On This Day In Alabama History: Governor Ordered Miners’ Tent Colonies Cut Down

By Graydon Rust
Alabama 200

August 26, 1908: Gov. Braxton Bragg Comer ordered state troopers to cut down mine strikers’ tent colonies for promoting racial equality among black and white miners. The strike pitted members of the interracial District 20 of the United Mine Workers labor union against their wealthy industrial employers in a struggle for improved wages and working conditions. Starting on July 8, 1908, the strike quickly encompassed more than half of Birmingham’s 20,000 miner labor force and threatened to shut down coal production. Despite their successes, the strike failed after mine owners resorted to promoting violence and armed state intervention, and mine operations soon returned to normal.

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