Miners turn in their weapons on Sept. 4, 1921, following the Battle of Blair Mountain, the culmination of the largest armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War.
News » May 16, 2011
The Blair Mountain Project
Activists want to protect the site of a deadly labor struggle—and stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
From his trailer home in the old coal camp of Sunbeam, W.Va., Kenny King has been working for the past two decades to preserve nearby Blair Mountain in Logan County. He wants it listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, ultimately, protected as a national historic park.
What’s so important about a mountain most Americans have never heard of?
“It’s part of our heritage, our history,” King says. “It was [the site of] the biggest armed insurrection since the Civil War.” In the summer of 1921, 10,000 coal miners–including King’s grandfather– fought a private force of strikebreakers supported by mine bosses for nine days for the right to join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). In August that year, miners–incensed by the murder of some of their supporters earlier that month and the mass firings of pro-union miners–marched about 50 miles from the town of Marmet, near Charleston, the capital, to Blair Mountain. They were met by an anti-union sheriff supported by a private security force. More than 100 people–mostly miners–lost their lives before federal troops arrived.
According to a historian’s account on the Friends of Blair Mountain website, “The U.S. Army and Air Corps ultimately crushed the rebellion without firing a shot. The union surrendered rather than fire upon American soldiers, making clear their patriotism.” Although the coalfields weren’t organized until the 1930s, when, helped by the Roosevelt administration, the UMWA welcomed most miners into its ranks, the Battle of Blair Mountain became a rallying cry for labor as it fought to organize workers in all major industries.
“I want to preserve the history and the legacy of all those guys who were fighting,” King says. The biggest threat to his dream is mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, which would literally blast apart the mountain. He says two mining companies–Arch Coal and Massey Energy–have applied for up to six permits, and already been granted others, to begin operations on the former battlefield. “There’s one active [MTR site] moving closer to the battlefield,” King says, “There’s another the state … has already approved that will completely wipe out the southern end of the battlefield.”
On June 6, labor and environmental activists will begin a five-day march from Marmet to Blair Mountain to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the miners’ rebellion. They’ll call for the permanent protection of the mountain, an end to MTR and strengthening labor rights and sustainable job creation.
King says many of the groups supporting the march were involved in last September’s Appalachia Rising events in Washington, D.C., during which activists demanded an end to MTR. That’s a problem for the union most closely associated with Blair Mountain: UMWA, which supports MTR. “The UMWA absolutely supports the designation of Blair Mountain as a national historic site,” UMWA Communications Director Phil Smith said via e-mail. “We believe the focus of preservation efforts at Blair Mountain should be the … story of corporate excess and greed… [The mountain] should be remembered for reasons that bring all people who live in southern West Virginia together, not drive them apart. In many respects, this march serves the latter purpose.”
After reading Smith’s comments, King remarks, “All they do is come out with these statements saying they support the nomination, but there’s never been any real action taken.” He says that the UMWA isn’t trying to stop Blair Mountain from being destroyed because it hopes to unionize those worksites.
King says he’s happy to have the support of 60 national and regional environmental groups (including 350.org, Rainforest Action Network and Appalachian Voices) and that organizers are also reaching out to labor unions across the country to join the march. They expect 400 marchers and up to 1,000 people at the rally on June 11. As of May 5, the West Virginia AFL-CIO is backing it, along with a number of locals around the state.
In nearby Raleigh County, Debbie Jarrell, the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners and an anti-mountaintop removal activist, is helping to spread the word about the march. She condemns the way coal companies have treated the mountains and the local residents, including miners.
“They like to blame environmentalists and the regulations for the decline of the labor force in the mining industry, when in fact the coal companies themselves are responsible for that because mountaintop removal or strip mining employs far less people,” Jarrell says. “It’s really affecting a lot of working-class people [by] eliminating living-wage jobs.”
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Melinda Tuhus is an independent journalist with 25 years of experience in print and radio, including In These Times, The New York Times, Free Speech Radio News and public radio stations.
SAVE 53% OFF
Reader Comments
Melinda:
With respect to your statement that the UMWA “supports MTR,” it is more correct to say that we support workers and we support our members, no matter what mining method is used to mine coal where they work. That is what a union does, and that is what the UMWA has always done, even back to the days of the real march on Blair Mountain.
We do not make the laws or regulations that allow one mining practice or another. We just mine the coal.
It is the government’s job to establish laws and regulations, it is the the companies’ job to follow those laws, and it is the union’s job to help the workers get respect on the job, a fair wage, good benefits, job security and safety on the job; no matter where they work. I repeat: No Matter Where They Work.
To do otherwise would be turn our backs on 121 years of solidarity and unity and to deny our basic union principle: A wrong to one is a wrong to all. If we were to turn our backs on that principle, we would cease to become a union and become just one more advocacy group.
It is also incorrect for someone to say that there has “never been any real action taken” with respect to the UMWA’s work to preserve Blair Mountain. Just a few weeks ago, the UMWA filed a brief in support of a lawsuit that seeks to restore the battlefield’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. This follows many communications from the union and President Roberts to politicians, regulators, companies and others about preserving this mountain.
Indeed, under President Roberts’ leadership the UMWA has been calling for the preservation of Blair Mountain for far longer than any of the groups sponsoring the upcoming march. That is because it is our symbol, our monument, our history. If others wish to use it as a symbol for their own purposes, they can do that. But the story that Blair Mountain tells is and always will be the UMWA’s.
Posted by Phil Smith on May 18, 2011 at 6:43 AM
Clearly, the issue of Blair Mountain is succeeding in sparking further debate on Mountaintop Removal coal mining and the UMWA’s stance towards it, which is all to the good. And the union’s many calls for preservation of the battlefield site and its brief in support of the lawsuit speak for themselves and are obviously applauded by all of us who support historic preservation, environmental protection and recognition of the importance of unions past, present and future.
However, I believe it is not unreasonable to ask the union to apply their basic principle of “a wrong to one is a wrong to all” more broadly, in this case with respect to the impacts that Mountaintop Removal has on people’s health, on community stability, on the forests, streams and soil, and even on long-term employment and economic sustainablity in the reagion.
While it is true that “the government’s job is to establish laws and regulations,” it is precisely the lack of enforcement and the manipulation of those laws and regulations by corporate influence that is at issue with MTR and so many other harmful corporate practices (including in workplace safety, as in the case of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and countless others).
At the time of the Battle of Blair Mountain there was no law guaranteeing the right to collective bargaining and workers’ wage, health and safety standards were minimal or nonexistent. That’s why the miners had to engage in intense and protracted struggles, up to the point of the desperate armed march towards Mingo County that was halted at Blair Mountain in 1921, in order to win those rights and standards, encoded in laws and regulations like the Wagner Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
And that’s why the UMWA has had to continue to fight ever since to make sure those laws and regulations are respected.
Well, it took a long and intense campaign from the 1950’s to the 70’s against the ravages of unregulated stripmining to win passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, but unfortunately its enforcement leaves much to be desired (not to mention huge loopholes won by the mining industry).
Which is why 500 mountains have been blown up, leaving behind mostly barren wasteland and hundreds of miles of buried or polluted streams. And the continuing depopulation of central Appalachia and the many virtual ghost towns left behind that were once thriving communities.
It seems that now more than ever, with the corporate-led right-wing attack on unions, we need to come together and recognize our common interests in confronting the power of corporations and its stranglehold on our political system. I think it’s not unfair to compare the short-term profits reaped by corporations on the backs of workers, the people who live in the coalfields and the environment, with the short-term benefits gained by MTR employment.
While the UMWA may not explicitly “support” MTR mining, nothing prevents it from engaging in a serious public discussion about how to transition to a truly sustainable society and economy. Come on the March and let’s talk!
The legacy of Blair Mountain belongs to no one particular group, but to everyone who believes in justice and equal rights under the law. And as one who will be on the March in June, I don’t feel I will be doing so for my “own purposes,” but rather in solidarity with the people of Appalachia struggling for justice and a sustainable future. And I sincerely hope to do so alongside some UMWA brothers and sisters.
Paul Roland
Posted by Paul Roland on May 18, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Sure Blair mountain is important part of our history, but the mountains that surround our communities, mean as much, and are just as important to the people who live around them, and is equally, if not more cherished than Blair mountain. All mountains should be protected from the devastation that MTR causes, and the science has already proven, what the human health, and the environmental impact costs are, from this form of mining. If the federal government comes out tomorrow and bans MTR, mining will continue, that coal will be mined by deep mining. No one can justify MTR, and the only reason that the industry does do it, is for one reason, and one reason only, and that is to maximize their profits. They don’t care about people, communities, our water, air, or who dies in the process to maximize their profits. All mountains, including Blair, do not belong to any one organization, or to any one union, and not to the coal companies which are blowing them up. Appalachia is a treasure that belong to all America. And to those that are destroy our mountains, and bury our streams with waste,and are poisoning our waters, are simply breaking the law that are there to protect them. But everyone needs to extend their vision beyond Blair, Blair is just one mountain, not anymore significant than any other mountain. When it really comes down to it, Blair just happens to be the place where a battle was fought, and I’m sure there were battles fought on all these mountains one time or another. The Appalachians, a place that is our home, and we must protect all of hem.
Chuck Nelson
Member of local 6608 UMWA
Posted by Chuck Nelson on May 18, 2011 at 3:05 PM
Funny how UMWA believes this is their Mountain. It is no more the union’s mountain than it is mine. This mountain belongs to the future.
The history on Blair didn’t begin with coal. The history of Blair began long before coal was discovered. The history of Blair began with the first settlers. This was the first Heroes of Blair.
Only wondering… Blair is a historic mountain and I do agree with that but why aren’t the mountains leading up to Blair Mountain historic too? It’s not like these marchers were parachuted in. The marcher’s happened to be folks from all over the Southern Mountains. These folks were our forefathers!
Lets talk about the facts here. The people who put UMWA in place were the people that died on this mountain. Now keep in mind that those folks are our forefathers. We heard these stories from the men, women and families that lived it. It didn’t come from a book. The men that fought for the Union on Blair was fighting for basic human rights. The UMWA used to be the buffer between industry and the communities and workers. Now this same union turns a blind eye to coal & silica dust in our homes and pollution in our streams and wells. This same Union turns a blind eye to the facts concerning health issues when it comes to these companies blowing up mountains over our homes. It seems now that the UMWA is in bed with the coal industry and trying their very best to silence the community members who’s forefathers was their organizers in the 1920’s
Let’s be clear this is our mountain. Our people settled here first and some ended up dying for this mountain. The union is welcome to use it though. They did at one time support the people fighting this nightmare coal has wrecked on us! Now they are so blinded by the double speak that can’t even admit that it is MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL that is destroying Blair mtn.. They support MTR unless they don’t support MTR there is no middle ground..
Posted by Maria Gunnoe on May 18, 2011 at 9:41 PM
Isn’t it interesting what people can read, despite what the words actually say?
Ms. Gunnoe, I never said the mountain belonged to the UMWA. Indeed, I can assure you that if the union owned the mountain we would not be having any problems in regard to preserving it whatsoever.
What I said was that, “it is our symbol, our monument, our history.” That cannot be denied. I also said that, “the story that Blair Mountain tells is and always will be the UMWA’s.” I don’t know how that can be disputed, either. It is the UMWA’s legacy, and we welcome it.
And the statement to the effect that “there is no middle ground” with respect to MTR is what keeps the UMWA from having any path available to even approaching a meeting of the minds. Most people understand that, in the real world, there is always a middle ground. When we deny ourselves a place to meet, we never will.
Posted by Phil Smith on May 19, 2011 at 6:36 PM
extended discussion >>>Continued...
Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 9 posts.