Black Days, Black Dust : The Memories of an African American Coal Miner

by Armstead, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781572331761
• ISBN10: 1572331763
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Tennessee Pr

Summary

Among those drawn to jobs in the booming West Virginia coal mines during the first part of the twentieth century were thousands of African Americans. They proved successful in this industry -- despite low wages and discrimination at the hands of mine operators. This book, the first published memoir by an African American coal miner, is a stirring tale of survival and achievement. Bob Armstead interweaves stories of family and community with a broad history of underground mining to paint an engrossing picture of the work, the dangers, and the drama of that industry.

Armstead remembers his childhood, growing up in a segregated coal camp during the Great Depression, and he recalls his family's efforts to confront economic challenges while also dealing with the reality of racism. His father worked as a horse driver in the mines until machinery put him out of work. Even though, as a youth, Armstead saw how his father had suffered, he himself went to work in the mines in 1947. From his first day on the job, coal mining fascinated him. He initally labored in a timbe

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Black Days, Black Dust
Preface	3	(4)
Part 1. 1927-1947
Lessons in Life	7	(9)
Growing Up in Coal Camps	16	(10)
Grant Town in the 1930s	26	(7)
Grant Town Mine, Company Power, and the UMW	33	(10)
Family Stories	43	(8)
The Fun Side of Life	51	(9)
Our First Black Heroes	60	(4)
Machines Change Everything	64	(3)
Fairmont, 1941	67	(8)
War, Life, and Work	75	(6)
My First Real Job	81	(8)
Part 2. 1947-1998
Into the Mines: Barnesville Shaft	89	(12)
Boxing on the Side	101	(13)
On to Everettville	114	(11)
Jordan, the First Time	125	(8)
Two Years at Grant Town Mine	133	(12)
Jordan Again and...	145	(14)
Loveridge, 1963-1968	159	(12)
Loveridge, 1968-1975	171	(15)
Four States	186	(11)
Four States, 1984	197	(5)
Women in Coal	202	(7)
Robinson Run	209	(10)
Retirement, 1987	219	(10)
Appendix: My Brothers and Sisters	229	(8)
Epilogue	237	(4)
Glossary	241	(7)
Suggested Resources	248	(3)
Index	251