Folkways Reporter Zack Harold recently made a trip to the small town of New Vrindaban, in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. It’s a Hare Krishna community started in the late 60s. These days, the town is home to a few hundred permanent residents, but thousands of pilgrims visit each year. They come to worship in the temple — and to visit the opulent Palace of Gold. But those main attractions were a pretty small part of Zack’s trip. He ended up spending much of his time in the kitchen.
One hundred years ago, West Virginia was home to our nation’s most violent labor uprising.
For some, the Battle of Blair Mountain was a watershed moment when coal workers decided their rights were worth fighting and even dying for. The armed insurrection pitted 10,000 coal miners against 3,000 heavily armed coal industry guards and state troopers. The conflict came to a head because of the social and economic forces that hit West Virginia’s coal country after World War I. It was the largest labor uprising in American history and the largest armed conflict since the Civil War. And yet, the Battle of Blair Mountain is largely unknown to most Americans, including West Virginians.
To learn more, Us & Them host Trey Kay follows the path of the miners on their march to Mingo, and learns what precipitated the battle.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
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Historian Charles Keeney (author of The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal) takes Us & Them host Trey Kay to retrace the “March from Marmet to Mingo.”
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The boarded up Whipple Company Store in Whipple, W.Va. was built around 1900. As a company store, it remained in operation until August 1957, when the New River Company mine closed.
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Singer/songwriter Mary Hott explores the old Whipple Company Store — one of the last remaining coal company stores in Fayette County, WV. The songs on Hott’s album “Devil In The Hills” focuses on the culture of the company store and its effect on women.
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United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts speaking at a rally in New York City in July 2021. UMWA miners protested outside of the Manhattan headquarters of BlackRock, which is listed as the largest shareholder of Warrior Met Coal. For months, the UMWA has protested Warrior Met for better wages and employee benefits.
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UMWA protest in midtown New York City in July 2021.
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Actor Susan Sarandon speaking at a UMWA Rally in Midtown Manhattan.
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Actor Susan Sarandon speaks with Us & Them host Trey Kay at a UMWA Rally in NYC in July 2021
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold recently made a trip to the small town of New Vrindaban, in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. It’s a Hare Krishna community started in the late 60s. These days, the town is home to a few hundred permanent residents, but thousands of pilgrims visit each year. They come to worship in the temple — and to visit the opulent Palace of Gold. But those main attractions were a pretty small part of Zack’s trip. He ended up spending much of his time in the kitchen.
This week on Inside Appalachia, a Hare Krishna community in West Virginia serves vegetarian food made in three sacred kitchens. Also, an Asheville musician’s latest guitar album is a call to arms. And, we talk soul food with Xavier Oglesby, who is passing on generations of kitchen wisdom to his niece.
The Sierra Club’s complaint argued that a PSC 2021 directive for Appalachian Power to operate its three West Virginia coal plants at a 69% capacity factor had increased the cost of electricity.