While currently our main priority is preserving Blair Mountain (and more immediately getting it re-listed on the National Register), we are also involved in research and activism beyond our preservation work. The history of Blair Mountain, as well as general labor history, serves as the base of our research and community engagement. Our activities include:
- Preservation Efforts
- Research
- Education
- Community Service
- Labor Activism
Our commitment to southern West Virginia communities is long term. In fact, many of us are from there and so this is a lifetime of work for us. If we do succeed in preserving Blair Mountain from imminent destruction, then that is where the real hard work begins. Below is a list of some of the activities or struggles we are engaged in. As stated before, our primary concern is the preservation of the battlefield, but we look forward to when we have that fight won and we can shift to other elements of our activist research.
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Preservation
The bulk of our energy and time currently goes to this struggle. It has been a long process of ups and downs, but our (small and vastly out funded) group has been able to hold off destruction of the site so far. Some of the work that we have done was to facilitate the nomination of the site to the National Register. Dr. Barbara Rasmussen worked from the historical angle, while Dr. Harvard Ayers undertook archaeological surveys that established the archaeological integrity and significance for the site.
Since the nomination and subsequent listing that was followed by the site being taken off the National Register, we have been working to challenge that decision. Dr. Harvard Ayers, a charter member of Friends of Blair Mountain, initiated the legal challenges involving the nomination. In the course of our preservation work, we provide a number of services to community members we work with and for, we produce professional reports, maps, and other media such as video. We all have been working as a grassroots group to develop strategy and tactics for preserving the mountain, and welcome any input or involvement from others.
Although surface mining poses the most visible threat to the archaeological resources at Blair Mountain, there are other serious potential threats from logging, gas well drilling, and core-drilling, as well as potential destruction by hobby-hunters. Because of this, we attempt to monitor the site and report any instances of destruction, or halt it if we catch it before it starts. Blair Mountain is in a remote section of Logan County, and enforcement of regulations is extremely lax. Therefore, monitoring the site is a primary concern for us.
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Research
All of us that are involved in the Blair Mountain struggle undertake research, whether it is as professional scholars or engaged citizens. We feel that an in-depth and accurate understanding of the past helps us make better choices for our future. We also feel that the skills and resources that we have as academics should be open and available for the public. We work with communities in our research and involve them every step of the way, from planning the research design all the way to writing up the results.
This approach is designed to place the power of writing historical narratives in the communities’ hands and involve them in a major research project. This is designed so that intellectual skills can be developed such as critical analysis, logic building, and systematization of findings. These skills are crucial for an engaged citizenry, and we personally feel makes life that much richer.
Currently, we are working on analyzing the artifacts from the Blair Mountain Battlefield, and we may be doing an archaeological survey at the Whipple Company Store and Museum soon. As we develop the Blair Mountain Research Project, we will become more and more involved in community outreach and community archaeology.
Stay tuned for more about our research and peer-reviewed publications!
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Education
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Community Service
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Labor Activism
For many of us, our interest in Blair Mountain springs from our experiences growing up in the strong union culture of West Virginia. Unions not only protect workers but they also bring together communities and give a constructive avenue to correct social injustices. The southern coalfields of WV especially were the heart of a vibrant and strong American union culture throughout most of the twentieth century.
Since the 1980s, the unions have been eroded in Appalachia, as they have pretty much everywhere else in America, and this has been highly detrimental to worker safety, quality of life, and community health. This is not just an academic concern for us, our families and friends work on 300-foot high scaffolds at industrial plants or underground in the coalmines. We are part of the community, and some of us are workers ourselves. Our activism doesn’t come from a sense of ‘privileged responsibility’. We are working to better our communities, our families, and ourselves.
Because of this, we engage in various forms of labor activism that are intended to build solidarity between workers and support union organization. But of course, our primary concern is preservation of Blair Mountain, and so we are not able right now to engage in as full range of activities as we envision for the future (when the preservation struggle is won!).
But one project we are currently working on involved hosting an international delegation of Colombian union coalminers here in WV this October (2010). This is the first step in what we hope is a long-term relationship with the Sintracarbon and Sintramienergetica coalminer unions. We will continue to build relationships with other areas such as Colombia that are struggling with some of the same problems, and work together to further our mutual struggle.
Once things settle down on the preservation front, we will be able to concentrate our energies on activities like the development of robust worker education programs and supporting strikes. For the first, we do some presentations for labor organizations that want to have us, but we have not initiated any real plan to establish a worker education program. This is also true for the strike support, we envision bringing the knowledge and symbolism of Blair Mountain to support labor strikes and other labor actions. We can also provide concrete services on the picket lines such as printing flyers, raising money, doing video work, building community support, etc. Both of these plans – worker education and strike support – are out of reach right now but hopefully in the near future we can pursue these goals. If you would like to be part of this, contact us and/or become a member.
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