Mountain Rose's History

Hi,

If you are new here, my name is Kelly Marie White-Bateman, and yes, it’s a mouthful. I figured if I was going to be a handful, although a fun one, my name should be as well. I am kidding, but I refuse to give up my family name. I am a mom to two little boys and a wife to an intelligent neuro-guy. I graduated from UNC-CH (2015) with my BA in Anthropology with a focus in archaeology/bioarchaeology and a minor in History, then went on to get my Master’s at ECU (2017). Currently, I am a content creator that specializes in North Carolina and Southern Appalachian History.

I enjoy exploring the relationship between history and culture as it impacts our modern-day situations. Dealing with complex narratives and incorporating as many different voices as possible into history is paramount when trying to be truthful in telling our nation’s story. Most of us are neither good nor bad, but why must we paint our ancestors with such a broad brush? We are complicated mix of good and bad, why do we feel the need to simplify our past as if those who lived before us were somehow less complex. We should not excuse or hide the sins of the past either. It happened, sometimes our heroes let us down, that is the danger of putting any man or woman in the place of a God-like throne. They are humans, and humans will always fall short of our great expectations. When they are seen as faulty humans we allow space for the good and bad of an individual. We can learn from the good and guard against the faults they fell prey to. We can strive to learn from the past and how to bring out the good in all of us.

Why Study History?

*Gestures wildly at the entire United States* A lot will change, for better or worse, in the coming years. Many well-educated people are asking, ‘What happened?!?’ All those years of cutting educational programs have now shown us the result: most Americans do not know or have misconceptions about history, science, and how our government works. When we don’t teach critical thinking skills, conspiracy theories and outlandish ideas have a place to take root. There is no one party to blame in this, and we as Americans must swallow a hard pill, we allowed this to happen. This means we must be called into action that goes beyond party lines and gets to what will actually make America Great Again, investing in the American people with education and money supporting local economies. There is no one coming to save us, so we must become our own heroes and advocates for our communities.

History tells us how we got here and why people feel and think the way they do. Our past informs our present, and our shared past forms our community identity. We are not born into a vacuum; our family stories and histories tell us how we should feel about our place in the country and the world. Depending on who is telling the story, it will bring different points of view and emotional issues. While sixty years in a human lifetime seems very long, from a historical perspective it is very current. If the people who were directly impacted by events are still alive then the event is a part of living memory, which means that event still has emotional impact. It would be the equivalent of saying 9/11 happened over 23 years ago, why are we still talking about it? Families still living lost loved ones that day, our airport procedures are still impacted, and undercover Air marshals halls are still common place in airplanes. My father and his brothers and sister grew up during the 1960’s civil rights movement, they can tell me stories of what it was like to desegregate schools. It is still an active part of living memory. What happened to your great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and you will impact the way your children will see the world and their place in it. We are a collection of stories that we tell ourselves, and don’t we deserve the complicated, messy, and truthful history? Its not like when we Whitewash history, we are only erasing the bad parts, but we, those historically without power, lose our history as well.