In the 1900s, the UMWA was culturally and historically significant because it was a segregated organization.
This is particularly strange because the organization was in Alabama, where Jim Crow laws were heavily entrenched. The labor union they formed was able to appreciate the racial divide and negotiated for better working condition with coal mining companies for the benefits of all employee regardless of color and ethnicity long before the civil rights movement..
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I wrote an essay about it. They’re in the photos
