Have you ever heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Neither had I, despite its being the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War and the largest labor confrontation ever.
Well the Appalachian coal industry wants to keep it that way, as the Los Angeles Times reports. In fact, not only does the coal industry not want you to know about this particularly dark piece of its history, it wants to rub salt into the wound by blasting away the historic battlegrounds to…wait for it… mine for more coal.
And, lately, it has the help of the National Park Service in accomplishing this task.
To start at the beginning, the Battle of Blair Mountain took place in 1921 in Logan County, West Virginia. Over the course of one week, more than 10,000 coal miners confronted an industry-backed army in their struggle to unionize and demand better treatment. It was a watershed moment in the history of the labor movement. The battle ended after some 1 million rounds were fired and the U.S. Army stepped in (check out some historic photos here.)
Ever since, state authorities have resisted highlighting the battle in history books and have denied commemoration attempts. For one, the episode doesn’t exactly shine a positive light on what West Virginia last year declared to be its state rock. It’s also pretty clear, based on today’s expose from Think Progress, that the coal industry has a firm interest in indoctrinating the state’s youth through the school curriculum.
But one man is having none of that. Since 1994, 55-year-old Kenny King has fought to honor the battlefield as coal companies have tried to strip the land bare. King has lived near the mountain since 1962, and his grandfather and great uncle both fought in the battle (on opposite sides, no less.)
Without immediate help, however, King’s personal battle to preserve the battle site could be for nothing.
A recent report by the Friends of Blair Mountain documents the destruction of five locations within the battlefield by unknown parties. Even worse, Arch Coal and Massey Energy subsidiaries hold permits to eventually let the bulldozers move in and begin raping the landscape in the most destructive of all industry practices: mountaintop removal mining.
Aside from the more complicated task of a sorely-needed environmental crackdown on these kinds of mines, there’s a simple thing the federal government could do to prevent Blair Mountain’s destruction. A listing under the U.S. National Register of Historic Places would protect it under state law.
In fact, this is exactly what federal authorities had already done once. On March 30, 2009, the site was finally listed after some back-and-forth. Unfortunately, the victory was short-lived.
In bed with Big Coal’s lawyers, West Virginia’s historic preservation office appealed the designation a week after the decision based on a flawed list of 57 objecting landowners — a list that included dead people, as Jeff Biggers writes in The Huffington Post. As a result, despite an outcry, Carol Shull, the National Park Service’s keeper of the historic registry, removed the battlefield from the list this December and just last week denied activists’ petition that she reconsider her decision, according to The Charleston Gazette.
So the Battle of Blair Mountain is, in spirit, still being fought today. In fact, it was Massey Energy’s non-union Upper Big Branch mine where the largest mine disaster in decades occurred this April. Since then, the company’s egregious safety violations have gradually come to light. The United Mine Workers union, which miners did not have in 1921, has been loudly demanding reforms in response.
Another reason to be up in arms? All over the region, mountaintop removal mining — a form of mining that wasn’t practiced back in 1921 — is polluting Appalachia’s water, decimating its landscape, and harming the health of workers and surrounding communities.
It’s true that sometimes the sheer weight of the coal industry’s influence can seem too daunting to fight. This is not one of those cases. This one small battle to preserve the Blair Mountain battle site and prevent another mountaintop mine is symbolic of the larger battle against the coal industry that community activists are fighting all over the state.
Please sign this petition to tell Carol Shull, the National Park Service’s keeper of the historic registry, and other Interior Department officials to designate the Blair Mountain battle site. The petition also includes West Virginia’s Division of Culture and History commissioner, since the ball is now in his court to reapply for a fresh listing (a move Shull has encouraged.)
It’s time to stop the destruction of West Virginia and preserve this one small example of rebellion from the grip of Big Coal.
Photo credit: Jake McClendon, Flickr User
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Big Coal Wants To Mine Away Dark History at 1920s Labor Battle Site
