Racial & Ethnic Boundaries in the Coal Mines (Trailer) ~ American Experience | PBS West Virginia (1.13.16)

To meet the growing demand for coal in the early 20th century, West Virginia companies needed more miners. African Americans mixed with European immigrants and native Appalachians in the mines and the coal towns. Coal operators felt that diversity would keep unionization at bay.

SOURCE: https://youtu.be/VgfuPBDKFJ4

Introduction
0:03
the southern West Virginia coal Fields
0:05
were really the upand cominging coal
0:08
Fields they had tremendous demand for
0:11
new miners because the industry was
0:12
expanding so
0:14
much the only way to really bring more
0:17
coal out of the ground was to put more
0:18
Mine Workers underground and the coal
0:22
companies in southern West Virginia
0:24
bringing African-American miners up from
0:26
the south and bringing people in from
0:29
Southern and Eastern in
Calabria
0:32
[Music]
0:35
Europe my father came here from cabria
0:39
Italy with his brother
0:42
Antonio his name was Fon
0:46
Balia Co company agents would come up to
0:51
him he said and say
0:54
laa in other words we can give you a job
0:56
and a Home and uh they had nothing to
lose my family decided to come from
South Carolina to the cold fields of
West Virginia for uh economic uh reasons
and cultural
reasons my parents were
sharecroppers and the life of Sher cers
wasn't the best
life the South wasn't very free where
black people were
concerned in West Virginia
African-Americans entered a class and
racially stratified
Society but compared to the South and
compared to the North West Virginia was
a place in which they got a more
Equitable footing there were more black
miners in West Virginia than anywhere
else in the nation
and black workers in this environment
gain access to a system that
proclaimed equal pay for the same
work there was a lot of conflict among
the different groups of coal miners
because they didn't know each other and
so you had a great deal of prejudice and
the companies reinforced that by
building coal camps so that you had a
section for black miners had a section
for Eastern European Miners And there a section for Native Appalachian
Miners and that was done on purpose the coal operators felt that that diversity would keep unionization at Bay

"The Mine Wars" premiered on American Experience PBS January 26, 2015.