Council of the Southern Mountains

The Council of the Southern Mountains was established as the result of fact-finding efforts by John C. and Olive Dame Campbell during the early 1900s. The organization's first annual meeting was held in 1912. Its original purpose was to provide a means of information sharing and cooperation among Appalachian social services, church, and school workers. Olive Campbell followed her husband as Council Executive Secretary, serving from 1919 to 1928. Others in that position include Helen Dingman, 1928-1942; Perley F. Ayer, 1951-1966; and Loyal Jones, 1967-1970. The Council assumed publication of Mountain Life and Work from Berea College in 1926. In the 1950's, the Council began focusing more on direct service activities. Concern for the problems of Appalachian migrants in urban areas led to the establishment of a Chicago office in 1963. With federal War on Poverty funding in the 1960s, the Council started the Appalachian Volunteers program and administered community action and manpower development projects. Philosophical differences among staff and membership led to major changes in the organization after 1969. Federal funding rapidly shrank, as the Council became an activist organization that concentrated on coal mining issues, textile-mill working conditions, and promotion of community and labor rights. Key leadership included Warren Wright, Julian Griggs, and Isaac Vanderpool. Offices were moved from Berea to Clintwood, Virginia in 1972. Publication of Mountain Life & Work continued until the Council disbanded in 1989.

The Council of the Southern Mountains (CSM) experienced a change in its grassroots goals and mission in the years 1970-1989. Council offices were moved from Berea to Clintwood, Virginia, in 1972. After several changes in leadership and structure, addition of new commissions, creation of community unions, the Council became mainly an organization that focused particularly on helping poor people to organize for the purpose of challenging governmental and industrial establishments, championing the rights of coal miners and textile mill workers, and fighting against strip-mining. Some of the Council's highlighted activities include their legal assistance to the widows of the miners who died in Blue Diamond Coal Company's Scotia Mine explosions, organizing efforts for the Brookside Strike, legal assistance after the Adkins Coal Mine explosion in Topmost, Kentucky, welfare marches, farm and garden projects, and various workshops for urban Appalachian migrants. Legal efforts also affected the Mine Health and Safety Act of 1977. Several staff members were hired through programs like VISTA and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). A few of the key individuals in CSM during the 1970s and 1980s included Dan Hendrickson, Elmer Rasnick, Bill Worthington, Mart Shepherd, Mike Smathers, Mike Maloney, and Mike Haga, among others. Judy McKinney was CSM's first female President, and Almetor King was CSM's first female African American President. The Council also provided to the public the CSM Bookstore and Bookmobile, and publication of Mountain Life and Work continued on a monthly basis until the organization disbanded in 1989.

The interviews provide documentation of the complete turnover in Council of the Southern Mountains leadership that began in 1970, and the resultant initiatives over the next several years in the areas of community organization, rural economic development, coal mine safety and health legislation, and mine disaster relief.