The March to Blair Mountain

The March on Blair Mountain was a large victory for all those who want fair pay, safe working conditions, an important part of America's history told and preserved, and an end to the most destructive form of mining (Mountaintop Removal) stopped. The first march up Blair Mtn., in 1921, was about organizing workers for fair pay and safer workplace conditions. This was one of the major points addressed in the most recent march, as well as preserving the mountain as an historic landmark by protecting it from MTR.
Estimates on the number of those attending the rally in Blair were as high as 2000+, and more than 850 folks were counted on the march up the last 2 miles of roadway which crisscrossed through the battlefield. The picture of the three women standing beside each other wearing the signs is important in several ways especially in that the folks way in the background, above them to the right, were counter protester telling us to go home and leave their state alone. Read their signs! There were several dozen West Virginians walking with us as we covered the fifty mile route and we often received friendly greetings from locals, stating their support for the march, with relatively infrequent, misinformed, verbal attacks from counter protesters.
As was pointed out by several speakers at the rally we must reach out to those who oppose us and open a dialogue so that we can better understand the fears they face and for them to understand ours. Peace