On this day in labor history, the year was 1921.
That was the day Kansas National Guard troops marched into Crawford County coal fields to quell the “Mothers March.”
8000 miners went on strike that September to protest the jailing of their UMW district leader, Alexander Howat.
Howat was found guilty of violating a statewide strike injunction for calling workers out on strike in 1919.
Governor Henry Justin Allen had established a state industrial court which ruled strikes illegal.
Howat’s members considered it a new kind of fugitive slave act.
They likened their jailed leader to a modern-day John Brown.
The UMW opposed the court and the increasing number of unauthorized strikes.
Many district leaders were divided over this protest strike and chose not to support it.
The strike also divided the membership and some went back to work.
Conditions worsened after three months until the striking miners’ wives took matters into their own hands.
They met in Franklin to organize a march that would effectively shut down the mines.
Their numbers grew from 500 the first day to over 4000.
According to Benjamin Goosen, “for three days the women stormed area mines, obstructed traffic, and assaulted workers. When met with resistance, they threw red pepper at “scab” workers and overturned their lunch buckets, showering the miners with coffee and what had been intended as their midday meals.”
Four companies of National Guard troops, including a machine gun division, arrived to stop the march and break the strike.
The press derisively referred to the women as the “Amazon Army.”
Many women were arrested but mobilized their newly won voting power to unseat anti-labor politicians the next spring.
As a result, the state industrial court was ruled unconstitutional.
March 19 - Wartime President Pushes for Labor Peace
March 18 - Wartime Workers Betrayed
March 17 - The Hoggs Hollow Tragedy
March 16 - Big Bill Haywood Talks General Strike
March 15 - The Grapes of Wrath Opens in Theaters
March 14 - Remembering Walter Crane
March 13 - Ending Jim Crow on the Job
March 12 - OSHA Safety Incentives
March 11 - Raising Conditions for an Industry
March 10 - Radium Girls
March 9 - Striking the Mines
March 8 - IBEW Strikes to Win
March 7 - Work Faster! Work Faster!
March 6 - International Unemployed Day
March 5 -Lordstown Syndrome
March 4 - Mismanagement Kills an Airline
March 3 - Wildcat Strikes Hit Chrysler and Briggs
March 2 - Greyhound Bus Strike Begins
March 1 - The Hoover Dam Goes Public
February 28 - Fighting for Equal Pay
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