The Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky, a non-profit organization that provides legal services to residents of coal mining communities, summarized two years of its activities in this report, published in 1990 and mailed to prospective donors. Read the document’s introductory note and the case summaries under the “Black Lung” heading and consider the following questions:
What do the Fund’s black lung cases tell us about the costs of working in the coal industry?
What do these case summaries show about the safety net provided to workers by state and federal governments during the 1980s?
What do these case summaries suggest about the challenges of receiving black lung benefits? What were the major issues being contested in these cases? Why was it difficult for workers to prove causality?
Citation:
1989, 2009MS211, Appalachian Community Fund Records, 1977-2008, Box 1, Folder 7, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center
Library Item Date:
1990
Teaching Unit: