Exploring Eastern Kentucky - Cultural Preservation and Public Interest Law

March 22, 2018
By: Jake Maguire

Today definitely began on a gloomy note because we had to say farewell to Mike and Wanda King and their amazing community of Montgomery, West Virginia. Wanda woke up before we did for her shift at Montgomery General Hospital, so we wished her well last night, but we said goodbye to Mike and Natalie, the King’s awesome dog, this morning. We left Montgomery at about 8:30 a.m. and made the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Whitesburg, Kentucky. Our drive to Whitesburg was super interesting. We traversed many steep hills, navigated through deep valleys along winding roads, and eventually passed through Logan County, West Virginia, an area of the state that has been hit particularly hard by the decline of coal mining and the opioid epidemic. Once we crossed the border to eastern Kentucky, we drove through Pike and Letcher Counties. Despite the challenges associated with living in this long-impoverished region, we noticed a significant amount of pride among the people of eastern Kentucky for their schools, children, and communities. For example, when we drove by Belfry Middle School in Pike County, KY, we noticed some amazing posters and decorations commemorating the school’s teams, the Pirates, on the exterior surface of the school.

"Old Red," the radio host at Appalshop

We arrived at Appalshop, a center of Appalachian culture and historical preservation in Whitesburg, Kentucky, at about 12:30 in the afternoon. Elizabeth Barret, an archivist and filmmaker at Appalshop, gave us a tour of the facility. We met with “Old Red,” the host of Appalshop’s radio station, WMMT-FM 88.7. We also explored the archives at Appalshop and saw a variety of photographs taken by William R. “Pictureman” Mullins during the mid-20^th century in eastern Kentucky. In addition, we watched an hour-long documentary that Elizabeth Barret directed, “The Stranger With A Camera.” It is a well-researched, emotionally moving film that describes how the community of Jeremiah, Kentucky reacted to the 1967 murder of British filmmaker Hugh O’Connor by a local resident. O’Connor had traveled to Letcher County, KY to document the War on Poverty, which President Lyndon B. Johnson famously declared on the front porch of a house in nearby Martin County, Kentucky on April 24, 1964. Appalshop also arose out of an initiative from the Office of Economic Opportunity, an institution established by President Johnson’s War on Poverty legislation. We all enjoyed meeting with Elizabeth Barret and being able to ask her any and all questions that we had!

Shelbi and Mary-Versa look at historical photos at Appalshop.

After leaving Appalshop, we ate lunch at Heritage Kitchen in downtown Whitesburg and visited the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center (ACLC). The food at Heritage Kitchen was phenomenal, the servers were extremely helpful, and the artwork on the walls of the restaurant portrayed the struggles of life in Appalachia extremely well. Once we finished lunch, we walked down the street to the ACLC, a nonprofit law firm in Whitesburg that represents coal miners and their families on issues such as black lung and mine safety and litigates on behalf of the public interest in cases pertaining to abandoned mining lands (AML’s) and environmental protection from damage caused by extractive industries. Stephen A. Sanders, ACLC’s Director, Mary Varson Cromer, an attorney at ACLC, and Eric Dixon, the Coordinator of Policy and Community Engagement at ACLC, all gave up nearly two hours of their time to meet with us. They gave us a wealth of information about AML’s, public interest law, hardships faced by coal miners and their families, and environmental protection litigation. Eric Dixon also described some of his efforts to lobby Congress and Kentucky’s delegation, including U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and U.S. Representative Hal Rogers, for the RECLAIM Act, a bipartisan bill that would allot $1 billion from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund towards revitalizing coal mining communities in Appalachia. 

We left Whitesburg at about 6 p.m. in order to make the hour-and-a-half drive to the bed & breakfast where we were staying that night, the Hatfield McCoy House in Williamson, WV, the seat of Mingo County. One of the groups accidently made a (quick) detour to Virginia along the way. After arriving at the Hatfield McCoy House, where we had booked four rooms on the second and third floors, some of our group went out to dinner at Sazon Mexican Restaurant in Williamson. The food was great, and we settled down for bed shortly thereafter.

This is a particularly memorable photo from Appalshop of Mary Jane Mullins Dotson, the sister of "Pictureman" Mullins. Mary Jane, a school teacher, used this cow to teach geography because the markings on its side purportedly looked like a map of Europe.