Black Lung Still Kills

This graphic is an homage to the original Black Lung Kills graphic from the early 1970s, created at the beginning of the movement for protections and care for coal miners, who typically get Black Lung (or Coal workers’ pneumoconiosis) in the course of their time laboring underground. That original design (on the right) was drawn by artist Vivian Reynolds, and is still used on fundraising t-shirts and other graphics today. Why? Because black lung is still killing people who haven’t mined coal in years, and the people who are employed in mining coal right now. Black Lung is, in fact, at a 25 year high.

Kim Kelly is doing excellent reporting on Black Lung right now, including this piece in The Nation. For a deep dive into the history of the black lung movement, grab a copy of my friend Barbara Ellen Smith’s Digging Our Own Graves, recently re-released in a new, updated edition by Haymarket Books.

In this download, you’ll get two high-resolution versions: one for printing black ink on a white surface, and a variation for printing in white ink on a black surface. Choose wisely, and share widely.

When I begin a design like this, I often lay out text on a computer to help with overall layout. In this case I’m using Libertario, a custom font available for free download as part of the Justseeds Open Type Project. Libertario is available in Justseeds Font Pack #1.

A skull wears a mining helmet and bright light is beaming from the front of the helmet. Thick, bold, lettering wraps over and below the skull: “BLACK LUNG STILL KILLS”