Genne Kuhn: Labor, Healthcare and Civil Rights in the 1960s-1970s Ohio River Valley

Abstract

Genne Kuhn, 1918 - 2008, led a lifetime of advocacy on behalf of the poor, underprivileged, and discriminated people in the Ohio River Valley. Descending from a family of immigrant miners, Kuhn became a communist from a young age after attending a rally, where the crowd had tear gas fired on them and she learned about systemic discrimination and repression in a capitalistic system. She was an early active participant in the civil rights movement and worked tirelessly to integrate Wheeling, West Virginia, where she had lived most of her life. During the late 1960s and 1970s, she wrote prolifically for the "Daily World", a US Marxist newspaper, on miner unrest and struggles in the Appalachian region. She dedicated many of her resources towards the fight against black lung disease, which many of her family and friends had succumbed to.