New Releases by Becky Hatcher Crabtree

Bill Robertson was one of our greatest pioneers and a tireless advocate for racial justice. One of his final acts was the completion of his memoirs. Lifting Every Voice reveals how the advances made during his lifetime were no foregone conclusion; without the passionate efforts of real people, our present could have been very different. The survivor of a traumatic childhood in the Green Book South, and the witness to his father''s rage over racial inequity, Robertson rose above an oppressive environment to find a place within the system and, against extreme odds, effect change. He was the first Black man to run for the Virginia General Assembly, and as a teacher, the first to help integrate a white school in Roanoke. He became the first Black decision-maker in any southern governor’s office, appointed by Virginia governor Linwood Holton in 1970. In a state controlled by segregationist Democrats, Holton was the first Republican governor since Reconstruction, and his government was pivotal in its commitment to move the state away from nearly a century of segregationist policies. Bill Robertson was an inner-circle member of this historic administration. His account of its challenges and hard-won victories tells us much about that critical era. Robertson went on to serve five presidents, heading the Peace Corps office in Kenya and later serving as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs. As a public servant he worked on both sides of the aisle, in a way almost inconceivable in today’s polarized society, collaborated with the Jaycees to build a camp for children with mental disabilities in Virginia, and eventually focused his support on Black Lives Matter in his eighties—because there is still so far to go.

Beautifully illustrated and with charming detail, this book documents fifty-nine houses and public structures of builder John Campbell Miller primarily in southwestern Monroe County, West Virginia, which were constructed between 1886 and 1923. They range from the high Victorian Queen Anne style to the twentieth century Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles, and many are elegant farmhouses that stand out from the bucolic landscape. Readers gain a glimpse of the era when large farming families were the norm and horse-drawn wagons were giving way to motorized vehicles. Organized by community, this book contains over two hundred photographs, roughly half of which are vintage, and a text that covers the stylistic elements as well as the family stories of each. These details have been resurrected through visits and interviews with current residents as well as from the files of the Monroe County Historical Society. The identification of Miller''s buildings is based on a list and photo file maintained over the last hundred years by generations of his family.

Biography of Henry Lake Dickason documents the life of the first president of Bluefield State College, WV. Dr. Dickason was an early 20th century leader of Black education. He rose above racial inequities and personal tragedies to hold the door open for others to have better opportunities, guided by his father''s words, "Try and be somebody."

Third novel by Becky Hatcher Crabtree, continues the series, Stella and Jonas face a pipeline crossing their land and the danger of her brother. Environmental damage Stella aims to prevent twists in and out of her brother''s life on the lam.

Second in series of Appalachian woman, Hung Over with Grandma continues the love story of Stella and Jonas, her Inupiat boyfriend from Alaska. His mother suffering the start of dementia, and her brother awaiting trial for murder, create a bumpy road. See commonalities in Appalachia and rural Alaska: love of nature, independent thinking, and humor.

Penelope Ann Davis suffers a childhood of abuse at the hands of her older brother before she runs away on graduation night. She escapes on a bus headed north from her home in Atlanta and ends up on a mountain farm in southern West Virginia. There she establishes a happy, contented life as Stella for the next three decades. Then, out of the blue, her brother shows up in front of her church and her life starts to unravel: church money goes missing, her best friend is found dead, and a new church member is in desperate financial straits. Her brother discovers her identity and she faces imminent danger. Underlying the action is wry mountain humor and a tender love story between Stella and an Alaskan Inupiaq man with some mysterious circumstances of his own.