“Rise Up! West Virginia” A Campaign to Turn the Tide

Bob Kincaid & Nanette Nelson

West Virginia residents living in the “coal sacrifice zone” have been suffering from the effects of Mountaintop Removal coal mining for over 20 years. 

Their water is contaminated with toxic chemicals.

Their air is polluted.

Their foundations are cracked from daily blasting.

They live below dangerous sludge dams holding back billions of gallons of toxic coal waste.

Pauline Canterberry & Mary Miller

Their homes are covered in coal dust.

Their property values have dropped to nearly nothing.

They live in constant fear of flooding.

Their children breathe coal dust in their classrooms.

Their roads are unsafe due to caravans of over-weight coal trucks.

They can no longer freely visit their cemeteries, which are being destroyed.

Many have been forced to move from their homes and ancestral land.

Larry Gibson on Kayford Mountain

The truth is that an entire culture – the culture of Appalachia – is being blasted out of the history books.  And the people are being thrown away like yesterday’s garbage.

It’s hard for you and me to fathom this kind of life – day after day, year after year – needing help from your government – and not getting it.

Travel with me through southern West Virginia. 

Meet our people – and listen to their stories.

“Rise Up! West Virginia”  The Movie

Photos from the Film