Jacob “J.W.” Bradley was born on 29 June 1930 and raised in Petros, Tenn., a small Appalachian coalfield community in the Cumberland Mountains. J.W. married Emma “Kate” Hobbs in 1951.
As an adult, J.W. worked several jobs. At eighteen he got a job working as a coal miner at Rosedale, Tenn. Later J.W. became an electrician at the K-25 nuclear processing plant in nearby Oak Ridge, Tenn., which provided important direct contact with power industry practices. In the 1970s he became concerned about the practice of layer-loading coal – a method where poor quality coal was covered over by higher quality coal and all sold at the market price of the higher quality coal. Bradley claimed that TVA knowingly purchased layer-loaded coal as a source for local steam power plants (including K-25). In 1975, he traveled to Washington, D.C. to appear before a Senate oversight committee hearing on this issue.
Both J.W. and Kate wanted to give back to their community, which at the time only had a prison, and not much else. They co-founded Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) in response to the strip mining that was devastating the area around their home. Around this same time, Kate Bradley was working to secure land for a local health clinic. J.W. and Kate received encouragement and support from the Student Health Coalition. The health clinic Kate helped open remained in Petros for many years. SOCM remains in effect, renamed Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment.
Related Content:

Interview with Kate Bradley and J.W. Bradley by Evangeline Mee, 11 August 2012, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill

ETRC’s lawsuit against Davidson County Health Department

Perry Steele on the summer of 1972

Maureen and Boomer on the Coalition’s Legacy

Highlights from J.W. Bradley’s collection of papers

Lewis Lefkowitz on the Student Health Coalition’s key accomplishments

On the SHC’s provision of hope as fuel for systemic change to rural healthcare

“Radical Hearts” and their dress code

J.W. Bradley lobbying for strip mining legislation

Bill Dow as a community organizer in Appalachia

J.W. and Kate Bradley Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill

Article: “Higher Appalachia Coal Taxes Asked,” from the New York Times

“I will always be grateful for the gifts that the work and the people of those summers gave to me.”

Interview with Kate Bradley and J.W. Bradley by Evangeline Mee, 29 May 2012, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill