Blair Mountain - A fight for civil liberties

Miners surrendering their weapons to the military at end of conflict on Blair Mt.

In its 2003 American Labor History Theme Study, the National Park Service observed that the fight for control of the southern West Virginia coalfields

"centered less on economics than on civil liberties - freedom of speech and assembly, freedom from the industrial feudalism of company towns, and freedom from the terrorism inflicted by the operators hired gunmen. The struggle that began in 1912 and culminated in the 1921 armed miners' march to liberate Logan County, West Virginia, from the company rule shows that labor history is part of a larger historical theme, the struggle for liberties promised in the Bill of Rights."

Interesting perspective on Blair Mt. struggle:

http://www.pawv.org/news/blairhist.htm