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AN APPALACHIAN MIGRANT TALKS ABOUT MOVING NORTH: n_F*"ENOUGH WORK WAS AVAILABLE, 90% OF US WOULD COME BACK HOME" by Jim Cornett LIBERATION News Service "When I was a child, my family would travel Down to Western Kentucky, where my parents were born And there's a backwards: old town, that's often remembered So many times, that my memories are worn. And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paridise lay Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away." —From "Paradise", a song by J,.,. .. ,, ' John Prine (Editor's note: Since World War II, there has been a steady migration of people from small rural communities in the south looking for work in the big cities of the north. Most often when people think of that migration they think of black people coining up from the deep _outh. But there is another migration; the migration of mostly white people from the coal fields of Appalachia. i In the last 30 years at least four million people have moved into cities like Cincinnatti, Dayton, Akron, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit. Many of them have found jobs in the large, heavy industries in those cities. Others kren't as lucky; many wind up on welfare . The lucky ones have been able to move to working class suburbs ; others live in their own innerucity ghettos. The overwhelming pattern of "progress" in Appalachia has been that of the destruction of the land by the ravenous coal companies. They have leased, stole and bought it from the small farmers. They have bought "mineral rights" and proceeded to strip the land clear down to the coal deposits—leaving nothing behind. They have opened mines which draw the men from the land down into the earth where accidental death, or black lung wait. In the 19.0's there was a lull in the coal market. Energy experts were predicting that coal outmoded as a fuel—would soon be replaced by natural gas and even nuclear energy. And so the jobs in the mines dwindled. When the great resurgence of the coal industry came in the late '60s( mostly due to an increased demand from Japan's steel industry and a discovery that coal was useful in manufacturing plastics), strip mining flourished. Strip mining, compared to underground mining , is a much quicker, easier process requiring very few miners. So althoughethe coal industry boomed, there was not'an equivalent boom in jobs. Because of the way the land has been developed, Appalachia bas a ::one product economy: coal. Therefore Appalachians, and their local governments, are totally dependent on the coal companies. Companies like Peabody Coal, Consolidated Coal, and Hanna Mining, write their own laws. Virtually untaxed, they leave no resources to pay for better schools, better roads, homes or other developments which Page 4 LIBERATION News Service! might attract other business and therefore other jobs» They have taken Appalachia's coal and minerals—and huge profits—and left nothing behind, The following story, reprinted from the Mountain Eagle, a community paper from Kentucky, is written by Jim Cornett, a young Appalachian who left Kentuckt to' find work up north. ) I left the mountains of Letcher County, Ken - tucky, in 1955, two weeks after graduation from high school. My reason for leaving was like that of so many thousands before me, to find employment and a better way of life. In my;last year of school, we were given a battery of aptitude tests» My test results revealed that the only thing I was completely qualified to do was inspecting. (This only meant that I have very good eyesight») I couldn't even get into the Caney College because I didn't have enough "math." The attitude of my high school seemed to be, "Get the student through and give- him his diploma, and we're through with him." I was totally unprepared for stepping out into the world of industry, and learned no skills in high school other than typing. One of my courses was called "shop" and it was supposed to teach us cabinet-making. In the first two weeks we made a carpenter's box to carry our tools in. The rest of the year was spent sanding and painting all the chairs in the school cafeteria. I then felf that I had five choices left open to me, I could leave for Ohio or Indiana to look for a job, but I didn't have a car or any money to get started on, I could stay and look for work in one of the few remaining coal mines still operating, but weighing only 120 pounds, it is doubtful I would have been hired. I could sit on my duff at home and hope some work would turn up that I could do, I could stay at home another year and wait for the inevitable draft (I was only 17). Or, I could volunteer for the service, I chose the latter. Of all the people who graduated with..me, I know of only three who are_still in Letcher County. Two of them married soon after graduation and a- nother was later disabled in the service. The rest of us are in Ohio, Michigan and California, We followed the graduating classes before us and were followedcby the graduating classes of succeeding years » The migration from Letcher, and surrounding counties has been tremendous, and continues on a monstrous scale. It has been said that "Southern Ohio was taken over by Kentuckians without firing a shot". Here in Dayton, Ohio there are at least two thousand people who were originally from Letcher County. If you could check 100 houses in any city in southern Ohio, you would find at least 40 families who originally had their roots in Eastern Kentucky» ',#513) April 4, 1973 more ,
Object Description
Title | Liberation news service (New York, New York) (January-April 1973) |
Place of publication | New York, New York |
Publisher | Liberation News Service |
Publication date | 1973 |
Language | English |
Country | United States |
Digital Format | XML |
Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Publication Date-Electronic | 2017 |
Rights | Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited. |
Owner | GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam |
Type | Text; Image |
Digital identifier | giNewsletter940a0000 |
Description
Title | p. 4 |
Language | English |
Digital Format | JPEG2000 |
Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Publication Date-Electronic | 2017 |
Rights | Copyright belongs to the individuals who created them or the organizations for which they worked. We share them here strictly for non-profit educational purposes. If you believe that you possess copyright to material included here, please contact us at asklibrary@wisconsinhistory.org. Under the fair use provisions of the U.S. copyright law, teachers and students are free to reproduce any document for nonprofit classroom use. Commercial use of copyright-protected material is generally prohibited. |
Owner | GI Press Project/Private Collection; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections: Gift of John Mage; The International Institute of Social History Library Collections; Brünn, Harris Watts Collection - Serials and Press Release Soldiers Movements, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam |
Full text | AN APPALACHIAN MIGRANT TALKS ABOUT MOVING NORTH: n_F*"ENOUGH WORK WAS AVAILABLE, 90% OF US WOULD COME BACK HOME" by Jim Cornett LIBERATION News Service "When I was a child, my family would travel Down to Western Kentucky, where my parents were born And there's a backwards: old town, that's often remembered So many times, that my memories are worn. And Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paridise lay Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away." —From "Paradise", a song by J,.,. .. ,, ' John Prine (Editor's note: Since World War II, there has been a steady migration of people from small rural communities in the south looking for work in the big cities of the north. Most often when people think of that migration they think of black people coining up from the deep _outh. But there is another migration; the migration of mostly white people from the coal fields of Appalachia. i In the last 30 years at least four million people have moved into cities like Cincinnatti, Dayton, Akron, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit. Many of them have found jobs in the large, heavy industries in those cities. Others kren't as lucky; many wind up on welfare . The lucky ones have been able to move to working class suburbs ; others live in their own innerucity ghettos. The overwhelming pattern of "progress" in Appalachia has been that of the destruction of the land by the ravenous coal companies. They have leased, stole and bought it from the small farmers. They have bought "mineral rights" and proceeded to strip the land clear down to the coal deposits—leaving nothing behind. They have opened mines which draw the men from the land down into the earth where accidental death, or black lung wait. In the 19.0's there was a lull in the coal market. Energy experts were predicting that coal outmoded as a fuel—would soon be replaced by natural gas and even nuclear energy. And so the jobs in the mines dwindled. When the great resurgence of the coal industry came in the late '60s( mostly due to an increased demand from Japan's steel industry and a discovery that coal was useful in manufacturing plastics), strip mining flourished. Strip mining, compared to underground mining , is a much quicker, easier process requiring very few miners. So althoughethe coal industry boomed, there was not'an equivalent boom in jobs. Because of the way the land has been developed, Appalachia bas a ::one product economy: coal. Therefore Appalachians, and their local governments, are totally dependent on the coal companies. Companies like Peabody Coal, Consolidated Coal, and Hanna Mining, write their own laws. Virtually untaxed, they leave no resources to pay for better schools, better roads, homes or other developments which Page 4 LIBERATION News Service! might attract other business and therefore other jobs» They have taken Appalachia's coal and minerals—and huge profits—and left nothing behind, The following story, reprinted from the Mountain Eagle, a community paper from Kentucky, is written by Jim Cornett, a young Appalachian who left Kentuckt to' find work up north. ) I left the mountains of Letcher County, Ken - tucky, in 1955, two weeks after graduation from high school. My reason for leaving was like that of so many thousands before me, to find employment and a better way of life. In my;last year of school, we were given a battery of aptitude tests» My test results revealed that the only thing I was completely qualified to do was inspecting. (This only meant that I have very good eyesight») I couldn't even get into the Caney College because I didn't have enough "math." The attitude of my high school seemed to be, "Get the student through and give- him his diploma, and we're through with him." I was totally unprepared for stepping out into the world of industry, and learned no skills in high school other than typing. One of my courses was called "shop" and it was supposed to teach us cabinet-making. In the first two weeks we made a carpenter's box to carry our tools in. The rest of the year was spent sanding and painting all the chairs in the school cafeteria. I then felf that I had five choices left open to me, I could leave for Ohio or Indiana to look for a job, but I didn't have a car or any money to get started on, I could stay and look for work in one of the few remaining coal mines still operating, but weighing only 120 pounds, it is doubtful I would have been hired. I could sit on my duff at home and hope some work would turn up that I could do, I could stay at home another year and wait for the inevitable draft (I was only 17). Or, I could volunteer for the service, I chose the latter. Of all the people who graduated with..me, I know of only three who are_still in Letcher County. Two of them married soon after graduation and a- nother was later disabled in the service. The rest of us are in Ohio, Michigan and California, We followed the graduating classes before us and were followedcby the graduating classes of succeeding years » The migration from Letcher, and surrounding counties has been tremendous, and continues on a monstrous scale. It has been said that "Southern Ohio was taken over by Kentuckians without firing a shot". Here in Dayton, Ohio there are at least two thousand people who were originally from Letcher County. If you could check 100 houses in any city in southern Ohio, you would find at least 40 families who originally had their roots in Eastern Kentucky» ',#513) April 4, 1973 more , |
Type | Text |
Digital identifier | giNewsletter9400388 |