Two stuffed figures swayed above a Wilkes-Barre, PA street in the summer of 1902.They were crude effigies of non-union miners, hoisted high for every strikebreaker in Luzerne County to see.

The message was unmistakable.

Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal fields were in the grip of the Coal Strike of 1902. Since May 12, more than 147,000 members of the United Mine Workers of America had walked off the job, demanding higher wages, shorter workdays, and union recognition.

The men who kept working – the ones the strikers called “scabs” or “black-legs” – became targets of community rage that ranged from taunts and threats to outright violence.

This photograph appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper during the strike, showing that the threat of real violence lurked just beneath the surface as tensions between strikers and non-union workers simmered.

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Read more about the Coal Strike of 1902

A different kind of labor leader | A profile of John Mitchell during the 1902 Coal Strike

“These boys are in constant danger” – A description of the child laborers of the Coal Region | 1902

A meeting of child mineworkers in 1902 | Recorded in McClure’s Magazine

End of the 1902 Coal Strike | October 23, 1902

Read more stories about the 1902 Coal Strike

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