Labor History in 2:00

July 16 - Mining Racial Divisions Proves Fatal

On this day in Labor History the year was 1894. Striking coal miners in Alabama killed a number of black miners. Both white and black miners were attempting to organize the southern bituminous coal fields during the 1890s. 

July 15 - The Execution of John Ball

On this day in Labor History and we are going all the way back to the year of 1381. That was the day John Ball, the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in England was executed.  Due to the plague, the Black Death, in 1348, many peasants had died.

July 14 - The Great Uprising

On this day in Labor History the year was 1877. That was the day that what would come to be known as the “Great Upheaval” or “Great Uprising” began in Martinsburg, West Virginia.  Railroad workers were angry.  They had seen their wages cut twice in six months by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.  

July 13 - Founding of the Niagara Movement

On this day in Labor History the year was 1905. That was the day that revolutionary black scholar W.E.B. DuBois helped found the Niagara Movement.  It was named for the “mighty current” of change the group hoped to bring about.  The initial organizing meeting was held near Niagara Falls, New York.

July 12 - The Bisbee Deportation

On this day in Labor History the year was 1917. That was the day that miners in Bisbee, Arizona were rounded up, taken by train and left in the desert on the New Mexico/Arizona border.  

July 11 - A Mining Boom

On this day in Labor History the year was 1892.  Striking silver miners in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho blew up the Frisco Mill.  The miners were upset because the company had hired Pinkerton guards to infiltrate the mine.  

July 10 - Disaster in the Mines

On this day in Labor History the year was 1902.  A powerful gas and dust explosion occurred in the Rolling Mill Mine in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Johnstown was rich in coal resources.  The coal industry in Cambria County gradually grew thanks to the rise of the industry in the region.  

July 9 - Jacqueline Vaughn

On this day in Labor History the year was1984.  Jacqueline Vaughn became President of the Chicago Teachers’ Union. Jacqueline started out as a teacher and became a member of the collective bargaining team in 1968.  She was elected Vice President of the CTU in 1972 and then became the first black woman to head up the third largest teacher’s union in the nation. 

July 8 - Mother Bloor

On this day in Labor History the year was 1862. Ella Reeves “Mother” Bloor was born in Staten Island, New York. 

She was a labor activist who investigated child labor in glass factories and mines. 

July 7 - Founding of the IWW

On this day in Labor History the year was 1905. It was the tenth day of the convention in Chicago, Illinois, where William (“Big Bill”) Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners, and Daniel De Leon and Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party founded the Industrial Workers of the World.