when possible in public places, not simply in — also important spaces, but archives or descendants' communities or tribal communities.”

— Emily Satterwhite, Director of the Appalachian Studies program at Virginia Tech

“A lot of times, it feels like Black history gets collapsed into urban history in a way that's not true. We have so many Black farmers and Black rural people whose stories aren't told. In this case, it was town people, but every weekend they were out at Green Pastures, picnicking and swimming, learning how to swim in a space that they had wrested from the powers that be and created into their own joyful space.”

— Emily Satterwhite, Director of the Appalachian Studies program at Virginia Tech

What’s next

The project leaders will begin seeking out people to tell some of the notable and still untold stories of the Appalachian region, such as the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster and the Pittston Coal Company strike in 1989.

The takeaway

The Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia project is an important effort to highlight the diversity and resilience of the region's residents, countering the dominant narrative of Appalachia as a homogeneous, poor, and passive area. By giving people in Appalachia the opportunity to share their stories in public spaces, the project aims to challenge preconceptions and celebrate the region's rich history and culture.