Legacy of labor in the Mountain State

Editorial September 1, 2021

The Mine Wars of 1912-21 were the height of labor organizing in the Mountain State. Organizing to demand real money for wages and less lethal work environments were punishable crimes; but paying employees in company money and letting hired guns beat up employees were legal. Unions were ...

The lost chapter: 100 years since Blair Mountain

Editorial August 24, 2021

Aug. 25, 1921, was the beginning of the end of West Virginia’s lost chapter. While the memory of company stores and scrip live on, the nearly decade-long rebellion against deplorable working conditions and coal barons’ greed has largely been forgotten. West Virginia’s coal mine ...