Leadership
Figures who were instrumental in urging the men to fight for their basic rights and push for unionization were Mother Jones, Bill Blizzard, and Frank Keeney. This presentation will highlight some of Mary’s Jones contributions.
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed confrontation in America since the Civil War where 10000 West Virginia coal miners picked up their Winchesters and marched against the tyranny of mine owners. The fierce socialist Marry Harris “Mother” Jones was the key leader in turning the United Mine Workers (UMW) into the nation’s strongest labor union. Her famous battle cry was “pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living” (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/09/mother-jones-coal-west-virginia/).
Jones’s legacy was solidified with the UMW as she laid the foundation for the union to obtain contracts that required health benefits, pensions and 84-hour workdays. UMW spokesman Phil Smith called her “invaluable, irreplaceable. She was able to motivate miners to take collective action when in some cases the leadership of the union was not. She was able to motivate the families of miners to support the men who were either on strike or trying to organize, when nobody else could. And she didn’t just do it in West Virginia, she did it all over the country” (http://motherjonesnhd.weebly.com/).
In a 1912 speech to the miners on strike Jones warned West Virginia’s governor to call off the guards who killed the workers at the Cabin Creek and Paint Creek mines otherwise “there is going to be one hell of a lot of bloodletting.” She picked up a coat soaked with blood of a wounded guard and said, “This is the first time I ever saw a goddamned mine guard’s coat decorated to suit me” (https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/mother-jones.)
Quotes:
“I declare that their little lives are woven into the cotton goods they weave.”
“I have been in jail more than once and I expect to go again. If you are too cowardly to fight, I will fight.”
