Virden, Illinois Race Riot (1898)

The Virden, Illinois Race Riot was an example of the combination of labor and racial violence in the late 19th and early 20th century United States. Following a United Mine Workers (UMW) national coal strike in 1897, a new 40-cents-per-ton rate was agreed on by all Illinois coal companies and the Illinois district of the UMW in January 1898. Then, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company abrogated the agreement and brought in African American miners from Birmingham, Alabama as strikebreakers to work the mines at Virden, a town twenty-five miles southwest of Springfield, Illinois.

Gallie, D. (2020, February 27). Virden, Illinois Race Riot (1898). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/virden-illinois-race-riot-1898/