Normal0falsefalsefalseMicrosoftInternetExplorer4Blocton chronicles the history of a community built on coal. In 1883 two entrepreneurs--Truman Aldrich, a New York engineer, and Cornelius Cadle, a former Union Army officer--created the Cahaba Coal Mining Company and built a railroad eight miles into the wilderness of northern Bibb County to tap thick veins of coal deep underground. There, they built the town of Blocton and beside the town rose a sister suburb, West Blocton. In 1892 the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company took control of the Blocton mines, and fifteen years later US Steel swallowed the Tennessee company. Blocton coal was in high demand during World War I and production continued. By the end of the 1920s, however, a devastating fire, mine closure, and the stock market crash devastated the area. Blocton is more than a history of wealthy men, great deeds, greater crises, and giant corporations. It recounts the hopes and dreams, accomplishments and everyday tragedies of the miners, housewives, store keepers, teachers, and all the people who gave personality and perseverance to the community.

In 1930 almost 13,000 African Americans worked in the coal mines around Birmingham, Alabama. They made up 53 percent of the mining workforce and some 60 percent of their union's local membership. At the close of the twentieth century, only about 15 percent of Birmingham's miners were black, and the entire mining workforce had been sharply reduced. Robert H. Woodrum offers a challenging interpretation of why this dramatic decline occurred and why it happened during an era of strong union presence in the Alabama coalfields. Drawing on union, company, and government records as well as interviews with coal miners, Woodrum examines the complex connections between racial ideology and technological and economic change. Extending the chronological scope of previous studies of race, work, and unionization in the Birmingham coalfields, Woodrum covers the New Deal, World War II, the postwar era, the 1970s expansion of coalfield employment, and contemporary trends toward globalization. The United Mine Workers of America's efforts to bridge the color line in places like Birmingham should not be underestimated, says Woodrum. Facing pressure from the wider world of segregationist Alabama, however, union leadership ultimately backed off the UMWA's historic commitment to the rights of its black members. Woodrum discusses the role of state UMWA president William Mitch in this process and describes Birmingham's unique economic circumstances as an essentially Rust Belt city within the burgeoning Sun Belt South. This is a nuanced exploration of how, despite their central role in bringing the UMWA back to Alabama in the early 1930s, black miners remained vulnerable to the economic and technological changes that transformed the coal industry after World War II.

Coal will continue to provide a major portion of energy requirements in the United States for at least the next several decades. It is imperative that accurate information describing the amount, location, and quality of the coal resources and reserves be available to fulfill energy needs. It is also important that the United States extract its coal resources efficiently, safely, and in an environmentally responsible manner. A renewed focus on federal support for coal-related research, coordinated across agencies and with the active participation of the states and industrial sector, is a critical element for each of these requirements. Coal focuses on the research and development needs and priorities in the areas of coal resource and reserve assessments, coal mining and processing, transportation of coal and coal products, and coal utilization.

Footprints in Stone is the definitive guide to the Steven C. Minkin (Union Chapel) Paleozoic Footprint Site in northwest Alabama, the discovery of whose vast quantity of 310-million-year-old fossil tetrapod footprints and other traces is one of the most significant developments in modern paleontology.

Uniquely, Jefferson County had all of the elements necessary for the fabrication of iron and steel within its borders. Coal, limestone, and iron ore all lay within close proximity to Birmingham. The right amounts of business acumen, industrial planning, and labor force came together creating the industry that made Birmingham the "Magic City." The coal mining towns in the Birmingham Industrial District have rich histories--a Hollywood movie was made in one, a novel was written about another, and a soccer championship was won in yet another town. These coal towns and the miners who lived in them are as responsible as anyone for the birth of Birmingham industry.