Listening to the Illinois Coalfields

Since July 2025, we’ve recorded more than 60 oral histories with coal miners, power plant workers, family members, community members, environmental activists, and government officials. These oral histories tell the story of coal in Illinois including dangerous working conditions, the state’s radical labor history, community visions for the future, and the urgent health and environmental impacts caused by mining subsidence, coal ash contamination, and air emissions. The Climate Jobs Institute will make the Illinois Coal Workers & Communities Listening Project statewide oral history collection publicly available online in 2027. Each oral history narrator additionally receives a physical media copy of their oral history. 

Want to share your story? Fill out this form and we’ll contact you about setting up an oral history interview.

Meet some of our narrators

London Simmons worked underground at the Monterey No. 1 coal mine near Gillespie. He was one of the first longwall operators in the area. Later, he became the mayor of Royal Lakes, where he still lives today.

Tim Drea worked with his father underground in a Peabody coal mine near Taylorville. Now, Tim advocates for workers across the state as Illinois AFL-CIO President.

Jody Hogge worked as a coal miner near Taylorville, after the Coal Employment Project (1977-1996) advocated for women miners. Today, Jody continues her service to the union as United Mine Workers of America Local 9819 President.

Denzile Stubblefield worked as a coal miner in West Frankfort, and met then-President Jimmy Carter on a visit to southern Illinois. Denzile lost his father, also a coal miner, in the 1951 Orient #2 mine explosion, a tragedy that continues to shape West Frankfort today.

Mary Ellen DeClue spent decades organizing against the non-union Deer Run longwall mine in Hillsboro. As the co-founder of Citizens Against Longwall Mining, Mary Ellen continues to witness the impacts of mine subsidence and water contamination in her community.

An active union member, Kay Levanti worked as a schoolteacher in West Frankfort. As a coal miner’s daughter and wife, Kay saw the labor that women must do to sustain their families working in a dangerous industry.

Chuck Martin grew up in a coal mining family in Du Quoin and Taylorville, where his grandfather, father, and 23 relatives worked in Illinois mines. He worked underground himself during college summers at the Coffeen mine near Hillsboro. Today, Chuck serves as executive director of the Christian County Coal Mine Museum in Taylorville, preserving more than a century of coal mining history and the stories of the workers who built central Illinois communities.

Suzanne Smith and Nancy Goodall organized a decades-long fight against “Illinois’ last new coal mine” in Vermilion County. As activists with the grassroots Stand Up to Coal, Suzanne and Nancy helped halt the construction of the Bulldog mine in 2022.

Todd Lee’s family mined coal for generations in Vermilion County, and he lives in one of the houses closest to the now-shuttered coal-fired power plant. As a local historian and rural resident, Todd Lee documented the environmental and economic impacts of coal industry closures in Vermilion County.