Voices From the Mountains
On June 29, 1967, Jink Ray and his neighbors, members of the Appalachian Group to Save the Land and People, stood up to bulldozers that were attempting to strip mine the mountain above Jinkís home. Ray and his neighbors blocked the bulldozers with their bodies, and managed to temporarily stop the Puritan Coal Company. They did so with the hope that Governor Edward Breathitt would intervene.
Jink told the governor that he had built his house, and everything on his farm with his own hands. If the Puritan Coal Company stripped up above his land, the first rain would wash everything he'd done in his life down the creek. Puritan Coal Company responded by giving Jink a court order not to interfere. The strippers were about to come across his land that day. In spite of the court order, all of his neighbors came out in protest, and the bulldozers were stopped. Jink sent a telegram to the governor saying, ìIf you intend to help us, please do it nowî. The governor responded by taking away the strip operatorís permit. It was an isolated victory for the opponents of strip mining in Kentucky.
Carawan, Candie and Guy. Voices From The Mountains. University of Illinois Press, 1975.
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Ballard of Jink Ray