Soul Full of Coal Dust by Chris Hamby

Today is International Day of People with Disability! As a disabled person, it’s incredibly important to me that we talk about disability justice and how there’s so much red tape around getting the care that we need.

Chris Hamby’s book Soul Full of Coal Dust is a deep dive into the fight for the rights of coal miners who have developed black lung. Admittedly, this book was a hard one for me to read since I’ve experienced the horrors of having your illness denied over and over again. But it’s an important read so that we remind ourselves of the difficulties that disabled people face on a daily basis and understand what we need to change in society.

This book is incredibly well reported and laid out in a well organized way. I appreciated the attention to detail and how the writer balanced the history of that part of Appalachia, the science of what black lung is, and the laws surrounding disability compensation for these miners. Hamby does it so well, and I found myself engrossed in this story from the first chapter.

If you’re looking to learn more about disability compensation in the mining industry, this is definitely a book you need to pick up. ✨