Remembering the Lattimer Massacre
September 10, 1897
One of the most troubling, yet forgotten,
moments in U.S. history.
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Here on September 10, 1897, nearly 400 immigrant coal miners on strike were met and fired upon by sheriff's deputies. Unarmed, they were marching from Harwood to Lattimer in support of higher wages and more equitable working conditions. Nineteen of the marchers were killed, and 38 were wounded. This was one of the most serious acts of violence in American labor history.
Erected 1997 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
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Anthracite coal miners of Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian origin marched five miles to Lattimer, Pennsylvania on Sept. 10, 1897. Sheriff's deputies fired at them without warning killing 19 men and wounding 38 others; many were shot in the back. The marchers who died were all foreign-born. |
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- Eastern and Southern European immigrants lived in communities around Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) was established in 1890 and the union was still in its infancy.
- On August 21, 1897 Pennsylvania's anti-immigrant Campbell Act went into effect taxing employers three cents a day for each adult immigrant on their payroll. The anthracite mine owners responded by shifting the burden to the immigrant miner, deducting the tax from his wages.
- The Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company discharged twenty young mule drivers who refused to obey a new work rule. The company consolidated its mule stables, forcing the teenage mule drivers to travel much farther each day to pick up their mules, time for which they were not compensated. The mule drivers struck and set up a picket line.
- Miners marched from colliery to colliery urging others to join the strike in a show of solidarity. Two hundred and fifty men left Harwood on Sept. 10, 1897 for the march to Lattimer; their numbers would grow to 400. UMWA organizer John Fahy advised them not to carry weapons, only the American flag.
- At Lattimer the marchers were met by Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin and his deputies, armed with rifles and pistols. The deputies opened fire killing 19 men and wounding 38 others.
- The deceased miners became martyrs, symbols of the labor struggle in the Anthracite Region. A Polish newspaper in Scranton extolled those who died as "the patron saints of the working people in America." In February 1898 Sheriff Martin and his posse stood trial in Wilkes-Barre but all were found innocent.
- Outraged by the shooting thousands of immigrant miners flocked to the UMWA, adding 15,000 new names to union membership rolls. Two years later John Mitchell, UMWA president, would call a strike of all anthracite miners stating "the coal you dig isn't Slavic or Polish or Irish coal. It's just coal."
- In 1972 a historic marker and memorial rock were put in place to remember the fallen miners and the great miscarriage of justice at Lattimer. Union members from throughout the state attended the dedication. Cesar Chavez of the United Farm Workers of America delivered the first speech; he connected the miners' fight for unionization to the struggles of farm laborers in California, many of whom were immigrants.
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The Lattimer Massacre Memorial |
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Unions, labor activists, musicians and cultural workers mourn the death of Laurel Blaydes of Washington, DC. For thirteen years Laurel served as executive director of the Labor Heritage Foundation, a non-profit, arts organization that uses music and the arts in all its forms to support the efforts of organized labor. Laurel advocated for labor singers, songwriters and artists by promoting their work to audiences around the country. She helped build the Great Labor Arts Exchange into an annual event and organized similar labor culture programs in various cities.
An accomplished singer and musician, she performed in a variety of bands – the Mountain Laurel Band, Sassparilla and Groundwork.
In 1981 she sang for an audience of hundreds of thousands at the labor Solidarity Day demonstration on the national mall.
Let us continue to sing out and carry on Laurel's work by building a better world.
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by
Terry Leonino & Greg Artzner
The duo dedicated this song to Pete Seeger, their friend and mentor, based on his comments regarding the term "folk song."
Words and music by Greg Artzner & Terry Leonino.
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Sources from which I summarized, paraphrased or quoted directly: Remembering Lattimer : Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country by Paul A. Shackel, 2018. In this book Professor Shackel (Dept. of Anthropology, University of Maryland) writes that the story of Lattimer "has implications for how we remember the past and which past we choose to forget." I am grateful to Paul for the Cheslock marker photograph, for his writings on collective memory and historical amnesia and for his reporting on the Hispanic community in Hazleton.
The Breaker Whistle Blows : Mining Disasters and Labor Leaders in the Anthracite Region (1984) is a wonderful book by Ellis W. Roberts "dedicated to the memory of immigrant anthracite coal miners and their families." So glad I discovered it at the museum store at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton. Other sources: From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers by Harold W. Aurand, the Historical Marker Database and Wikipedia. -- Saul Schniderman, editor.
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