Standing Our Ground: Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal

Images

Picture of lush mountains in central Appalachia along Route 19 in Nicholas County, West Virginia (2011). Photo by: Tyler Underwood. A view of Kayford Mountain, taken in 1998 when organizing against MTR began in West Virginia. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. The Coal River Mountain Watch office in Whitesville, West Virginia. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. Mountain mural painted by Sarah Haltom on the office of the Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, West Virginia. The mural was defaced by unknown pro-coal forces that painted yellow bulldozers on the side of the mountain. CRMW members responded by painting people chained to the bulldozers and carrying signs with anticoal messages. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. Graffiti wars between pro-coal and anticoal forces in Whitesville, West Virginia. The mountain mural, painted by Sarah Haltom, was vandalized by someone who painted yellow bulldozers on the mural. CRMW members responded by painting pictures of activists holding anticoal protest signs. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. Janice Nease participating in a May 2004 protest directed at Massey Energy. Massey’s shareholders and board of directors were holding their annual meeting in Charleston, West Virginia. Here Nease poses as a member of the Massey board of directors behind bars for crimes committed against the people and environment of Appalachia. Photo by: Vivian Stockman. Patty Sebok, member of the Coal River Mountain Watch, masquerades as a Massey Energy board of directors member jailed for crimes committed against the people and environment of Appalachia (Charleston, West Virginia, 2004). Photo by: Vivian Stockman. Judy Bonds being interviewed in the Coal River Valley, West Virginia (2006). Photo by: Vivian Stockman. Lindytown in Boone County, West Virginia. Neighborhood homes are acquired by coal companies expanding their operations. Once homes located near MTR sites are obtained, they are boarded up and eventually bulldozed and burned. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. Lorelei Scarbro, former member of the Coal River Mountain Watch and founder of the Boone Raleigh Community Group in West Virginia. Scarbro speaks on the steps of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, during Appalachia Rising (2010). Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition member Maria Gunnoe (with Larry Gibson, left) on the steps of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, during Appalachia Rising (2010). Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. The Sylvester Dustbusters, Pauline Canterbury (left) and Mary Miller, protesting the impact of Big Coal on local communities. Photo by: Vivian Stockman. Billboard on Route 3, Surveyor, West Virginia. These public signs reveal the competing interests in the coalfields in this era of MTR. On the left, local anti-MTR activists featured a sign suggesting mountains are divine creations. The billboard to the right is an ad by the ICG coal company used to recruit workers for new mining operations in West Virginia. Photo by: Joyce M. Barry. ...