Our roots run deep as ironweed : Appalachian women and the fight for environmental justice /

Bell, Shannon Elizabeth,

Our roots run deep as ironweed : Appalachian women and the fight for environmental justice / Shannon Elizabeth Bell. - Urbana : University of Illinois Press, (c)2013. - 1 online resource (xii, 210 pages) : illustrations

Includes bibliographies and index.

How can they expect me as a mother to look over that? : Maria Gunnoe's fight for her children's health and safety -- We became two determined women : Pauline Canterberry and Mary Miller become the sylvester dustbusters -- Let us live in our mountains : Joan Linville's fight for her homeland -- You gotta go and do everything you can - fight for your kids : Donetta Blankenship speaks out against underground slurry injections -- It's just a part of who I am : Maria Lambert and the movement for clean water in Prenter -- I'm not an activist against coal, I'm an activist for the preservation of my state : Teri Blanton and the fight for justice in Kentucky -- I'm not going to be run out, I'm not going to be run over, I'm not going out without a fight : Patty Sebok's battle against monster coal trucks -- Our roots run so deep, you can't distinguish us from the earth we live on : Debbie Jarrell and the campaign to move Marsh Fork elementary school -- It's not just what I choose to do, it's also, I think, what I have to do : Lorelei Scarboro's drive to save coal river mountain -- Money cannot recreate what nature gives you : Donna Branham's struggle against mountaintop removal -- I want my great-great-grandchildren to be able to live on this earth! : the legacy of the courageous Julia "Judy" Bonds.

Motivated by a deeply rooted sense of place and community, Appalachian women have long fought against the damaging effects of industrialization. In this collection of interviews, the author, a sociologist, presents the voices of twelve Central Appalachian women. These women are environmental justice activists fighting against mountaintop removal mining and its devastating effects on public health, regional ecology, and community well-being. Each woman narrates her own personal story of injustice and tells how that experience led her to activism. The interviews - a number of them illustrated by personal photographs - describe obstacles, lawsuits, and tragedies. But they also tell of new communities and personal transformations catalyzed through activism. As protectors, these women challenge dominant Appalachian gender expectations and guard not only their families, but also their homeplaces, their communities, their heritage, and the endangered mountains that surround them.



9780252095214

2019719255


Women--Political activity--Appalachian Region.
Women and the environment--Appalachian Region.
Human beings--Effect of environment on--Appalachian Region.
Environmentalism--Appalachian Region.


Electronic Books.

HQ1236 / .O977 2013