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In the early days of the Great Depression, the search for steady
work drove hundreds of migrant laborers - many of whom were African
American - from all over Appalachia to a rural area near
Fayetteville, West Virginia. Union Carbide Corporation had begun
construction on a three-mile tunnel to divert the New River, and
many hands were needed. Toiling for five years in confined spaces
with poor ventilation, no means of dust control, and limited use of
personal breathing protection, the workers were repeatedly exposed
to pure silica dust. Many developed silicosis, an incurable and
debilitating lung disease that is estimated to have caused the
deaths of nearly 800 workers, two-thirds of whom were Black. Soon
after, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Labor
classified silicosis as an occupational hazard. Despite the
disaster's impact, information about its severity was largely
suppressed; a decision that ensured the event faded quickly from
public memory. Aside from a small plaque at Hawks Nest State Park,
which inaccurately admits to only 109 victims, there is little to
mark the site of the worst industrial accident to date in the
United States. In Appalachian Ghost: A Photographic Reimagining of
the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster, author Raymond Thompson Jr.
explores the possibilities of that tragedy by reviving the faces
and spaces of Hawks Nest. Using primary source materials to
re-create the workers' experiences in photographs, Thompson
recontextualizes archival images to present a counter-archive that
positions the Black experience at Hawks Nest within the larger
story of the American labor landscape. His photographs and poetry
give voice to the silenced, resisting revisionist narratives that
often ignore the sacrifices of African Americans and erase their
instrumental role in the development of America's infrastructure.
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