In ‘Happy Land,’ a historical kingdom in Western N.C. comes alive

Due South

Commerce and economic leaders in North Carolina say many large companies are in a holding pattern, waiting to make decisions on new factories, or other major investments.

During Reconstruction, a community of free Black residents formed a “kingdom” in Western North Carolina. They called it “Happy Land.” Novelist Dolen Perkins Valdez’s new book of the same name gives a fictionalized account of this little-known Appalachian history.

And, a book about fixing the problems that lead to Black women facing death and disease at disproportionate rates in our current health care system.

Guests

Zachary Eanes, reporter Axios Raleigh

Dolen Perkins-Valdez, assistant professor of literature at American University and New York Times best-selling author

Wylin D. Wilson, Associate Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke University