Melungeon Heritage Association, Inc.
&
Kingsport Convention and Visitors Bureau

Invites the Public to Attend

Sixth Union

June 8-11-2006

Sixth Union, The Melungeon gathering, will be held June 8-10, 2006 at the Kingsport Civic Auditorium in Kingsport, Tennessee. There is no fee to attend the three day conference. The MHA is planning time for families to have discussions so pack your family histories, papers, pencils and genealogical records and bring them to the Sixth Union. Who knows, you might stumble upon a cousin or two that has a common ancestor in their family tree. Plan on being very busy while at the Civic Auditorium there are about twenty presenters this year. Many are authors who have published books about their findings in their Melungeon research. At the Fifth Union the authors of books took out the time to personally autograph the books they published.  The Civic Auditorium is wonderful place for Melungeons to gather because the building has classrooms that enables many speakers to talk at one time. The people of Kingsport decorated a bulletin board sign with lights that read, Welcome Melungeon Union

While visiting the Kingsport area you may want to plan a tour of the area's history. The earliest records of the area state that Dr. Thomas Walker organized an expedition into northeastern Tennessee in the year 1750. The explorers followed the path that the Indians used. The path crossed at Holston River at Long Island and continued through what is present day Kingsport. This Indian path was used by Daniel Boone in 1769 to mark the beginning of the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. Visit  Kingsport - Tennessee's Bright Spot to learn more. By the way, Elvis Presley performed at the Civic Auditorium back in 1955- before he was on the "Ed Sullivan Show," and before most Americans knew who he was.

David Arnett, former U. S. General Consul to Turkey and a Melungeon descendent, will be speaking about the Melungeon and Turkish connection. Kaersten Colvin-Woodruff , professor of fine art at Clarion University, is a descendent of the Delaware Moors. She is a member of the Lenape Tribe of Delaware. Gwendolyn Higdon is a  historian who also holds an Associate Degree and Certification in Genealogy. She also holds an Associate Degree and Certification in Genealogy.

Eloy Gallegos will be speaking about early Spanish exploration of the Americas. Mr. Gallegos's ancestors came to settle the Kingdom of New Mexico in 1598. A historian, Eloy Gallegos, whose overview of Melungeon origins closely parallels that of Brent Kennedy. Mr. Gallegos cites 16th-century Spanish and Portuguese colonization in Georgia and the Carolinas, the most clearly documented being Santa Elena, near present-day Beaufort, S.C. He can point out on maps of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, are littered with Spanish names: Louisa, Amelia, Buena Vista, Alta Vista, Augusta, Francisco, Pueblo, Lisbon, Galatia, Gaston, and Valhalla. More proof for the evidence of Spanish presence in Appalachia. Check out melungeons.com genealogy of the people who settled and developed New Spain, The Age of Explorers and Conquerors: The Melungeon Melding Pot Begins. Kathy Lyday-Lee, Wayne Winkler, Vice President of the Melungeon Heritage Association, Evelyn Orr, Elizabeth Hirschman,  A. D. Powell, Ted Klein will be making presentations too.

What Is a Union?

The first half of the twentieth century the Melungeons  became the victims of the American Eugenics Movement. The term eugenics comes from the Greek roots for "good" and "generation" or "origin" and was first used to refer to the "science" of heredity and good breeding in about 1883. Society strived to breed better human beings by promoting the attitude  that the people with "superior" genes should have offspring and discouraged those with "inferior" genes. Eugenicists effectively lobbied for social legislation to keep racial and ethnic groups separate, to restrict immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and to sterilize people considered "genetically unfit." eugenics societies and groups sprang up around the United States after World War I, with names like the Race Betterment Foundation.  In 1923, organizers founded the American Eugenics Society, and it quickly grew to 29 chapters around the country. In 1924 Virginia enacted a law against miscegenation , making mixed 'raced' marriages a crime. Those who were born of mixed ethnic mixed cultures were judged to be non white and had to forfeit all their civil rights. The Melungeons were considered "mongrels," during the first decades of the twentieth century and were almost exterminated in the state of Virginia. In order to just survive during these years many families had to conceal their colored ancestry. Many families lost their true heritage and cultures during this time of social cataclysm.  Some Melungeons began to tell their experiences as children on the Internet and within a year web pages devoted to Melungeon heritage in an attempt to find the answers that had been lost during a time when scientific selection was taught to create a healthy and supposedly superior race.

The most well-known Melungeons is Brent Kennedy and his wife Robyn Vaughan Kennedy. After he became seriously ill in 1988, with a Mediterranean disease, the couple published a book, in 1997, The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, that reveals his ethnic origins. Publishing his theories and his genealogy brought him unsympathetic criticism, from his family members, scholars and strangers. He wrote that his people, the Melungeons, were made to move off their lands, denied their rights to vote and was forced into isolation and almost exterminated. All these things gradually concealed his people's very existence. After centuries of trying to blend in with their white neighbors, the Melungeons lost their heritage, culture, and even their religion. But his family's distinct Melungeon physical features remained, along with the Mediterranean diseases. Brent Kennedy's theories on the ethic origins of his people, the Melungeons, are that they are remnants from sixteenth century Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Arab and Jewish settlers, slaves, and captives that intermarried with the Native American Nations and lived throughout the Southeast.  

Brent and Robyn Vaughan Kennedy are the founders of the Melungeon Research Committee that was formed to study the origins of the Melungeons. First Union, that was held in Wise, Virginia on the picnic grounds of Clinch Valley College in Wise, Virginiain 1997. More than 600 people showed up at the Wise County Historical  Society for the Melungeon Gathering. The Melungeons, along with those who supported them stood on the steps of the Wise County Courthouse and vowed to reclaim their heritage that had been taken away from them. Pictured above  First Union organizers with city officials from Wise, Virginia and Cesme, Turkey on the steps of the Wise County courthouse. This marked the beginning  of the Melungeon Unions.  In 1998, Brent Kennedy helped to found the Melungeon Heritage Association.
For questions about the Union, contact Wayne Winkler at  winklerw@etsu.edu.

Sixth Union Presenters

Tennessee News - Media Monitoring Service by EIN News 

Kingsport Daily News