The population of Appalachia, like most of rural America, is more diverse than many people realize. And the recent support for racial justice has been larger than many expected. When Joseph Palumbo signed on to help organize a Black Lives Matter march in his Eastern Kentucky hometown of Hazard, he figured 50 people would show […]
On June 12, Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America, was the final speaker at the 2020 West Virginia Association of Black Lung Clinics annual conference. Roberts began his remarks with a video clip of former miners testifying before the House Education and Labor Committee in June 2019 about contracting black lung […]
One of the biggest challenges affecting efforts to rebuild eastern Kentucky’s economy is the failure of the state to properly invest in the region and its people due to an inadequate tax system that has led to repeated budget cuts to education, health care, social services, infrastructure and more. In this episode, Jason Bailey, Executive […]
Citizens from six states traveled to Washington D.C. in late November 2018, to urge their legislators to uphold the fees supporting the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, and to pass the Reclaim Act. One in 5 miners in our region have Black Lung, and that rate has doubled in the past decade. And yet, as […]
