Today we are talking the west mine wars. This is for for our class. This is really the beginning of a of a new section after your midterm. So this is a point were going to start today by looking at some some big picture concepts, concepts that weve talked about, maybe looking at some maps that weve already seen this semester. And are going to use those to kind of touch base throughout this lecture and, look at those concepts and get a better understanding of how these these two sections of the class connect with one another. So first, i know ive showed you these maps before, or at least some version of them might be a little a little more updated then the ones that i was showing at the beginning, the semester. But these are maps i use a lot, maps that i use plenty in in these classes. And i think that can tell us many stories. Right . Not just about the United States, but particularly for us, whats happening in in appalachia and the structural, systematic social issues as poverty rate, Health Effects that are often discussed and talked about within the region. So if i if i ask you by looking at this, this man, this is a map of persistent poverty counties, persistent poverty mean that means that there is long poverty occurring right in these in these counties that are being measured. Its not just a one off. Right. You are not finding that significant levels of, people are living in poverty in these counties just for one year. Right. Its usually multiple years or it is multiple years in succession, which is why we call it persistent poverty. It kind of highlights this as a structural issue, not as some sort of outlier or interpersonal issue of that nature. So ill begin this map actually touches on several things that weve that weve talked not just not just coal mining or the mine wars in that conversation, but some others. But what do you all what do you notice about this about this map . What would jump out to you. Yes. Yeah, theres a healthy portion in appalachia specifically which portion . A portion of appalachia do we know of . West virginia, West Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern. And some of these counties in south West Virginia as well that is what we call appalachia, coal. Right. So exactly. Persistent poverty is heavily centered in those areas in within appalachia. What else do we notice . Theres some other things that this map tells us as well that we can just touch on. Yes, right here, a big proportion along Mississippi River, big portion along the Mississippi River, right. Certainly, this is something that weve talked about when we the antebellum south. Right. The black belt that you can see here, also the Mississippi River valley. So this map is also demonstrating structural inequalities or structural poverty in areas historically align with plantation agriculture and the and the slave system in the United States. Another map that i know shown you before, this is a map of excess mortality rates in really what we see is. You can kind of lay this map directly over the one that we were just looking at with poverty as well. So again, were kind of getting into understanding where these where these structures lie, where these social issues are. And once again, with excess mortality, this is ill add one little caveat. This is its a little dated its based on 2010 census data or other data from 2010 in with the census and then some other studies, you know, throughout that covid really skewed some of the recent maps with this. So i have to lean on the older ones, but certainly newer maps would if you could somehow take that out of out of the picture, which we certainly cant, would kind of reflect in the in the same way again. Right. The coal fields we see southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, southwestern virginia. And also again, theres some pretty heavy excess mortality occurring right along the Mississippi River valley. And in some of those historical places. Well, anybody else notice anything, too, you know, whats up there in the in the top in the dakotas . Any clue what that is. Yes, with the indian reservation. Yes. Those would absolutely be indian reservations. Right. So this is kind of another touchstone with class in looking at where these these issues lie. Right. Indian reservations, of course, being something that we didnt get to spend too much to discuss about when we talked about the trail of and indian removal policy and that process. But certainly there was lots of of system adic issues that have stemmed from from the the the ethnic of of native americans from the southeast. Right. So with those we can really see. Right, kind of a rounded take away from our first unit of the class where we talked about everything right from from indian removal to the antebellum south. The slaves the role that that played in appalachia also the rolls right that we see it having continuously the legacies of those of those systems and of those atrocities as they took place. But now as we move into the 20th century, right. With this class and were focusing on on coal country, we see that there is another right kind of long term structurally deficient, impoverished area that also has serious effects as well. And certainly if you start looking through the numbers of excess mortality, i mean, its really quite incredible to think about the coal fields, right . You have multiple counties within within appalachian coalfields themselves. Again, just being kind of that little that little tri state area of southern West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky and southWest Virginia being, you know, among the most impoverished in unhealthy places in the entire nation. Right. Heresome numbers breath it county, kentucky, has a Life Expectancy70. 2 years old. That is the same as kazakhstan mcdollounty, West Virginia, ich is going to be notable today in the conversation about the mine was 70. 3 years. Perry county, kentucky as well, 70. 6 years old, which is the same as north korea. Right. So were Health Effects and excess mortality and Life Expectancy rates here that are you know, we wouldnt say are on par with what should exist in the wealthiest country in the world. Instead, we are seeing extreme poverty. And today, i think in this discussion of the mind wars and and mining more generally were going to get a understanding and a grounding as we move forward in this class. Talking about coal mining, talking about resource extraction. Right. But also right. Some of the fights that took place to better those circumstances. Right and why those long term conditions came out the way that they did so that we end up with. And it also lends itself conversations about stigmatization and stereotypes that weve been having about people from appalachia, about the region itself, often being blamed for what, you know, are more historical and structural problems, not, you know, interpersonal or cultural problems. So thats going to bring us to the to the next point here. I do want to touch base with this really perhaps for the the audience to write, but one thing id like to do in classes and particularly talking to students is to talk about the way that scholarship and research has been done right on these this subject matter and on these topics in particular, early appalachia itself. So in the mid 20th century, in the 1960s, right, the Lyndon B Johnson administration is going to to try to undertake what they call the great the Great Society is an expansion of the new deal order that is specific actually what it is. It was creating federal agencies, passing federal legislation in order to target right. Places that were that were dealing with poverty or that it dealt with racism. If youre talking about the rural south, it is really a target on those social issues. Right . One of the big ones is the war on poverty and appalachia. Right. Because of its long term poverty and some of that systematic becomes a target of this federal legislation. Youre familiar with this in some way, right . The appalachian regional is created in this kind of flurry of of Great Society legislation in the sixties. So if you think about that map that weve kind of been using all year long, that really kind of goes from its on county data, right . It goes from mississippi all the way up into the new york. Right. Some of it looks pretty far out. Right. You know, places that you wouldnt consider to be appalachia. But certainly we have those areas that are considered to be more centrally located in appalachia. Right. Looking, you know, of course, these being the coal fields themselves. But when this is created, right, scholars researchers are brought in to help federal agencies. The Appalachian Regional Commission understand right where these levels of poverty came from and how they could be fixed. Unfortunate. In the 1960s, the dominant model all right. For this type of understanding was the culture of poverty model. Thats what we call it now. Is very deficient, right. You all will be familiar with some of the ideas come out of it. It is based heavily those stigmatization and stereotypes that weve seen occur like in the local color fiction writing movement that happened after the civil war continued into the 19, really into the 19 teens and twenties and thirties. Right. You know, framing appalachia as this idea like kind of isolated landscape populated by these very peculiar and strange and and culturally backwards people in one way or another. So what we have with this with this this this model of of culture, of poverty. Right. Is saying that these people were, you know, the people that inhabited these counties that were struggling with poverty. Right. Were were were deficient, you know, in their culture, their families were deficient the way that they brought up their children were deficient. So it created these, you know, these social issues and its shortsighted because its certainly victim blaming. Right. We we certainly understand that. But it doesnt really give us a good understanding right about how things like poverty and excess mortality really come about. Right. The actual long term consequences is right, not just to the things, you know, like, like culture, interpersonal decisions. Of course, people can make bad decisions, right. But the way that the land itself the people that live there have been systematic exploited. Right. Many in appalachia a certainly theres been a trend of dispossession, people being removed off their land right from their home places. Weve seen the role of land of absentee landholders. Right. Or absentee landlords land speculators. And now into the 20th century particularly this growth of king coal and resource extraction industries. Right. So this was was deficient in a of ways it it it really was a mixed bag the way that the Appalachian Regional Commission was able to distribute some of this money a lot of the money, the federal money that would go to help poverty would would not to the places most in need they would go to more urban or metropolitan areas would go to townships, places that some sort of, you know, Community Safety net, perhaps, but that wasnt dealing with the struggle of poverty as we would see right. And those in those rural coalfields that had historically linked right to the coal Mining Industry and the company, which we will discuss that they that they inhabited. So certainly this is something that weve that weve kind of touched on from now. But by the 1980s, we see a different of model emerging with the failures of of this Great Society order in the 1980s, Appalachian Studies scholars get together, they come up with a new a new model, not new on its own. Thre really kind of borrowing right from another model itself, internal. It is specifically different than this classical colonization. You know, if youre thinking in classical colonialism, then were thinking, right, european empires coming across the sea, landing, exploiting, removing genocide and enslaving. Right. You know, the the indigenous population of those places and creating systems that extract right and plunder wealth, you know, from those places, those people. Thats how we think about classical colonialism. But internal colonization is specifically right. So it is kind a jargony, but but short definition that ill, ill say out loud just to t it out there beforeind of fleshing this out a little further. Internal colonialism or internal colonition, an internal colony is a sub society, structurally alien aided and lackg resources because of processes of the total political system. Internal colonization. And certainly, you know something, these scholars in the eighties are to, you know, borrow pretty heavily from and looking at this theory or at this model for for understanding poverty is looking at the jim crow south. That is probably the quintessential, you know example an internal colony or internal colonized nation in the United States. If you look the jim crow south, what you see is that you have one a sub society, right. Of a population. Were not seeing know these european empires coming over you know and ants you know imposing themselves on indigenous populations that that live in these new places. Its happening within the state within society itself. So we have a subset i. T group. Right. And what happens and perhaps itll help you understand, you know, if we, if we talk about jim crow as internal colonization a little better, right. What you see is, you know, with reconstruction as we as we discussed. Right. Theres theres widespread violence, theres widespread intimidation of black voters across states of black of of black freedom more generally and eventually. Right. That widespread violence is going to start restricting their ability to hold office, their ability to vote. And once you have a white majority or at least enough of a white majority, those will all start getting codified. Call those the jim crow laws. Its disenfranchize segment taking the vote away from people. It is segregation, right . You know, regulating where people can go and society where they can, where they can eat, where they can dine, water fountains they can drink from who they can marry, where they can travel. Right. Theres certainly also the ever present threat of of mob violence that is there as well. But once thats codified, you have a legal system, you have Law Enforcement all working to kind of create a new system for a sub society of american society, in this case, black americans living in southern jim crow states. Right. That that really just kind of renders them a secondary citizen. So to be entirely colonized means that they are not getting their full right, you know, or the full abundance of American American rights they are instead rendered to the second class. They are exploited. All right. Often considered stigmatized themselves as being as being right. Ent and kept within. This this kind of idea of an internal colony. So what scholars do is they borrow from that in appalachia and, you know, rather than seeing that there are and certainly will, well get into to some of the ways that the Company Towns were regulated in a minute you know but what you see is actually the combination of a legal system and the Economic System itself. Right. Particularly big resource exaction industries, wealthy right organization, those that could come in, they defrauded people. Their money, they they bought land from people. They also exploited them. Right, for their for their so called mineral rights, which was this idea. Right. That that the companies themselves could purchase the rights to coal that existed beneath surface, even if someone who lived in appalachia. Right, a native appalachian, maybe that theyve lived on this subsistence farm for for three generations or even longer. Theyre right. They have the property rights, but that is the mineral rights, right. So the companies themselves would claim that they had a right to the minerals, they could be extracted and you are even remotely familiar with how coal mining works. You know, you have to go down through the top, right . So it would destroy their their property. They would often be displaced, right. Talked about this kind of unique way of life in appalachia already, the way that mountains were used as grazing pastures. They were used for foraging for for timberlands. Right. For recreation. Nobody had a proper legal claim to these spaces. Right. So it also made it easy for those resource Extraction Companies, particularly big companies, able to swoop in and kind of, you know, gather those things up as. Theyre doing this. People were displaced, right there, losing their way of life. They dont have access to the resources that they had previously. So generally what were seeing is that we have people that cant make any ends meet like they once did, people that may not have a place to go. Theyre displaced. Their land or their land has been destroyed. So what options does that leave them . Where do they go . What happens to those people . You know, people would their land i mean there theres theres this kind of trick, right. You know, bring the lawyers down. They would offering some money for, their homesteads and it would be just enough right. You know, there would be some kind of connection. There. Maybe it wasnt like, you know, theres not enough money to. Really take something, you know, to buy something thats been in your in your family for generations or maybe you raised your kids there or something. But at a point, you get so much money right . You would be pretty much an idiot for not taking it right or you would feel like one. So people sold out. They often sold out for for cheaper than they should from not understanding. Or sometimes they did make a profit, but they werent really looking to leave anyway. So some of those people absent they would take jobs with with the Min