[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 37 (Thursday, March 1, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNIZING THE PUBLIC SERVICE OF RON CARSON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. H. MORGAN GRIFFITH

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 1, 2018

  Mr. GRIFFITH. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to rise, on behalf of 
Congressman Bobby Scott and myself, to recognize the achievements of 
Ron Carson who has made the plight of tens of thousands of disabled 
coal miners a central part of his life's work. Through his decades of 
work directing three black lung clinics in Southwest Virginia, and 
tireless advocacy efforts across the coal fields of this country, he 
offered help and hope to miners whose lungs were irreversibly scarred 
with the scourge of black lung disease.
  Ron was born in Pennington Gap, Virginia during segregation. He 
attended a one-room primary school on land that his great-great-
grandmother, Rachael Scott, had donated in 1939 for education of black 
children in Lee County. Ron and his wife Jill, a Member of the Town 
Council in Pennington Gap, founded the Appalachian African American 
Cultural Center in that same brick school house, which now preserves 
the life stories, history, heritage, culture and events of African 
Americans in Southwest Virginia. Although segregated in housing and 
schools, African Americans found a measure of inclusion in Central 
Appalachia, where they were able to work free from the harsh conditions 
in the Deep South, ad many received equal pay for their work mining 
coal.
  Ron worked for Westmoreland Coal Co. in Appalachia, Virginia as did 
his stepfather. His grandfather and great-grandfather both worked for 
many years for Blue Diamond Coal in Bonny Blue, Virginia. Ron later 
attended the Massachusetts School of Pharmacy, and in 1990 returned as 
an outreach worker in the black lung clinic operating out of the St. 
Charles Community Health Clinic. For the past 20 years he has served as 
the director of three black lung clinics which are now part of Stone 
Mountain Health Services. In addition to helping miners secure 
diagnostic tests, treatment and benefits counseling, Ron led an effort 
to develop what is now the largest program for non-lawyers to 
successfully advocate for black lung benefits before the U.S. 
Department of Labor.
  There are very few attorneys who represent miners filing claims for 
black lung benefits. And, coal miners proceedings pro se are no match 
for the expert legal and medical resources that coal companies and 
insurers dedicate to each case. Ron and his team have worked to fill 
this void by providing training for clinics, doctors, lawyers and lay 
representatives in all 15 coal producing states. The lay advocates 
working for the Stone Mountain clinics have helped miners win over 
2,000 black lung claims in the past 17 years.
  In recent years, Ron documented how miners with progressive massive 
fibrosis (PMF), the most advanced form of black lung disease, have 
flooded the clinics in southwestern Virginia. Working with the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), he recently co-
authored an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association 
which verified an epidemic of this lethal form of the disease in 
Central Appalachia and helped to elevate national awareness. ``Mining 
disasters get monuments, meanwhile black lung deaths get tombstones. 
And I've seen many a tombstone in the last 28 years from black lung,'' 
he noted.
  At a roundtable Ron organized in Wise, Virginia, disabled miners, 
physicians and lawyers explained how the current black lung 
adjudication process keeps justice out of teach for fat too many 
deserving miners and survivors.
  Ron Carson has been accessible to Members of Congress and provided 
wise counsel, as well as compassionate and enduring service to his 
community. He has been recognized by the United Mine Workers of America 
(UMWA) and his peers in the black lung community. On behalf of out 
colleagues in the House of Representatives, Congressman Scott and I 
extend out appreciation for Ron's service to those in need.

                          ____________________