Today in History—September 4: The Largest Labor Uprising Ends
In the summer of 1921, thousands of armed coal miners set out across southern West Virginia. Their destination? Mingo county, where miners had been jailed during a bitter struggle over unionization. But standing in their way was Blair Mountain—and an anti-union sheriff, backed by an armed force determined to stop them.
For years miners had fought for better pay, safer working conditions, and the right to organize. Many lived in company towns, where coal operators owned their homes and stores and ultimately exerted enormous control over their daily lives. Attempts to unionize could mean losing their jobs or their homes, and resistance from coal companies and their hired guards repeatedly erupted into violence.
By 1921 the fight over unionization had become especially bitter in Mingo county. Striking miners faced evictions and arrests, and violence between miners and forces aligned with the coal companies had intensified, leaving several dead. With miners jailed and tensions mounting, in late August, thousands of miners began marching toward Mingo county hoping to free their jailed fellow miners—and challenge the anti-union system that had taken hold.
As the marchers approached Blair Mountain, Logan county Sheriff Don Chafin assembled a civilian force along the ridgeline. On August 31 an encounter between miners and Chafin’s deputies resulted in gunfire, and the Battle of Blair Mountain began.
Red bandanas became symbols of coal-miner solidarity.
For the next several days, the mountains of West Virginia echoed with gunfire as Blair Mountain became a battlefield. Opposing forces traded fire with rifles and machine guns. Chafin’s side even employed airplanes to drop gas and homemade explosives on the miners.
The fighting ceased when Pres. Warren G. Harding sent more than 2,000 federal troops to West Virginia. Many of the miners were World War I veterans, and while they had been willing to take up arms against local authorities and coal interests, they would not fight the U.S. Army. They laid down their weapons and headed home.
On September 4, the largest armed labor uprising in U.S. history came to an end. But the miners had not won the changes they sought, and the struggle for union rights, better working conditions, and greater protections would continue.
- 80 percent: West Virginia miners living in company houses in 1922
- 181,914,000 tons: Greatest total coal production in West Virginia (1997)
- 53 out of 55: Coal-producing counties in West Virginia
- 1888: George Eastman patents the Kodak camera
- 1957: The Little Rock Nine are blocked from entering school by the Arkansas National Guard
- 2016: Mother Teresa becomes a saint
