Founding of the Progressive Miners of America

County:
Macoupin 
Picture:
Location:
Marker is located at the corner of Chestnut and Montgomery Streets, at the entrance to the Colonial Garden, in Gillespie.
Latitude:
39.1274
Longitude:
-89.8153
Dedication Date:
05/01/2021
Dedication By:
University of Illinois Mythic Mississippi Project, Illinois Coal Museum at Gillespie, City of Gillespie, and the Illinois State Historical Society
Marker Description:

Coal miners were the vanguard of the American labor movement and Illinois played a major role. In the 1890s tens of thousands of Illinois miners joined the young United Mine Workers union. But in succeeding decades the leadership of UMW President John L. Lewis came under criticism.

On September 1-3, 1932, miners convened in Gillespie to act on their grievances. In the Colonial Theater, originally located on this site, 274 delegates voted to create a cleaner, more democratic union: the Progressive Miners of America. The UMW reacted to the PMA challenge with violence, often supported by local police and state militia. The PMA responded in kind. Between 1932 and 1936 UMW and PMA miners engaged in gun battles and bombings against each other. This episode became known as the “mine wars.”

A Women’s Auxiliary was organized alongside the PMA, which supported their men on the home front and beyond. Wearing their characteristic white dresses and white headbands, 10,000 WA members protested in 1933 at the State Capitol in Springfield against the abrogation of PMA miners’ civil rights. In 1936 the PMA and WA dedicated the Mother Jones Monument in the Union Miners Cemetery at Mt. Olive, which includes the names of 21 PMA members killed during the mine wars.

At its height, the Progressive Miners of America represented more than 20,000 miners. But it was unable to expand beyond Illinois. The advent of World War II ended its heyday. However, memory of the PMA lives on in many Illinois families.

Map:

Print marker information