The Spirit of Blair Mountain Week of Action: Sharing Our Southern Stories
#SpiritofBlairMountain #ReclaimRedneck
WEEK OF ACTION AUGUST 25 — SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
We are still here and still fighting, and we ain’t going nowhere! Sign the pledge and join up!
I’m hollerin’ at y’all again — my fellow rednecks — to invite you to fight for the south and show up for Black Lives.
My name is Beth Howard. I grew up in a majority white working class community in rural Eastern Kentucky. I am a hillbilly and a redneck, and I’m showing up in defense of Black Lives and in defense of the south.
As I’ve said before:
There is a lot of suffering in Appalachia and the rural South.
We’re told to blame Black folks, immigrants, and people of color for our suffering, keeping us fighting each other instead of rich folks, corrupt politicians, and big business who are busy padding their wallets. Too many times we’ve believed these lies. But we don’t have to believe them anymore. We can make a different choice.
It’s in the Spirit of Blair Mountain that I am reaching out to you again.
Real rednecks know that the term comes from the legacy of white coal miners in West Virginia who wore red bandannas and joined with their Black comrades to rise up against the coal company during the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921.
This August is the 99th anniversary of this historic battle and Southern Crossroads is calling on all you rednecks, hillbillies, poor white trash, country bumpkins, and small town, rural folk to take action in remembrance of this powerful anti-racist and pro-labor legacy!
It also happens to be Black August, the month where Black folks remember and celebrate Black leaders born in August and important historic events in Black liberation that occurred in August.
We have all declared ourselves to be #Rednecks4BlackLives, but what’s next? Join us August 25 — September 2 to publicly #ReclaimRedneck in the #SpiritofBlairMountain to share our southern stories on social media and beyond! Invite others to take the pledge to #ReclaimRedneck.
“The time for action is now, people are taking to the streets, flooding social media, calling local officials and demanding justice for those who have been killed by the police all over the country. And now is the time to join them.”- @mvmnt4blklives
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest labor uprising in United States history. The battle lasted between August 25 to September 2, 1921.
The term redneck actually comes from the nation’s largest labor uprising, the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia in 1921, when a multiracial group of 8,000 miners fought coal company operators to unionize.
The power of working people coming together was so threatening that coal company owners brought in 3,000 lawmen and strikebreakers to tear them apart. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired and the United States Army intervened by presidential order and called in the West Virginia National Guard.
Up to 100 people were killed and many more arrested. Even though the miners did not get their union at the end of that battle, it laid the foundation for a much bigger labor movement in years to come, exposed the dangers miners faced in the West Virginia coalfields, and maybe more than anything created power in the multiracial solidarity of poor and working people.
The miners were called rednecks because of the red bandannas tied around their neck to indicate they were union.
Why now?
We are so glad you are with us. Thank you for committing to taking action in defense of Black lives. August is a month for building people power. We are witnessing just that with our comrades at The Movement For Black Lives shaping a new public narrative around Black August. We are inspired to witness the 2020 Black National Convention on August 28, a national convening of Black leadership who are going to come together to set the progressive Black political agenda for the 2020 election!
Southern Crossroads has committed to joining and supporting the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) to help build the coalitions that we all need to fight for the south and WIN! We wanted to provide a simple toolkit that’s geared toward rural and small town folks who want to take action for the anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain and beyond.
The Action Plan
In the #SpiritofBlairMountain during this important season in our country’s history and #BlackAugust, we are calling on all #Rednecks4BlackLives to join us in #ReclaimingRedneck during August 25-September 2! Throughout that time period, you’re invited to share your story of being a redneck for Black Lives on social media.
The goals of this call are to:
- Publicly reclaim the term redneck away from its racist stereotypes and let people know that real rednecks are anti-racist
- Do public education around the history of the term and the Battle of Blair Mountain and protracted multi-racial labor struggle
- Call in more rednecks for Black lives to JOIN us
- Build the community lots of us have been looking for
Why it’s important to share our stories
Where do you come from? What does it mean for rednecks to take action for Black Lives?
Since launching our call to action, we have witnessed and shared so many stories about ourselves and our histories. We’ve shared our cornbread recipes and celebrated the positive things about southern culture. We’ve named hard truths and held each other in love and solidarity.
We know we are worthy of having pride, but we refuse to take pride in racism and oppression. We’ve shared our stories about walking away from the confederate flag. We’ve shared together to come to terms with our collective history. We know that sharing stories makes the fight for the south stronger. We know that sharing our stories helps us come together and build together to win the future we all deserve, whether white, Black, or Brown.
By sharing our stories, we are publicly reclaiming what it means to be a Southern redneck, and we are inviting others to join us!
Are you ready to take action? Download the toolkit and follow the action steps this week to share your southern story and fight for the south!
Access and download the toolkit here.
About Southern Crossroads
Southern Crossroads is building an alliance of membership-based organizations working for collective power and multi-racial alliances among poor and working class people in small towns across the South. Our member organizations use transformative community organizing to build bases of people, run campaigns, nurture local leaders, and win meaningful changes in people’s day-to-day lives. We believe those most impacted by a problem have the vision, expertise, and skill to address it, to transform power relationships, and to build a South where everyone can thrive.
Check out our website fight4thesouth.org and follow us on Facebook, IG, and Twitter at @fight4thesouth. The best place to get updates is to be on our email list. Get on our email list here!
Do you want to support our work? You can make a gift of any amount to help build home-grown southern organizing at this link.
