"The Mine Wars" PBS American Experience

[Anodyne]

Tomorrow is the debut of the American Experience look at the West Virginia coal mine wars of 1920-21. These battles took 50 lives, and you can't overstate their importance in US history. But it's not something we hear much about.

You can watch the first part here. It starts with the enigmatic Mother Jones, just as it should, and her organizing that eventually led to the stand-off a few years later.

Preview:


I've been undergoing a crash course in mining labor history, as I'm working to get the Mother Jones Museum in Mt Olive, IL, up and running (along with Rosemary--one of the talking heads who appears early in part 1), and turning my grad students loose on suggesting themes for the May Day celebration at Mother Jones' grave in Mt Olive. There was a labor battle (literally) in nearby Virden, and MJ vowed to be buried with her 'boys' in the UMWA cemetery in Mt Olive.

We had a guest at the last board meeting, a gentleman who made the pilgrimage to Blair Mountain and secured several shell casings from that battle, which he donated to the museum at the behest of the treasure hunter.

Donor with our board chairman. History in action!

Shells from company and militia rifles, stones from significant sites, a chunk of Blair Mountain coal, replica scrip booklets.

Anyhoo, it's American Experience so it's well done. If you become so taken by the history, then please consider a donation to the Mother Jones Museum! We hope to have the exhibit plans up in the next few months, and will begin more fundraising for its realization.

Mother Jones also spent time rabble-rousing with the socialists in SE Oklahoma.

 

[hollywood]

St Peter don't you call me, cause I can't go.....I owe my soul to the company store.

Remind me, wasn't it Pinkerton Agents who the mine owners hired to kill the picketing miners?

 

[Orange Jennyslipper]

Enjoyed the program very much. American Experience is one of the few shows I keep set on auto-record. Your lead-in to the topic made the show more interesting.

Generally, we do a piss-poor job of teaching 20th Century American History in high schools. Kids don't have a clue why this or that happened in the U.S. so they have no clue what is trying to happen now.

Having the basketball coach sit in front of the class Monday thru Wednesday, give out the answers to the chapter test Thursday and have his favorite cheerleader grade the tests after everyone is through (in about 10 minutes) on Friday is bullshit. I know that's stereotypical, but it is stereotypical because it happens. A lot.

Anecdotally, one of the best history teachers I ever had was my high school football coach because he taught out of his college notes and he actually taught. He's the reason I became interested in history.

So few teachers get past the Civil War (if they get there at all). Kids ought to have a year to cover from the causes of World War I to the present. But then, adding something educational to the curriculum might get in the way of all the EXTRAcurricular shit everyone has to do.

 

[Orange Jennyslipper]

I hope that didn't appear too critical. It's a topic which could have pushed me over the edge. I thought I was reserved.

Two different jobs allowed me to collect mementos from across the U.S. and then, around the world. But my most treasured keepsake is probably a wooden "soap box" high school students made for me in a school I taught in after my travels were over. It's about a two-foot cube that they painted white and had every student in all my classes sign before giving it to me at the end of the year.

Nothing like kids who enjoy a good rant now and then.