An Appalachian organizer’s excavation of the past, her own and her people’s, to spark a collective fight for a future where we all have what we need and deserve
In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard shares her story of growing up in Appalachian Kentucky—the economic struggles, trauma, and ever-present sexism along with the loving care of her close-knit rural community. These complex people shaped Howard’s sense of justice and solidarity, and taught her about the inextricable bonds working-class people share, despite our differences. But her childhood also left her with emotional wounds that threatened to destroy the life she built for herself. While healing her wounds is deeply personal, there’s no separating it from the people and place that made her.
Appalachia is often framed as a place to escape from, where people are hateful, lazy, and bring tragedy upon themselves. But in her quest to understand her home and her people, Howard uncovers the powerful history of white Appalachians fighting alongside Black and Brown people, pushing back against billionaires who gain power by using racism to divide them. Appalachia, she realizes, has not only been hit hard; it is the place to wage a freedom struggle.
Too many of us are denied the basic necessities of life: somewhere decent to live, good food to eat, health care that doesn’t break the bank, jobs that don’t kill us. As Howard reminds us, we haven’t got a chance—unless we organize.
In the midst of divisive rhetoric, violent repression, and grifters writing elegies, may this story be a song.
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“At a time when analysis is everywhere, and actual strategy is critically needed but hard to come by, Beth Howard's book gives us a road map to building the cross race, class solidarity we need to battle the rising authoritarianism of our times. In the best tradition of working class story telling, and with beauty, pain and inspiration, she takes us on her journey as a coal miners daughter, and her emergence as an effective, passionate organizer among her Appalachian Kentucky people. This book will make you cry, laugh, think, and feel. But most of all, it will leave you hopeful.” —Angela Y. Davis
"Song for a Hard Hit People is as heart-rending as it is inspiring. Writing from a place of love, grace, and conviction, Beth Howard recognizes the struggles and dignity of white working people without losing sight of the racism and patriarchy that remain the chief obstacles to freeing us from the rapaciousness of capitalism. And yet, the book’s most profound lesson is this: organizing for a better world saves lives—even the life of the organizer." —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Race Rebels, Hammer and Hoe
"In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard tells her story about growing up in Appalachian Kentucky and the economic struggles, trauma, and ever-present sexism that existed in her close-knit rural community. Howard calls upon the long history of cross-racial, worker-led solidarity movements to highlight the ways in which we can come together to fight for dignity and a better life for all if we organize." —Michael Welch, Editor-In-Chief, Chicago Review of Books, Most Anticipated Books of 2026
"Beth Howard has gifted us with a brilliant memoir of growing up and organizing in Appalachia, an important antidote to JD Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he demonizes his Appalachian family and people. On the contrary, author Howard provides the horrors of capitalism, that sucks the life out of families and workers, then blames them for the dire conditions they are left to deal with. Howard respects and organizes rather than blaming the victim." —Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, historian and author
"If working class solidarity is the only way forward in this moment--and I absolutely believe that it is--then Beth Howard's Song for a Hard-Hit People is a requisite read for us all. Howard's journey from rural Appalachian childhood to organizer of Rednecks for Black Lives in adulthood shows us that class solidarity isn't just a thing with feathers. It is decidedly possible, and there is nowhere more likely for it to be sparked than in the hills of Appalachia." —Neema Avashia, Author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place
"In Song For A Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard’s lucid, lyrical prose matches the clarity of her thinking about what ails us in this country and what to do about it. She brings to bear considerable descriptive power in weaving personal narrative with the history and future of community organizing in the Southern mountains and beyond. Her graceful writing is at once accessible and sophisticated, sure-footed and daring." —Robert Gipe, author of Trampoline, Weedeater, and Pop
Other books of interest
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Digging Our Own Graves
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Our History Has Always Been Contraband
Edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, et al. -
Beginning Again
Edited by Katrina M. Powell -
Country Queers
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Black History Is for Everyone
by Brian Jones