In Appalachia, Margo Miller rules from "a place of brave joy"

"Transforming Spaces" is a new series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places.
Margo Miller, executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund, describes herself as a "proud black mountain woman" in an area little known for being home to generations of black people.
In her daily work, Ms. Miller, 53, is responsible for financially supporting regional organizations, individuals and groups working to advance social, economic, racial and environmental justice in Appalachia. The largely economically depressed region is a vast swath of land that encompasses all or part of all 13 states, including parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Maryland, and all of West Virginia. /p>
Support from the fund is sometimes a few hundred dollars and other times $5,000 or more, depending on the year and the causes.
In 2021, the organization gave more than $600,000 to organizations, individuals and groups in Appalachia, where the often stunning landscape consists of family farms, winding back roads , steep mountain passes and fairly isolated communities, some with newly revitalized town centers. Since its inception in 1987, the fund has distributed over $6 million. Ms Miller said that he has recently received much more support from a wide range of donors.
"Our range is from 50 cents to $50,000," she said. "We have a donor who would stick quarters inside an envelope and send it to us." One year, she added, another regular donor sent in a $50,000 donation, "saying, 'I know the region can really use this donation this year.'
Ms. Miller, who lives in East Knoxville, has become one of the most powerful people in philanthropy in a rapidly changing region that has long been marred by stereotyping, misunderstanding and, for blacks, of erasure, according to academics and leaders of nonprofit groups.Many black people, including Ms. Miller's family, have lived in southern Appalachia and central Appalachia for at least three generations ( she had parents who worked in the Kentucky coal mines), but their stories are not often told.
ImageMargo Miller, at the Knoxville Botanical Garden in East Knoxville, a historically black neighborhood where she lives since 2008.Credit...Jessica Tezak for The New York Times
ImageMs. Miller said she loves having access to the natural beauty she strives to celebrate as an artist and activist. Appalachia portrayed in popular culture tends to be widely associated with stories of white coal miners and their families, a narrative that several scholars, sociologists, artists and residents, including Ms. Miller, have worked hard to change.
>Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin, an assistant professor of sociology at West Virginia University, doesn't remember exactly when or how she met Ms. Miller, but she recalls hearing about her from her early days in Knoxville in 2013.
"Margo's n...

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In Appalachia, Margo Miller rules from "a place of brave joy"

"Transforming Spaces" is a new series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places.

Margo Miller, executive director of the Appalachian Community Fund, describes herself as a "proud black mountain woman" in an area little known for being home to generations of black people.

In her daily work, Ms. Miller, 53, is responsible for financially supporting regional organizations, individuals and groups working to advance social, economic, racial and environmental justice in Appalachia. The largely economically depressed region is a vast swath of land that encompasses all or part of all 13 states, including parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, Maryland, and all of West Virginia. /p>

Support from the fund is sometimes a few hundred dollars and other times $5,000 or more, depending on the year and the causes.

In 2021, the organization gave more than $600,000 to organizations, individuals and groups in Appalachia, where the often stunning landscape consists of family farms, winding back roads , steep mountain passes and fairly isolated communities, some with newly revitalized town centers. Since its inception in 1987, the fund has distributed over $6 million. Ms Miller said that he has recently received much more support from a wide range of donors.

"Our range is from 50 cents to $50,000," she said. "We have a donor who would stick quarters inside an envelope and send it to us." One year, she added, another regular donor sent in a $50,000 donation, "saying, 'I know the region can really use this donation this year.'

Ms. Miller, who lives in East Knoxville, has become one of the most powerful people in philanthropy in a rapidly changing region that has long been marred by stereotyping, misunderstanding and, for blacks, of erasure, according to academics and leaders of nonprofit groups.Many black people, including Ms. Miller's family, have lived in southern Appalachia and central Appalachia for at least three generations ( she had parents who worked in the Kentucky coal mines), but their stories are not often told.

ImageMargo Miller, at the Knoxville Botanical Garden in East Knoxville, a historically black neighborhood where she lives since 2008.Credit...Jessica Tezak for The New York Times

ImageMs. Miller said she loves having access to the natural beauty she strives to celebrate as an artist and activist. Appalachia portrayed in popular culture tends to be widely associated with stories of white coal miners and their families, a narrative that several scholars, sociologists, artists and residents, including Ms. Miller, have worked hard to change.

>Dr. Enkeshi El-Amin, an assistant professor of sociology at West Virginia University, doesn't remember exactly when or how she met Ms. Miller, but she recalls hearing about her from her early days in Knoxville in 2013.

"Margo's n...