Union activist Mother Jones knew a leader when she saw one. And when she met Frank Keeney, she knew he had the natural leadership and the unrelenting courage to lead West Virginia miners against the ruthless Baldwin-Felts mine guards and the coal companies that hired them to keep the unions out of southern West Virginia. And Keeney knew good advice when he heard it. He did educate himself, and he did find out how to help his fellow miners. Moreover, he played an important role in forging collective bargaining rights for all Americans.

Frank was born on March 15, 1882, in Cabin Creek. Ten years later, his mining career began when he left school and went into the mines to help support the family. Working as a trapper boy, he sat alone in the pitch black for eleven hours a day, opening and quickly closing the heavy wooden doors that helped ventilate the mine. During the Paint Creek/Cabin Creek strike, he and his family were evicted from their company house and lived in a tent colony on Paint Creek. When no other officials from the UMW would come to organize the miners in nearby Cabin Creek, Keeney met with Mother Jones, who agreed to travel there with him and assist the strikers.

The strike was long and brutal. Lives were lost. But by the time the strike ended, Keeney had established himself as the miners’ rank-and-file leader. In 1916, Keeney was elected president of the United Mine Workers District 17 in southern West Virginia. From this position, he would lead miners through their intense fight for the right to unionize.

We honor and celebrate his courage, his sacrifice, and his contributions to our right to form and join unions.