May 22, 2013

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March Planned to Demand Preservation of WV Historic Site

Scene of actual fighting at Blair Mountain, showing armed Logan County deputies repulsing the attack of miners in the dense thickets hundreds of feet to their front. (Courtesy: Charleston Gazette, September 10, 1921)

A preservation group is planning to recreate the 1921 march by thousands of coal miners that became the largest armed confrontation in U.S. labor history.

The Friends of Blair Mountain plans to begin the march June 6, almost 90 years after nearly 10,000 United Mine Workers members marched from Marmet down into Logan County to organize non-union coal miners.

Federal troops eventually helped force the miners to return home in what became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.

The march is planned to demand preservation of Blair Mountain, which is now threatened by coal companies that want to begin mountaintop mining at the site.

The Charleston Gazette reports that marchers also will call for ending mountaintop removal mining and increased rights for the labor movement.

©2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.


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