Black Appalachian Activist, Writer & Dissenter of Coney Barrett Confirmation Tells Her Story

- Crystal Good.

Daily Kos, May 10, 2022. -Ed.

Crystal Good is an activist who tells the stories of the Black Appalachians she grew up with. In addition to her work as an author, Ted-X speaker, published poet, and member of the Affrilachian Poets group, in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Good launched Black By God, a newspaper for and about Black residents living in the Appalachian region. Good, 47, is a sixth-generation Appalachian. Good tells Daily Kos that her policy work started as she tried to simply figure out her world. “Little Crystal, a girl with a white mom and a Black father who I wouldn’t meet until later in life. Appalachia was always a story for me. I have a history to tap into, but I also know it’s important for me to leave a record,” she says.

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The story of Appalachia is also about Good dispelling the myth that the only people living in the area are “white toothless hillbillies,” she says. When she moved to New York to pursue a modeling career as a teenager, she learned how deep those stereotypes were. “I surprised people with my presence because that's not what they expected.” Good began her policy work in 2014 as a lobbyist after the infamous water crisis in WV. She even named herself the Social Media Senator for the Digital District of WV. In Jan. 2014, a chemical storage tanker leaked an estimated 10,000 gallons of industrial solvent into WV’s Elk River.

The region’s only source of clean drinking water, the Elk River supplied Charleston, the capital. The tap water was contaminated, impacting over 300,000 people across 9 counties— about 15% of the state’s population. “We didn't have water for days. We got our water off of an army truck. It was terrifying. Kids weren't in school. It was winter. I was the lead class rep for that case, & that’s what launched my social media activism. I was telling people where to get water, & where to go to the hospital. Nobody was organized enough to know how to use these platforms,” she says. Aside from opening a newspaper when papers are barely staying alive, Good is determined to continue despite all the odds.

WV is losing the largest population of any state in the nation, so she says the choice to come back to the area & launch the paper was intentional. “When that first paper was delivered, I think we printed about 8,000 copies, they were delivered through a mutual aid network of people. And to me, that's so beautiful,” she says. Good was also a dissenter during Amy Coney Barrett’s Judicial confirmation hearings. “West Virginia is the metaphor because WV is so beautiful, but so full of pain, and so full of abuse. For me to tell my abortion story in front of the US Judiciary Committee on national TV… It's my story. But it was so many other people's stories,” Good says of her dissent speech. She says afterward people reached out to thank her for voicing their stories. People who couldn’t or were too afraid to say anything about their abortion stories...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/5/10/2097097/-Black-Appalachian-activist-and-dissenter-of-Amy-Coney-Barrett-s-confirmation-tells-her-story



- PBS NewsHour. Crystal Good testifies in Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Oct. 15, 2020. A sexual assault survivor from Charleston, WV, Good spoke about the importance of keeping abortion safe and legal in the U.S., without interference from parental consent laws. “President Trump has been clear that he would only appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, through learning about Judge Barrett’s record, I understand why the president believes she passes that test,” Good said. The hearing came about 3 weeks before Election Day. The judge did not appear before the committee on the final day of the hearing. Instead, both Republicans and Democrats called outside witnesses to speak to her record and approach to the law.