Middle school students across the country should learn about the West Virginia Mine Wars.
Middle school students across the country should learn about West Virginia history, especially about the Mine Wars. Learning about the mine wars will teach 3 things – the strength of a civilization when there is injustice, standing up for what is right, and inspire us to work to stop current problems like pollution and slurry from mountaintop removal. Learning about mountain top removal will make it so more people know how bad Mountain top removal is and will want to stop it.
Learning about the mine wars shows how a civilization can organize successfully against something else that is bigger and stronger than itself. West Virginia has a powerful history including events such as the fight of Blair Mountain and the creation of the union. The mine wars happened in part because coal companies took advantage of our people and took our mineral rights without taking care of the land. The mine wars helped to start a labor movement that resulted in better conditions for all miners not just West Virginia miners.
I think middle school students will find our history interesting because it shows that anybody can make a difference from big to small, especially when working together. I believe West Virginia should be a role model for how to fight injustice. Just like how West Virginia organized against the coal companies, we can organize against current problems like mountain top removal.
Learning about the mine wars might inspire us to work to stop current problems like pollution and slurry from mountaintop removal. Organizing would make it so that people near mountaintop removal sites can touch their water and not have to hide and be afraid every moment of their lives that an explosion will damage their house or destroy their community. In Figure 1, a group of people are organizing against Blair Mountain being destroyed by mountain top removal. Blair Mountain was the largest armed rebellion since the civil war. 20,000 men fired on each other over ten miles. This picture literally represents the importance of learning about the WV mine wars to stopping modern problems.
Everyone thinks of West Virginia as the coal state. We need to transition from coal to solar or another renewable energy so that we don’t have more slurry than ocean in 1000 years. By learning about the mine wars, people will see that were not backwards people and not just focused on coal. People will learn who we are and where we are. People should visit and see what it’s like here and see what a beautiful place it is.
