Last October, we moved the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum across the street from our original location (since 2015) and into the first floor of the giant Bank of Matewan building, now owned by the United Mine Workers Local 1440.

This spring, I worked with historian Chuck Keeney to build our museum’s first temporary exhibition, Boots on the Ground: General Bandholtz and Federal Troops at Blair Mountain. I was down in Matewan installing everything just a couple weeks ago, with an opening on May 18 during Matewan’s annual Heritage Day celebrations.

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…

“The teachers who have rallied at the Capitol over the past week, many of them sporting red bandanas just like the miners at Blair, recognize this proud history. Legislators who do not recognize this do so at their own peril.”