"To Our Militant Leader...From Militant Admirers"

I had the great fortune to interview Sean Burns this week. Sean is a descendant of Agnes Burns Wieck, the first president of the Illinois Women's Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America. Agnes was a legendary organizer, gifted leader and political visionary.

Detail from Agnes' quilt. The inscription reads,
"To Our Militant Leader" "From Militant Admirers"

In addition to providing a thoughtful and heart-felt interview, Sean was kind enough to bring along family photos and a rare artifact, a hand-made quilt given to Agnes by her supporters shortly before completing her term in office. The names of each of the women who created the quilt are also embroidered into the fabric in bright red thread.

You can read more about Agnes in an earlier post here. The best account of her remarkable life can be found in Woman from Spillertown: A Memoir of Agnes Burns Wieck by her son David Thoreau Wieck.

I'll be sharing more from my interview with Sean in future posts.

Mine War Site - Mine "B"

Mine shaft location - Mine "B", Springfield, IL.

In the 1930's, Mine "B" was owned by Carl Elshoff, and was organized by the Progressive Miners following their split from the UMWA. The Progressives later struck the mine after the UMWA attempted to assert control over the labor force. FBI records indicate that John L. Lewis provided funds to Elshoff to help him break the PMA strike.

Recommending the indictment of Lewis in a 1943 memo , Assistant U.S. Attorney General, Wendell Berge wrote, "Throughout the history of the trade union movement, agreements between a labor union and an employer to the detriment of a rival union, however bitter the enmity, have been despised and deemed treasonable and traitorous to the cause of labor."

However, no federal indictments were ever issued against Lewis or District 12.

Pressure From Below

When considering the political fallout of the Great Depression, one has to wonder why the U.S. moved leftward, enacting a number of social and economic reforms. In Europe for example, the economic crisis provided an opportunity for fascist parties to win control in Germany and Italy.

Unemployed Council protest in Bloomington, IL - 1933
(Courtesy of McLean County Museum of History)

One reason was there was considerable organized resistance from the working class. At Pantagraph.com, Bill Kemp, archivist/librarian for the McLean County Museum of History shares a great story today on the Unemployed Council in Bloomington, IL.

Kemp writes, "the local Unemployed Council, led by Bloomington resident C. 'Hank' Mayer, seemed everywhere, organizing street actions, petitioning local governments and trading barbs in The Pantagraph with those who did not share its Popular Front (or communist-allied) prescriptions to right the faltering economy. Members of the group also undertook actions such as illegally restoring water service for out-of-work residents who failed to pay their bills."

Such organized resistance was common and widespread. And it pressured a nervous government to act. As historian Victor Hicken noted, "This country came awfully close to changing governments."

While one has to resist the urge to draw direct parallels between the 1930's and now, I have no doubt that well organized mass resistance today might induce government officials to venture outside of their corporate-fabricated gilded cage.

In Memorium ~ Evanell Williams (1925-2009)

Last week I was saddened to learn that Evanell Williams died on Christmas Eve, 2009. I had the good fortune to meet her late last summer when I conducted an interview with her husband, Ben for this project. (His father was a member of the United Mine Workers during the Mine War. Ben is a former miner and continues the fight for worker's rights as an active retiree with the UMWA.)

After the interview, I sat and visited with the couple for awhile. Eventually we meandered outside to look at their lush garden next to the house. To thank them for their hospitality, I shot a quick portrait of the couple there.

Ben and Evanell Williams

As it turned out, a cropped version of that photo was used for Evanell's obituary. I'm glad they liked the photo, but also sad that it was needed for that purpose.

Here's a link to her obituary published in the Harrisburg Register. My sincere condolences to Ben and his family.

Book Review ~ Reckoning At Eagle Creek

In Jeff Biggers’ new book, Reckoning At Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal In The Heartland, he quotes a friend: “The abuse of the land is always connected to the abuse of the people.” This theme resonates throughout as Biggers entwines family history with industrial, labor, native and environmental histories of Southern Illinois.

This abuse came with the relentless drive to extract coal from the region. Mining shovels stripped away not only farmland and homesteads but also “ripped out the roots of invaluable historic sites and stories, such as the secret black slave cemetery that had helped to give birth to the coal industry, and churned them into unrecognizable dust.”

I was delighted that Jeff chose to include a mine war image that I unearthed to open chapter 1. The photograph depicts the strikebreaking Illinois state militia protecting Peabody Mine Number 7 in Kincaid. Even better, the picture introduces a chapter that speaks to contemporary government coal policy, including recent corporate welfare extended to Peabody Energy paid for by Illinois taxpayers. The juxtaposition suggests Peabody’s reliance on government support hasn’t changed much in the last 80 years.

However, I don’t fully agree with Biggers' characterization of the Illinois Mine War. On the contract election which incited the District 12 split, he writes, “When ballots for the vote on the new accord disappeared in Illinois, throwing the union into disarray, Lewis invoked his authority and signed the agreement.”

There is evidence that the ballots didn’t just disappear, but instead were stolen by a Lewis loyalist when it became clear that the election was lost. District 12 Vice President Fox Hughes (who also played a cowardly role in the Herrin Massacre ten years earlier) was seen driving off with the ballots. Lewis seized this moment and usurped the legitimate authority of the ballot box to replace it with his own autocratic rule. Democracy didn’t return to District 12 for decades.

Later, Biggers writes, “the most tragic ‘war’ was not between the miners and the coal companies, but between the miners themselves.” This is a common generalization about the mine war which is incomplete, and does an injustice to the idealistic founders of the Progressive Miners as well as to deny us an understanding of Lewis’ actions. While I’m sure this isn’t true in Biggers’ case, such a characterization can leave one believing that the Illinois Mine War was simply a factional dispute within the UMWA, ignoring the role of the government and most importantly, the role of the coal operators.

Satellite photo depicts the scars of strip mining in Southern Illinois

During that period in Illinois, the UMWA functioned essentially as a company union for Peabody Coal. Lewis led his loyalists to cross picket lines and break lawful strikes. Strikebreakers and thugs were recruited under auspices of the UMWA during that time to protect heavily fortified Peabody mines in Harrisburg and the Midland Tract in Christian County. Far from a simple factional dispute, Peabody Coal worked with Lewis to protect its dominance in the Illinois coal industry. FBI records show that when a picket line couldn’t be broken, Lewis funneled UMWA funds to a mine operator in order to withstand a PMA strike. And when it was eventually broken, the remaining workers fell under the control of the United Mine Workers.

That being said, one needs to remember that most of the discussion of the Illinois Mine War is accurate and part of a much broader historical mosaic. Biggers’ ties to the Mine War run deep too. Joe Colbert, a distant family relative, was the first casualty of the conflict. Further the profile of Agnes Burns Wieck and subsequent discussion of the inspiring role of women in the PMA organizing and activism is a great read.

For me Reckoning At Eagle Creek helps redress “historicide, a problem discussed in the book. The term, “historicide”, was coined by anthropologist Jonathan Hill and refers to the process of separating people from their histories. Jeff Biggers capably restores much of that history. Bravo.

Who Sees Dead People?

Earlier I wrote about Blair Mountain, West Virginia, its historical importance, and the effort to preserve it. (here & here.)

Recently Jeff Biggers offered an update on the bizarre actions of the West Virginia Historic Preservation Office.

Biggers reports: "On December 30, 2009, the historic Blair Mountain Battlefield was removed from the National Register by the Interim Keeper of the National Register, Carol Shull despite the fact that the WV State Historic Preservation Officer list of land-owning objectors admittedly included TWO DEAD PEOPLE and two life estate holders--all of whom should be disqualified.

Not quite admittedly: In an email inquiry on January 6th, WV SHPO Susan Pierce wrote: 'We cannot confirm or deny that there are no deceased on the SHPO list dated May 21, 2009.'...If the SHPO, whose state mandate is to 'identify, recognize, preserve and protect West Virginia's prehistoric and historic structures and sites,' openly doesn't even know who is an objector on the Blair Mountain list, outside of what she has been told by the coal companies."

From the Mt. Olive Public Library

Here's an image from the collection of the Mt. Olive, IL Public Library.

Charter of PMA Local 35 in Mt. Olive, IL

Mt. Olive is also the home of the Union Miners Cemetery, the final resting place of Mother Jones. PMA Local 35, led by Joe Ozanic spearheaded the effort to erect the Mother Jones Monument which was dedicated October 11, 1936.

Thanks to the library and its director, Janice Thimsen for providing access to the collection.