On September 22, 1900, Mary Harris Jones, famously known as “Mother Jones,” delivered a rousing speech in McAdoo, Pennsylvania, rallying local women to join a protest march in support of the ongoing 1900 Coal Strike.
Her goal was to convince mineworkers in the nearby patch towns to stand firm with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in their fight for better wages and working conditions.
A newspaper reported described what Mother Jones told the gathered crowd of both men and women:
“Men, I want your women to go with us on this march. They are even more vitally interested in this strike than you are, for they suffer more than you do. I want these women to show the world that they are interested in the cause of their husbands.
I want them to show the world they believe the demands of the miners are just, and that they will stand with their men folks until the last.”
Following the speech, Mother Jones led a group of 60 women and 250 men on a march from McAdoo to Colerain, a nearby patch town, urging the mineworkers there to join the strike. The impact was immediate: many workers dropped their tools and walked off the job in solidarity.
Her bold action drew national headlines, further establishing Mother Jones as a formidable advocate for the UMWA and a beacon of unity for miners and their families. This event is one of the important moments in the 1900 Coal Strike, illustrating the power of collective action and community support.
This strike saw the UMWA make modest gains in their efforts to get better pay and working conditions in the Coal Region, but set the stage for a much larger and more successful strike two years later.
Read more about the 1900 Coal Strike
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A Coal Region editorial from 1900 speaks to income inequality a century later
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