Harry M Caudill- An Appalachian Crusader

Harry Caudill, lawyer, environmental activist, and politician dedicated his life for the betterment of his people & region. He openly opposed the Coal Companies, which often didn't represent that of the Appalachian people but the bankers of the Northeast & Midwest. Often the coal companies exploited the land but failed to invest in the region for improvement. One of the processes he actively opposed was that of "strip-mining'' which had drastic environmental effects upon the aesthetics and also water quality of the region. Caudill pointed out that strip-mining could be done responsibly like in England, Germany, and Czechoslovakia where topsoil, subsoil and rocks were removed and placed in their original order. His book Night Comes to the Cumerland was instrumental in JFK's war on poverty, in which he highlighted the dire povery which residents of Eastern Kentucky faced. Drawing upon the works of Eugenicist/scientist, William Shockley, he became convinced much of the woes of Appalachian poverty could be largely attributed to the ''dysgenic'' effects of breeding patterns of the Scots-Irish of Appalachia. In a rejected letter to Time magazine he lamented that "The Slobs continue to multiply" which offended many of the politically correct crowd. This son of Appalachia is largely forgotten except for some obscure "leftist" environmental activist. I'm of the belief that Caudill should form as an example to Appalachian nationalists to preserve their homeland against internationalist capitalist forces & and leftist carpet baggers who function to also exploit the cause of the Appalachian people for their own selfish NGOs. One of the greatest achievements of Caudill would come in the form of outlawing "broad-form deed" a legal device that allowed coal companies to strip mine people's land against their will !