Big Coal Defeat! Rednecks and Greens Announce Victory at Blair Mountain

After 500 mountains in Appalachia have been blown to bits by mountaintop removal, one peak was most likely saved today: Blair Mountain in West Virginia, the site of the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War, was officially approved by the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places to be placed on the National Register.

This is a huge victory, as the tide continues to turn in the movement to stop mountaintop removal in Appalachia.

Some consider it the Bunker Hill of the labor movement. But the great battle in 1921, when thousands of union coal miners and World War I veterans donned their uniforms and took up arms to liberate and unionize the last coal camps in southwestern West Virginia held hostage to ruthless outside coal companies, has emerged as one of the great symbols of Appalachia's fate today. Over the past several years, the Friends of Blair Mountain--an organization of community and labor activists, historians and environmentalists--have led an even more epic battle to save the sacred mountain site from a plan by coal companies to strip mine and destroy Blair Mountain through mountaintop removal operations.

The mountaintop removal war might soon be over. The Rednecks won. According to the National Registry Federal Program regulations:

"If a property contains surface coal resources and is listed in the National Register, certain provisions of the Surface Mining and Control Act of 1977 require consideration of a property's historic values in the determination on issuance of a surface coal mining permit."

"Redneck" was the name given to the progressive miners, as William Blizzard recalled in his wonderful memoir, When Miners March, as they wore red bandannas around their necks to distinguish themselves from others. As the battle raged, and even bombs dropped, President Warren Harding was forced to intervene with military troops.

President Barack Obama needs to intervene against mountaintop removal today. As three million pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil are detonated daily in an assault on Appalachia today, raining toxic dust on the inhabitants and devastating watersheds as part of the brutal mountaintop removal operations, it's time for the federal government to stop this egregious violation of human rights in the mountains.

Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, and a great West Virginia coal mining native, should take note of the haunting parallels in history: While over 500 mountains have been destroyed, the once strong union movement has been gutted by highly mechanized strip mining operations, and now only 500-700 United Mine Worker members are employed on mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia.

Let's repeat that: There are roughly 700 UMWA members employed at mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia today.

It's time for Cecil Roberts and the United Mine Workers to stand up for the mountains, the historic Appalachian communities, and the economy, and demand an end to mountaintop removal, and a return to more responsible mining.

Ken Ward at the Coal Tattoo blog recently looked at Roberts and mountaintop removal here.

To learn about other endangered American mountains, see this.

Denise Giardina, the nationally acclaimed novelist from the coalfields of West Virginia, and author of the epic novel, Storming Heaven, once wrote:

"In the hundred odd years since the coal industry came to this part of West Virginia, land has been taken, miners have been worked to death, streams have been polluted, piles of waste have accumulated, children have grown up in poverty. But throughout all the hardships, the hunger, the black lung disease and other illness, and the scarring of the land, the mountains have essentially remained. They were symbols of permanence, strength, hope. No more. Nothing worse can be taken from mountain people than mountains. The resulting loss is destroying the soul of the people.

The destruction of the central Appalachian Mountains robs the region of topsoil, timber, of indigenous plants, of streams, and leaves behind floods, toxic brews of sludge laced with mercury, and flattened plains of inedible grass. But worst of all is the loss of the mountain landscape, those rugged crags that lift the spirits and touch the sky.

If one mountain were to be spared, one peak to bear mute witness to the devastation that has gone on all around, it might be thought that Blair Mountain would be such a summit. Blair Mountain, after all, has been the most dramatic witness to the struggle of legions of coal miners to be free."

If only William Blizzard, the author of When Miners March, were alive today to take part in this celebration. His father, Bill Blizzard, the hero of Blair Mountain, was tried and acquitted for treason. For more information, see: http://www.whenminersmarch.com/reviews.htm

Filmmaker Sasha Waters did a great documentary on the importance of Blair Mountain in her film, Razing Appalachia:

Comments

[minervoice]

Jeff, two things:

1. When you start paying dues to the UMWA, you will then earn the right to tell Cecil Roberts what you think he should do.

2. You obviously have no concept of what a union is or what a union leader can and cannot do. President Roberts has an obligation to represent every member of his union, including the 1,000 or so (not 700) who work at or around West Virginia surface mines. He can no more walk away from them than he can any other group of workers who belong to the UMWA. He, and any other president of the UMWA, is obligated by the UMWA constitution to represent EVERY member of the union to the best of his ability. To suggest he should do otherwise undercuts the very notion of union solidarity and struggle --as in "united we stand, divided we fall" -- that you laud as part of the Blair Mountain struggle.

Nothing wrong with stating your opposition to MTR. But please don't try to run the UMWA while you're at it.

[greendream]

Forgive me for being superficial but I've often thought this story would make for a great movie. More Americans need to know what happened there.

[Susan Williams]

Dear Jeff,
Thanks for setting the designation of Blair Mt. as a National Historic Site in the context of the struggle for human rights that has been the long story of Appalachia. My family's roots trace deeply into the soil of these mountains that are under assault today. I can remember sitting in the middle of a gurgling stream in the Smoky Mts as a child, like Siddhartha finding my life's muse. These mountains of Appalachia are spiritual centers as well as repositories of great biological wealth and beauty. Americans need to preserve the treasures of the continent for our inspiration and renewal. These are the sources of our strength and ability to endure life's hardships and challenges. Though rarely talked about as reasons why we should preserve the Appalachian Mountains, perhaps they are the most important among all reasons. Thank you for your thoughtful advocacy for my homelands.

[coaltownusa]

Blair Mountain was in my family's stories like Gettysburg or Concord was for others. Blair Mountain was the mountain worth dying for, because it was the battleground for unions. It's true that the unions have been busted. That's a shame. I'm happy they saved this mountain in order to remind us what we fought for. So, keep fighting for those mountains!

[Matt Wasson]

When people learn about mountaintop removal they are horrified. But I've seen again and again that what motivates people to do something about it is when they come to understand the irreplaceable value of what's not been destroyed. It might be the most biologically diverse forests and streams on the continent, the unique culture, history, and landscapes of Appalachia, the mountain behind your home and the safety of your family, or the best damn people you've ever met in your life that clues you in to the fact that this piece of America is so valuable that sacrificing it is inconceivable.

For me, learning how the coal companies and the Army Corps of Engineers operate in Appalachia gave me the feeling a librarian might get if the mongol horde were camping out in the Library of Congress. I think there are a lot of others that feel the same and no story illustrates why better than the story of Blair Mountain.

Thanks for telling it so well, Jeff. And I'm going to give a nudge to your readers to pick up The United States of Appalachia - there are many more stories as interesting and as well told is this that will help anyone understand the urgency that those of us fighting to stop mountaintop removal feel.

[MountainJustice]

Great news - thanks Jeff!