Blair Mountain Research Project
The Blair Mountain Research Project (BMRP) is a long-term community-based research project centering on Blair Mountain and Appalachian labor history. It is facilitated by the Friends of Blair Mountain (FOBM), an organization with roots in West Virginia and the hills of North Carolina. It is a multidisciplinary project involving history, ecology, sociology, anthropology, archaeology and other academic disciplines. Our goal is to develop connections between world-class researchers and coalfield community members, scholars, activists, and artists.
With this project, we are attempting to:
- Engage and work with the West Virginian public so as to facilitate a community-led research project on the Battle of Blair Mountain.
- Raise awareness of marginalized aspects of our history such as the Great Land Swindle, the West Virginia Mine Wars, and the Black-Lung struggle.
- Bring academic resources (grants, cutting-edge research technology, etc.) and relationships/access (top-tier research institutions, publishers, media) to coalfield communities.
- Build intellectual and technical skills in areas such as research methodology, data analysis, the scientific process, critical thinking, synthesizing information, theory building, writing/publishing, etc.
- Introduce elementary, middle and high school children to a major academic research project by engaging in outreach programs and incorporating them at age-appropriate levels of the research process.
- Work with regional universities and colleges to incorporate local scholars and researchers in order to further their academic growth and goals.
- Build confidence in mountain communities to explore and assert their intellectual and creative energy through various media forms – research papers, literature, poetry, artwork, music, craftwork, etc.
These project goals will be accomplished through traditional Appalachian values – emphasis on community, sharing, and hard work. The first step of the project is already underway as we are adding a section to the FOBM webpage specifically for the research project. This will involve a space to serve as a central archive/depository of the information we uncover, for current and future researchers to freely access. There will also be a place on the webpage for community members to publish their works and to have forum discussions.
But in order for this to be a community-led project, we need you all to be involved from the first. And so we will be setting up some community meetings at various locations in the coalfields. This way, we can begin a dialogue about which directions you would like this research to develop.
We here at the Friends of Blair Mountain have the wonderful opportunity to study and research such an amazing and colorful part of our past. It is very exciting research, and is important to a great number of people. We would like to share it with you, and to share our excitement, skills and resources. Rather than us telling you what your history is, we want to work together with you so that we can all learn about it together.
If you would like to be part of this cutting-edge and innovative research, please get ahold of us. No matter what the level of participation that you would like to be involved, we would like to hear from you. Appalachia has such rich history, and it is time for us to tell it to the world with pride.
To get involved, contact:
Project Coordinator
Brandon Nida
UC Berkeley, ABD Doctorate
FOBM Board Member
nida13@berkeley.edu
(304) 730-3932
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