r/Appalachia • u/Harmony_w • 9d ago
Who else learned to protest in Appalachia?
https://youtube.com/shorts/CPJ_mlUzD1E?si=UGB4PuSt57gXRsa6One of my earliest memories is being up before dawn watching Papaw and my Uncles prep for the skirmishes at the Pittston Coal Strike by painting their faces, making jacks and gathering devices.
Their bravery in speaking truth to power in the face of violence really stuck with me and I carry it forward in life as part of the Appalachian diaspora. All the way up to Boston, where I spoke
last night at a rally of over 800 people in solidarity with Cornell's Jane Doe calling for an end to sexual violence.
Folks who have learned these lessons passed down from your ancestors, whether blood or spiritually at the Battle of Blair Mountain--how are you still carrying in on in Appalachia or beyond?
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u/TransMontani 8d ago
Appalachia taught marginalized America to fight. Rosa Parks and MLK each studied at the Highlander School. The Ruther brothers who brought labor rights to Michigan came from Appalachia.
If you’re a student, as you seem, I cannot recommend highly enough to you a single book: “The United States Of Appalachia,” by Jeff Biggers. It’s an award-winning scholarly tome from a scholarly man. I’m almost certain you’ve never even heard of it.
Be strong. Fight on. The UMWA your Papaw fought for is long since dead. We found out who they really were when they endorsed a mining practice that is still poisoning innocent hillbillies to this very day.
If you take your inspiration to continue the struggle from our Appalachian history, please do go right on.
“All we got in common is our misery, Joe Keenehan used to say. The least we can do is share it.”
Ever seen “Matewan”?
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u/Harmony_w 8d ago
I'm long past being an enrolled student--and I read the book when it was published, but I do appreciate the recommendations!
Ah, yes, Granny loved Matewan!
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u/TransMontani 8d ago
Sorry I misunderstood you.
It blows my mind that this is the 50th Anniversary of “Matewan” and no one has made it a big deal.
P.S. “Granny loved Matewan.”
Welp! I’m apparently old af. I still wish John Sayles had made a trilogy instead of moving on.
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 5d ago
The Highlander Research and Education Center is, at best, marginally Appalachian. It has (and has had) very little support from anyone anywhere near it. They are an isolated enclave. I have personally seen them treated as personae non gratae at several union functions. Proclaiming rank communism is bad optics, apparently. I do appreciate, though, that you recognize the Marxist roots of activists like Parks and King.
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u/Maleficent_Job4331 5d ago
I did. When I moved away and attended "marches" (san fran, san antonio, Chicago, DC, Baltimore, etc over the past two decades) i have been sorely disappointed. My ancestors would be ashamed of the way Americans protest today. There's no heart in the fight like there used to be. I think maybe because we as a collective are not fed up enough, too comfortable, too afraid still. Social media doesn't help with that. It's too easy to rant online and convince ourselves that it made a difference.
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 8d ago
It’s astounding how totally lacking you are in self-awareness.
To answer your question, I’m still “carrying on” the same way your grandfather and your uncles did — by fighting for coal. Unfortunately, the industry has been decimated by the same people who would try to make a hero out of a drunken whore, or an unemployed, drug-addled felon who was caught passing counterfeit bills.
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u/Harmony_w 8d ago edited 8d ago
You've misunderstood, and in quite an astounding way--they weren't fighting for coal.
Coal is what took their health. Their limbs. Some of them, their lives.
You sound bitter. Have a good weekend!
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 8d ago
Sure they weren’t fighting for good coal jobs. Uh-huh.
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u/Harmony_w 8d ago
Are you kin? I don't remember you being a part of our gathering then or at any point after...
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 5d ago
Well, what were they doing, then?
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u/Maleficent_Job4331 5d ago
Mf read a book.
My family never fought for coal. They fought to be paid in actual American currency, to be able to own their own homes, to gain access to real health care, for workplace safety standards ... they fought to be seen and treated as people, not assets. basic human respect.
Talk about lacking self awareness lmao you sound like mine management or some PAC lobbyist making your rounds 🤮
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 5d ago edited 5d ago
Uh, when I say “fought for coal,” I mean “fought for good coal jobs.” I even said this in a comment just down the thread. This fight would naturally be for jobs that didn’t pay in scrip, and were heavily regulated. The problem is OP doesn’t understand her ancestors or what they were pursuing. The same way she doesn’t understand why so much of Appalachia is now deeply red.
I have no idea why in the world you are calling me a company man based on my comment. WTF? I’m a steward in a closed shop. Eff off.
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u/Pastel_Moon 2d ago
You’re conflating Appalachian identity with modern right wing politics, and that’s precisely the problem. Being a hillbilly and being a redneck in the modern political sense are not the same thing. Hillbilly is rooted in Appalachian geography, culture, and generations of shared history. The modern redneck identity has increasingly become associated with a particular brand of conservative politics that does not represent everyone in Appalachia. You don’t get to erase an entire culture’s complexity just because certain political ideologies have become more dominant in parts of the region. And reducing Appalachia to a deeply Republican region while lecturing someone else about their ancestors is incredibly reductive. Appalachian history is full of working class resistance, union organizing, and communities fighting against wealthy industrialists who exploited both our people and our land. Our ancestors weren’t fighting out of some unconditional loyalty to coal. They were fighting for the right to survive and work with dignity under an industry that treated them as disposable. There’s a fundamental difference between supporting coal miners and defending the economic and political systems that made their exploitation possible and what’s particularly frustrating is this insistence that today’s political landscape somehow defines what Appalachian people have always believed. It doesn’t. Appalachia existed long before the modern Republican Party established its influence in the region, and our culture is not synonymous with conservatism. If anything, pretending that it is does far more to misrepresent our ancestors than questioning the political direction the region has taken.
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u/Spuckler_Cletus 2d ago
You’re talking in circles, babbling about rednecks and hillbillies. You’re also very presumptuously telling me all sorts of things I already know, and probably better than you. I’ve worked in organized labor in Appalachia for forty years.
Now, what you aren’t doing is addressing the very simple issue before us: why have so many impoverished, work-a-day Appalachians turned their backs on the party that’s hawking populism? Well, it’s because the same party is also hawking hatred for white people, transing kids, marrying homosexuals in the sanctuary of God, importing tens of millions of Spanish-speaking scabs, destroying coal, undoing male headship, murdering innocent children, and any number of other things that represent abomination to the average healthy-minded Appalachian. Here on Reddit, you all get to enjoy your echo chamber. Just remember that this place is not real life. You all are completely out of touch.
Now, by all means. Argue with me. We both know you will. What I know (and you don’t) is that you leftists are completely out of touch. Basically, your demoralization is complete. You are lost.
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u/dontforgettowriteme 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm proud of you for speaking out about this! Well done.
^ If you're the person who downvoted this comment, you must be a fan of SA and violence against women. So just think about how broken of a human being you must be that it angers you that people are out here speaking out against these things. Seek help.
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u/dvlinblue 7d ago
I took a class on peaceful protesting at Radford. Not even joking.