Appalachian Ghost (eBook)

A Photographic Reimagining of the Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster

Raymond Thompson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
136 Seiten
The University Press of Kentucky (Verlag)
978-0-8131-9900-9 (ISBN)

Infos

In the early days of the Great Depression, the search for steady work drove thousands of migrant laborersmany of whom were African Americanfrom all over Appalachia to a rural area near Fayetteville, West Virginia. Union Carbide Corporation had begun construction on a three-mile tunnel to divert the New River, and many hands were needed. Toiling for five years in confined spaces with poor ventilation, no means of dust control, and limited use of personal breathing protection, theworkers were repeatedly exposed to pure silica dust. Many developed silicosis, an incurable and debilitating lung disease that is estimated to have caused the deaths of nearly eight hundred workers, two-thirds of whom were Black. Soon after, the US House of Representatives Committee on Labor classified silicosis as an occupational hazard. Despite the disaster's impact, information about its severity was largely suppresseda decision that ensured the event faded quickly from public memory. Aside from a small plaque at Hawk's Nest State Park, which inaccurately admits to only 109 victims, there is little to mark the site of the worst industrial accident to date in the United States.In Appalachian Ghost: A Photographic Reimagining of the Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster, author Raymond Thompson Jr. explores the possibilities of that tragedy by reviving the faces and spaces of Hawk's Nest. Using primary source materials to re-create the workers' experiences in photographs, Thompson recontextualizes archival images to present a counter-archive that positions the Black experience at Hawk's Nest within the larger story of the American labor landscape. His photographs and poetry give voice to the silenced, resisting revisionist narratives that often ignore the sacrifices of African Americans and erase their instrumental role in the development of America's infrastructure.

Autor

Raymond Thompson Jr., assistant professor of photojournalism at University of Texas at Austin, is an artist, educator, and visual journalist. He holds an MFA in photography from West Virginia University and an MA in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked as a freelance photographer for the New York Times, the Intercept, NBC News, NPR, Politico, ProPublica, the Nature Conservancy, the ACLU, WBEZ, Google, Merrell, and the Associated Press.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations
Expanding the Archive, by Catherine Venable Moore
Looking for Ghosts, by Raymond Thompson
1. The Gravesite
2. The Overlook
3. Below the Dam
4. The Powerhouse
5. Alloy, West Virginia
6. Employees of Rinehart Dennis Company and Camp Followers Who Died in West Virginia, April 1, 1930-December 31, 1935
The Vital Organs of Industry (Afterword), by Rebecca Altman
Notes
Permissions and Sources
Acknowledgments
About the Author

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.3.2024
• Reihe/Serie: Appalachian Futures: Black, Native, and Queer Voices
• Nachwort: Rebecca Altman
• Vorwort: Catherine Venable Moore
• Zusatzinfo: 87 color illustrations
• Verlagsort: Lexington
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 250 x 250 mm
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Fotokunst
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
• Schlagworte: african american labor • Environmental Disaster • Hydroelectric power • industrial disaster • photography • Silicosis • union carbide • West Virginia
• ISBN-10: 0-8131-9900-X / 081319900X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9900-9 / 9780813199009