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[Identification of item], in the J. W. and Kate Bradley Papers #5685, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from J.W. Bradley in April 2016 (Acc. 102564).

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• Bradley, J. W. (Jacob W.), 1930-
• Bradley, Kate, 1932-
• Environmentalists--Tennessee.
• Strip mining--Appalachian Region.
• Strip mining--Environmental aspects--Tennessee.

J.W. Bradley and Kate Bradley were both born and raised in Petros, Tennessee, a small Appalachian coalfield community in the Cumberland Mountains. Emma Kate Bradley was born 13 October 1932, the sixth of seven surviving children in her family. Her father was a coalminer. Jacob W. Bradley was born on 29 June 1930. His father was also a coalminer. J.W. and Kate married in 1951.

As an adult, J.W. worked several jobs. At eighteen he got a job working as a coalminer at Rosedale, Tenn. Later J.W. became an electrician at the K-25 nuclear processing plant in nearby Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which provided important direct contact with power industry practices. In the 1970s he became concerned about the practice of layer-loading coal, a method where poor quality coal was covered over by higher quality coal and all sold at the market price of the higher quality coal. Bradley claimed that TVA knowingly purchased layer-loaded coal as a source for local steam power plants (including K-25). In 1975 he traveled to Washington, D.C. to appear before a Senate oversight committee hearing on this issue.

Both wanted to give back to their community, which at the time only had a prison, and not much else. J.W. and Kate co-founded Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) in response to the strip mining that was devastating the area around their home. Around this same time Kate Bradley was working to secure land for a local health clinic.

Kate Bradley’s community organizing activities with SOCM included delivering speeches, meeting with politicians and business owners, running bake and rummage sales, quilt raffles, and leading committees.

J.W. and Kate received encouragement and support from the Student Health Coalition, a student-led organization developed at Vanderbilt University in 1969 with the goal of building primary care clinics and bringing health services to Appalachian regions lacking reliable access to care.

The health clinic Kate helped open remained in Petros for many years. SOCM remains in effect, renamed Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment.

Includes correspondence, legal documents, and printed material related to the issues of strip mining, truck weights, taxes, mining regulation, water pollution, and land equalization. Also included are copies of testimonies given by J. W. Bradley and Neil McBride to congressional committees; SOCM reports; and publications and correspondence from organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Coal Creek Mining Manufacturing Company, and Beech Grove Mining Company.