Justus Collins, an operator in the New River coalfield, advised mine owners to hire a “judicious mixture” of workers—white and black, native and immigrant—because their differences would prevent them from organizing and uniting. During the West Virginia Mine Wars, miners and their families proved him wrong.
Most coal camps had that “judicious mixture” of African Americans from the South and recent immigrants from eastern Europe and the Mediterranean as well as native-born Appalachians. Outside observers usually did not see a celebration of rich traditions and foodways, instead seeing a confusing mixture of cultures. One reporter from the New York Post visiting striking miners on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek in 1913 wrote, “It is estimated roughly that 50 per cent of the inhabitants are descendants of the mountaineers who once inhabited the country...The remainder of the miners are a strange conglomeration of Europeans and Negroes.”
Yet, when poet Ralph Chaplin visited the same muddy fields filled with canvas tent colonies, he saw something wonderful. He wrote, “They are doing pretty well in their tents. There is no atmosphere of martyrdom about these fighting West Virginians—nothing but a grim good humor and an iron determination.”
He believed that these families from very different backgrounds and traditions, working together to win their rights, had the potential to change the world. Inspired, he later penned labor’s most famous anthem, “Solidarity Forever.” Its last verse captures that sentiment:
In our hands is placed a power
greater than their hoarded gold;
Greater than the might of armies,
magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world
from the ashes of the old.
For the Union makes us strong.
— From Board Member Lou Martin
Thank you to the dozens of volunteers and partners who made the Strike Supper possible: the pig-roasters, the ticket-sellers, the raffle-booth-workers, the cooks, the photographers and so may more! Thanks to The West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition for the invitation to include The Blair Mountain Strike Supper in the Hatfield-McCoy Heritage Foods Dinner Series this fall! Thanks too to our project sponsors, the Coal Heritage Area Authority and the Appalachian Community Fund!
Strike Supper at UMWA Local 1440’s union hall, photo by Perry Bennett Photography
