Singing Down the Preacher

Singing Down the Preacher is an old religious practice of my people, the Melungeons from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. Subject to long-winded traveling preachers, the congregation often took control of a service by singing long and loud enough to let the preacher know it was time to conclude.

History reports Melungeons as a race of people who developed in early America from the mixing of Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Scottish, African, and British settlers with native Cherokee Indians. The result was a beautiful people; strong, skillful, devoted, yet timid and secretive from generations of persecution.

This story is about the Watts, a 1950s Melungeon family, whose desperate financial circumstances force them to emerge from their secluded, rustic lifestyle into an unfamiliar, and sometimes cruel modern society.

A learning disability makes family member, Hogan, an easy target for a few unaccepting and hardhearted residents of this new world. His simplistic thinking lands him in unsavory and even dangerous situations. Yet, he is able to brave his fears, search for answers, pray long and loud and in the end, receive the message that unites them all once more.