Women on the March: Kansas Coalfields Strike 1921

Did you know women played a significant role in the Kansas coalfield strike of 1921?

Coal mining was a major industry in southeast Kansas in the late nineteenth century. The area became known as the “Little Balkans” from the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, France, Sweden, Britain, Italy, and Germany who settled there to work in the coal mines. The 1916 miners’ strike in Marcello’s Promise was fictional, but unrest in the coal camps in southeast Kansas was widespread from 1900-1920.

In late 1921 the local union leader, Alex Howat, ordered a strike hoping to improve wages and working conditions for the miners. The state took over operation of the mines and hired volunteers to replace the striking miners. Internal disagreement between the local and national United Mine Workers of America about how to settle labor disputes caused a split, and the UMWA did not support the striking Kansas miners. Most families had been without a steady income since early autumn, and parents could scarcely afford food or adequate clothing for their children. The strike was months old and the first blizzard of the winter had blown through southeast Kansas.

The women of the coal camps had reached their limit.

Outraged at the lack of support from the UMWA, a group of women met in the Franklin Union Hall on December 12 to condemn what they saw as “industrial” slavery laws. On December 13 three thousand wives, mothers, sisters, and sweethearts wrapped in coats, scarves and shawls, marched on the coal fields. On December 14 the crowd of women was “miles long” according to one account. The women blocked the entrances to over 60 coal mines and used buckets of red pepper flakes to keep “scabs” away. While supporting the strike, they sang patriotic songs and carried American flags. Eager to show they were true Americans, they considered their cause one of conserving democratic values of fairness and equality rather than one of revolt.

This mass march of women drew headlines across the state and nation. Numbering between two and six thousand at one point, they were dubbed the “Amazon Army” by the New York Times and referred to by one judge as anarchists and Communists. To the contrary, the women meant to shame the men who hadn’t supported their union brothers while trying to show themselves to be American patriots. By claiming ideals of liberty, freedom, and democracy, the march provided a political means for these immigrant women to discard their outsider status and become part of the social order. Some women were arrested for what was considered shocking behavior at the time. Within the coal camps, however, these women were heroes.

On January 13, 1922, the local union president ended the strike. Eventually the state ended its control of the mine, the unions negotiated a new pay plan, and the miners went back to work. It’s hard to overstate how remarkable the presence of these women was in the picket line of a labor dispute. They made history. These women and men together helped bring about lasting reform to the coal mining industry.

Mary Skubitz, later identified as one of the leaders at the December 11th meeting, spoke five languages. She was born in 1887 and came to America at the age of 3 from Slovenia with her coal miner father, Andrew Youvan, and her mother, Julia. Mary, along with her mother was among those arrested and held on seven hundred-fifty-dollars bond instead of the standard two hundred. Mary kept a journal of the events surrounding the march.

“There was absolutely no fear in these women’s hearts. Like the lion, they would face and fight anything bare handed – no weapon of any kind – they would face the militia their only thought was something must be done so that their little ones would have food -something to wear in the cold, even though they might meet death at the hands of the militia.”

– Mary Skubitz’s Journal, 12/1921

Clemence DeGruson was born on March 1st, 1903 in Roseland Kansas. Her father was a coal miner and her mother, Marie Merciez, ran a grocery store in opposition to the company store there. The store was moved to Camp 50 in 1915. Clemence and her mother attended the first meeting of the women marchers in Franklin. The plan was to march on the mines and barricade them from nonunion workers. The women were to sing and drum on pit buckets, throw red pepper into the eyes of anyone who tried to stop them and join hands at the mines entrance. Marie volunteered to supply the red pepper from her store.