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The Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency was a private detective agency in the United States from the early 1890s to 1937. The agency's members played a key role in the events that led to the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921 and violent repression of labor union members. Significant incidents, later collectively known as the Coal Wars, occurred in various locations. The Pocahontas Coalfield region of West Virginia witnessed some of these events. Among these incidents are the Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 in West Virginia, 1913–1914 Colorado Coalfield War, and the Battle of Matewan in 1920.
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The Carterville Mine Riot was part of the turn-of-the-century Illinois coal wars in the United States. The national United Mine Workers of America coal strike of 1897 was officially settled for Illinois District 12 in January 1898, with the vast majority of operators accepting the union terms: thirty-six to forty cents per ton, an 8-hour day, and union recognition. However, several mine owners in Carterville, Virden, and Pana, refused or abrogated. They attempted to run with African-American strikebreakers from Alabama and Tennessee. At the same time, lynching and racial exclusion were increasingly practiced by local white mining communities. Racial segregation was enforced within and among UMWA-organized coal mines.
In 1915, coal miners affiliated with the United Mine Workers (UMW) labor union at the Wheelbarrow Mine in Johnson County, Arkansas, went on strike against the mine's operators, the Pennsylvania Mining Company (PMC). The strike ended in 1917 after the PMC declared bankruptcy and a new company, the Fernwood Mining Company, was established to operate the mine and quickly agreed to recognize the UMW.
References
- ↑ Lancaster, Guy. "Sebastian County Union War of 1914". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ Teske, Steven. "Hartford (Sebastian County)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- 1 2 David Y. Thomas (August 1922). "Blanket Liability for Labor Unions". Current History . Retrieved November 20, 2009.
- ↑ Norwood, Stephen H. (3 April 2003). Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America . Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 159 . Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ "Find Remains of Two Mine Guards". Sacramento Union. 20 July 1914. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ "United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co. 259 U.S. 344 (1922)". Justia US Supreme Court. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ "Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers 268 U.S. 295 (1925)". Justia US Supreme Court. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ Tate, Ryan Driskell. "Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers of America". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ↑ Norwood, Stephen H. (3 April 2003). Strikebreaking and Intimidation: Mercenaries and Masculinity in Twentieth-Century America . Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 160–162. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
