The Church Family from Thacker Mines, Mingo County, West Virginia

Elvis Church, a disabled miner, sits with his wife, their sons, and nephews. Thacker Mines is an old camp near Matewan, the scene of the miners’ struggles against the coal operators and their armed private detectives in the late teens and 1920s. John Sayles feature film, Matewan, tells this important story. 

Image from a collection of photographs by Builder Levy of the mines and mining communities of Appalachia.

View the exhibit My Daddy was a Miner for related images.