On Labor Day 1902, UMWA president John Mitchell stood before 50,000 people in Philadelphia and made the case for the striking miners of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. This photograph captures that moment. His words still resonate. Read the story.
"I'm willin' for the sake of the poor creatures who never have enough to eat that my man shall strike." A Philadelphia Inquirer reporter named Esther Nixon traveled to Shenandoah, PA during the 1900 Coal Strike to interview working class mining families about the intense labor battle between the United Mine Workers and the coal operators. Read the full story.
Bayonets in the streets | The National Guard occupies Shenandoah during the 1900 Coal Strike After a fatal shooting during the 1900 Coal Strike, the Governor sent hundreds of National Guard troops into Shenandoah. This Philadelphia Inquirer illustration shows them massed in the streets — and the striking miners said it amounted to being threatened back to work at bayonet point. Read more.
When the Coal Strike of 1902 turned violent, Pennsylvania sent armed troops into its mining towns. This photograph from Leslie's Illustrated captures the 8th National Guard patrolling the streets of Shenandoah, a Coal Region flashpoint, caught on camera by a local photographer. Read more.
“The frenzy and what came of it.” After the fires burned out and the strikes were crushed, this 1877 illustration captured what remained. A worker sits in the wreckage, a reminder of the violence and destruction following America’s first great labor uprising. Read the Full Story.
"The Christian men to whom God has given control..." Reading Railroad president George Baer meant his reply to a Wilkes-Barre photographer to be private. Within weeks it had been telegraphed across the country and handed the striking miners of 1902 the perfect villain. Read both letters in full.
An investigation into one of the world's richest men, his basketball team, and an attempt to go around the NBA salary cap sent me looking back to investigative journalism of the past. In a rapidly devolving media landscape, the digging done by Pablo Torre and his team is reminiscent of how the muckrakers of the Gilded Age uncovered the truth about the world's richest and most powerful men. Read my full reflection.
After a striking miner was shot dead on September 21, 1900, Pennsylvania sent the National Guard into Shenandoah, PA - artillery, machine guns, and all. These photographs from an official Guard publication document the occupation of the mining town. Read the full story and see the images.
When the whistle blew at the end of a shift, the breaker boys of Pennsylvania's Coal Region had a day's worth of coal dust to scrub off. This Philadelphia Inquirer photograph from 1900 captures a part of everyday life for the thousands of child mineworkers at the turn of the 20th century. Read the full story.
"We are like soldiers in the front of the battle." Weeks before the Avondale disaster killed 110 men and changed Coal Region history, a Boston reporter sat down on a log with two Welsh miners in Summit Hill, PA and asked them what their lives were actually like. They didn't hold back. Read the full story.