Film. Directed and produced by Barbara Kopple. 1976. 103 minutes.
This documentary tells the story of a Kentucky coal miners' strike and the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
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Article. By Bill Bigelow. 2013. If We Knew Our History Series.
Textbooks portray coal purely as a relic of the past, and fail to discuss its central role in today’s climate crisis.
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Book — Fiction. By Silas House and Neela Vaswani. 2013. 304 pages.
Two 12-year old pen pals find commonalities in issues of the environment, immigration, employment, and overall human rights.
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Film. Directed by Bill Haney. Produced by Clara Bingham and Eric Grunebaum. 2011. 95 minutes.
Documentary on the consequences of mining and burning coal, with a focus on mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.
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Article. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools, Summer 2011.
Rethinking Schools exposes links between Scholastic and the coal industry.
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Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools. 15 pages.
Using chocolate chip cookie "mining," this lively activity takes a critical look at how the coal industry teaches the impact of coal mining.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Jeff Biggers. 2014 (2nd edition). 328 pages.
The untold history of coal mining in the U.S. through the lens of race, labor, and the environment.
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Film. Directed by Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood. 2010. 81 minutes.
This film takes viewers on a gripping emotional journey into a community surrounded by a looming toxic threat.
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Film. Produced by Peter Bull, Justin Weinstein, Alex Gibney. 2010. 88 minutes.
A feature documentary that addresses the questions: Can coal be made clean? Can renewables and efficiency happen on a scale large enough to replace coal?
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Song. By David Rovics. 2005.
Eye-opening song that tells of the perils of mountain top removal.
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Song. By David Rovics. 2003.
Ballad about the West Virginia Coal Mine War of 1920-1921.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Mark Nowak. 2009. 190 pages.
An expose of the coal industry using a combination of poetry, images, first person testimonies, and newspaper accounts.
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Book — Non-fiction. By Susan Campbell Bartoletti. 2003. 208 pages.
Describes the conditions and treatment that drove working children to strike, from the mill workers' strike in 1834 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the children who marched with Mother Jones in 1903.
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Film. Written and directed by John Sayles. 1987. 132 minutes.
A feature film depicting a strike in a mining town in Appalachia and the struggle for solidarity across racial lines.
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NASA scientist James Hansen testified to Congress stating the greenhouse effect had been detected.
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An explosion at the Banner Mine in Alabama killed 128 men, almost all of them African American prisoners of the state who were forced to work in the mine under the convict leasing system.
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A disaster in the Cherry Mine in Cherry, Illinois, killed 259 boys and men.
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A small band of striking coal miners in southern Illinois called out Chicago coal barons and stood their ground at Virden.
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