The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed insurrection in the U.S. following the Civil War. In 1921, 10,000 armed West Virginia coal miners marched against years of brutality and exploitation at the hands of mine owners and their lackey government officials.
After several days, the federal government intervened with disproportionate force, employing a bomber squadron commanded by Major General Billy Mitchell. Mitchell was eager to demonstrate the use of air power to quell domestic unrest.
The anti-union sheriff and state police reported over 30 dead while 50 -100 miners died in the conflict. Subsequently, 985 miners were indicted for "murder, conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to murder, and treason against the State of West Virginia."
Today the site of that famous battle is itself under threat. The same economic forces which drove the exploitation of West Virginia miners now decimates the landscape and poisons the ground water. The radical coal mining practice known as mountaintop removal also threatens to destroy the Blair Mountain battlefield and annihilate an important labor historical site.
In this short video, Kenny King of Friends of Blair Mountain details the threat to this national historic site.
There's a great organized effort to protect the Appalachian ecosystem. Through iLoveMountains.org, 7 grassroots organizations from 5 Appalachian states have come together to use cutting edge technology to inform and involve Americans in their efforts to save the mountains.
A common and false argument in favor of coal mining pits jobs and the local economy against environmental preservation. But as the web site Appalachian Voices points out, "According to the bureau of labor statistics, in the early 1950’s there were between 125,000 and 145,000 miners employed in West Virginia; in 2004 there were just over 16,000. During that time, coal production has increased."
The process to reduce the mining workforce has been ongoing for generations. Coal operators began to push labor-saving mechanization in the 1920's and today we see it in the industry's embrace of the mountaintop removal mining. Clearly job creation or preservation has nothing to mountaintop removal.
You can help today by writing to Congress in support of the Clean Water Protection Act. Across the Appalachian coalfields, more than 1200 miles of streams are now buried and destroyed by mountaintop removal. The Clean Water Protection Act is necessary to protect clean drinking water for many of our nation’s cities. The Clean Water Protection Act is also necessary to protect the quality of life for Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding and pollution or loss of drinking water as a result of mountaintop removal.
You may also learn more about the famous labor uprising in Robert Shogan's 2004 book, The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising.
