Posted Date: April 22, 2021
Episode Description: In this episode, LAC member Merve Tabur interviews community organizers Colleen Unroe, Teri Blanton, and Parson Brown. Unroe, Blanton, and Brown share their experiences with various nonviolent direct actions to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. They discuss the significance of documenting the stories of people who are most affected by the abuses of the coal industry. They also reflect on the evolution of community organizing strategies over the years and emphasize the importance of “Just Transition” efforts seeking to build alternative economic development and renewable energy within Central Appalachia.
Guest Biographies
Colleen Unroe is a Ph.D. Candidate in Adult Education with a dual-title in Comparative & International Education and a graduate minor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Allegheny College, and she has received her Master’s degree in Rural Sociology from Penn State. Prior to graduate school, Colleen worked in Eastern Kentucky for 8 years as a community organizer with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth—a multi-issue organization focused on environmental, economic, and social justice. Her primary work consisted of supporting and engaging communities that are negatively impacted by the coal industry and are transitioning to a clean energy economy. Afterward, she continued her community organizing work on issues related to fossil fuel extraction and hydro-fracking in Northeastern Ohio for several years. Her dissertation explores the education and learning involved with a Just Transition in Central Appalachia and with social movements challenging the coal industry.
Teri Blanton became involved in environmental activism after learning that her community in Harlan County, Kentucky was poisoned by a coal mining equipment electrical repair shop in the early 1990s. After organizing with others in Dayhoit to get a Superfund site designation, she became involved with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC). She has been a community leader in environmental justice movements since serving as the chairperson for KFTC and as the Rockefeller Fellow at the University of Kentucky. She has also served on the EPA-appointed National Environmental Justice Advisory Council for 6 years as well as the Alliance for Appalachia’s Coordinating Committee. She has been the keynote speaker at numerous events, including KFTC’s “I Love Mountains Day,” lobbied at the state and federal levels, engaged in protests across the country, and received numerous awards, including one of the 100 Top Female Leaders at the White House Women and the Environment Summit in 2013.
Jarred “Parson Brown” Hill is a film, TV, and radio producer who has been documenting frontline communities impacted by environmental and social injustice for over a decade. Born and raised in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, his love of mountains prompted him to establish The Topless America Project in 2007 with a mission to raise awareness of the devastation caused by Mountaintop Removal coal mining throughout Appalachia. As a citizen lobbyist and organizer, he later played a strategic role with the Chicago Clean Power Coalition campaign, which resulted in the shutdown of two of the oldest coal plants in the nation. He is now based out of Los Angeles where he continues to be vigilant in his efforts to connect communities and empower others to raise their voices.
Episode Overview
This episode includes a dialogue between Colleen Unroe, former community organizer and PhD Candidate in Adult Education; Teri Blanton, a long-time community activist originally from Harlan County, Kentucky; and Parson Brown, a documentary filmmaker from Front Royal, Virginia.
Over the years, these individuals have engaged local, state, and federal governmental officials in efforts to hold the coal industry accountable through the Federal Office of Surface Mining and the EPA. In conjunction with Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and the Alliance for Appalachia, they have participated in citizen lobby efforts to improve existing laws to better protect water. In this episode, Unroe, Blanton, and Brown discuss their experiences with various nonviolent direct actions to stop mountaintop removal coal mining, including Appalachia Rising, which resulted in the arrest of over 100 citizens doing civil disobedience in front of the White House in 2012. They share their reflections on the role of documenting people’s stories most directly-affected by the worst abuses of the coal industry. They also reflect on the challenges of long-term engagement around environmental justice and discuss the evolution of community organizing strategies over the years as well as the integration of Just Transition efforts seeking to build alternative economic development and renewable energy within the region.
Resources
Butler, T., & Wuerthner, G. (2009). Plundering Appalachia. Earth Aware.
Catte, Elizabeth. (2018). What you are getting wrong about Appalachia. Belt Publishing.Reece, E. (2007). Lost Mountain: A year in the vanishing wilderness: Radical strip mining and the devastation of Appalachia. Penguin.