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Union Ave Books is excited to present Jared Sullivan for Valley So Low: One Lawyer’s Fight for Justice in the Wake of America’s Great Coal Catastrophe. The Honorable Victor Ashe, II will moderate a discussion with Jared Sullivan and the lawyers involved in the lawsuit. This free event will take place on October 17th at 6pm at the East Tennessee History Center. Please RSVP via the ticket link.ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jared Sullivan has written for The New Yorker, Time, Garden & Gun, and USA Today, and he previously worked as a writer and editor at Men’s Journal and Field & Stream. He lives in Franklin, TN.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A riveting courtroom drama as the victims of one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history pursue justice in federal court — with the help of a country lawyer determined to challenge the notion that, in America, justice can be bought
For more than 50 years, a power plant in the little town of Kingston, Tennessee, burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste 60 feet high and covering 84 acres. On December 22, 2008, an earthen embankment that contained the waste broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered 300 acres, damaged nearly 30 homes, and precipitated a cleanup effort that would cost more than $1 billion—and the lives of more than 50 cleanup workers.
Jim Scott, a small-time personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill from having inhaled the toxic coal waste. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority, a colossal, federally owned power company that was a cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Scott and the team he hastily assembled gathered extensive evidence of malfeasance: threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site.
The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers’ behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described “hillbilly lawyers” could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. Perhaps, above all, the case was simply about whether the federal government had failed its people.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
The Honorable Victor Ashe, II was the 25th United States Ambassador to Poland. He was elected mayor of Knoxville, TN in 1988 and served until 2003, making him the city’s longest serving mayor. He also served six years as a Tennessee state representative (1968 to 1974) and nine years as a state senator (1975 to 1984). Ashe has been appointed by former U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama to federal positions.
Among his accomplishments, Ashe authored Tennessee’s Natural Areas Preservation Act and Tennessee's Presidential Primary Law. As Knoxville’s mayor he tripled the size of the city’s park system and added 40 miles of greenways. He was formerly president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors as well as president of the Tennessee Municipal League.
Ashe was appointed to the Douglas Hentry State Museum Commission by Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey on October 9, 2009 and was elected Chairman of the Commission at the inaugural meeting on January 20, 2010. He currently serves at the Collections Acquisitions Committee Chair.
Ashe received a bachelor of arts degree in history from Yale University. He received his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Ashe is married to the former Joan Plumlee and they have two children, Martha and J. Victor.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
East Tennessee Historical Society, 318 W Clinch Ave SW, Knoxville, TN 37902, United States,Knoxville, Tennessee
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