How America’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster Was Almost Erased

One of the worst industrial disasters in our nation’s history occurred in West Virginia in the 1930s. Not in a coal mine – but in a tunnel chiseled out of a mountain for a hydroelectric power plant. Hundreds of workers, most of them poor and Black, quietly died from breathing in silica dust. For decades, the true scale of the devastation was buried by the companies behind the project.Featured in this episode:Catherine Venable MooreDr. Martin CherniackSources:Dr. Martin Cherniack’s book The Hawk’s Nest Incident: America’s Worst Industrial Disaster Catherine Venable Moore’s “The Book of the Dead” in Oxford American:https://oxfordamerican.org/magazine/issue-94-fall-2016/the-book-of-the-deadMuriel Rukeyser's Book of the DeadGeorge Robinson’s Congressional TestimonyNPR’s reporting on the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/20/685821214/before-black-lung-the-hawks-nest-tunnel-disaster-killed-hundredsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.