The Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial: 2021

PRIDE · SOLIDARITY · RECLAMATION · COLLABORATION

The Museum’s biggest undertaking to date! In September of 2021, we brought together dozens of partners to host the largest statewide festival in the history of West Virginia, celebrating a battle of cross-racial solidarity for basic human rights.

1oo YEARS AGO

The battle was the largest armed uprising in the U.S. since the Civil War. The sacrifices of those miners and their families who fought on Blair Mountain laid down a foundation that their descendants built upon to gain national labor protection.

STRUGGLE, SACRIFICE, LEGACY

Together, we planned a special commemorative event-series across West Virginia to memorialize the people, commemorate the places, and celebrate the spirit of Blair Mountain. We brought people from the area and all across the region to experience this history like never before during Labor Day Weekend, 2021.

“I felt inspired. I felt hope, and it’s been a while for that one. You’ve made something big and beautiful and tremendously important, in a time and in a place where so much is just being dissolved, taken apart, or worse. ”

— Ann Pancake

A Statewide Festival of Historical Solidarity:

Just as the march on Blair Mountain was years in the making, so too was the Centennial. After years of organizing by the WV Mine Wars Museum, the Blair Centennial culminated over Labor Day Weekend. It was a huge success, and a testimony to the fact that this history is alive and well throughout the Mountain State. We joined together in person and online for more than 25 events and programs, ranging from concerts, book readings, film showings, reenactments, labor symposiums, a church service, and more.

What happened? Click on the map to the right to browse the full schedule of events that unfolded in multiple West Virginia communities during (and beyond) Labor Day Weekend 2021!

“This Centennial will be remembered as one of the most important commemorations
to happen in America this year.”

— Battle of Homestead Foundation

What's Next: Where Do We Build From Here?

We’re building monuments to this history.

Following the heels of the Centennial, the Museum is launching a new participatory and collaborative project, Courage in the Hollers: Mapping the Miners’ Struggle for a Union. In its pilot year, the project seeks to overturn the invisibility of public memory along the 50-mile marching trail that led miners and their families to Blair Mountain.

Throughout 2022, we’re working with the communities of Marmet and Clothier to create permanent reminders of the miners, their families, and all they sacraficed. Help us build on this moment, and support this mandate with a donation to the Museum today.

Let's keep building!

Online Exhibit: The Land Will Tell The Story

Between 2006 and 2009, several archaeological digs led by Kenny King, Harvard Ayers, and Brandon Nida explored remote spots along Spruce Fork Ridge in southern West Virginia. Stretching over ten miles through Logan County, this steep mountainous area was the site of the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. These surveys uncovered incredible evidence of guerilla war on Appalachian soil, and were instrumental in the struggle to save much of the battlefield from strip mining.

After over a decade tucked away inside storage boxes, Shaun Slifer, our museum's Creative Director, has photographed and cataloged hundreds of these artifacts. Archaeologist/anthropologist Ethan Karnes, a West Virginia native and graduate of Marshall University, has built an interactive site around this collection.

We're proud to showcase these incredible artifacts to the public for the first time through The Land Will Tell The Story, a unique online exhibit marking the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain!

This project was supported in part by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.