2020
Ann Miller Woodford
Ann Miller Woodford won the 2020 award for her work preserving and promoting the history of African American people in far western North Carolina. “As an awards committee, we marveled at the work that is ongoing in Western North Carolina to offer a more complete history of our region,” said Catherine Frank, Chair of the Awards Committee. “In this rich environment, the work of Ann Miller Woodford is indeed outstanding. As an advocate, historian, and artist, Miller Woodford makes visible the stories of ‘seemingly invisible’ African American people of western North Carolina. Her work, When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina, offers an account that is personal and well-researched, offering stories that are unique and representative. She encourages all of us to record the stories of our elders and to face the complexity of our shared past.”