Communities, Welcome to the Community of Sarah Ann, West Virginia
“They can’t build the plant without that land.” – Joan Hairston, founder of New Directions for Women
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Penny Loeb tells this story of an historic black community threatened by mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia.
James Major was a leader of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. His daughter, Joan Hairston, founded New Directions for Women. And his granddaughter was valedictorian at Logan High School. Joan Hairston still lives in Superior Bottom, and New Directions for Women continues. She works with black teenagers in the high school, setting many on a successful path to college and careers.
Mining is returning to this area, only now it is a mountaintop mine. It will take the mountains behind Superior Bottom. But that isn’t all the coal company desires. It plans a preparation plant on the flat land of the community. In the fall of 1999, company officials began approaching residents with offers to buy them out. The houses were large, but mostly dilapidated. Most were long, two-story structures, with room enough to hold several families. One house, to the right of the bridge over Island Creek, is well-maintained, with an abundance of flowers and lawn decorations. Still, the mine officials offered most people only about $35,000 for their homes. Some felt they had no alternatives-they didn’t want to live by a prep plant.
In late October 1999, a woman in her 70s sat in a living room surrounded by the boxes and bags of her life. It had been her father’s house and her only home. She would be leaving soon. But $35,000 wouldn’t buy her a house in Logan. She was moving in with her son. “It’s sad,” she said.
Bulldozers and shovels roved her house and several across the street in the first months of 2000. But so far, there is no prep plant. At one end of the community, the closed school building remains. Joan Hairston bought it and isn’t letting Massey have it. “They can’t build the plant without that land.” Joan herself remains, too, as does the teacher who lives in the house to the right of the bridge. In the fall of 2000, the bridge was dedicated to James Major. Whether it will be a bridge to nowhere remains to be decided.
Click here to learn more about Sarah Ann, WV and the communities that live nearby.
Story and photo contributed by distinguished author Penny Loeb, www.wvcoalfield.com.
