The year 1919 saw unprecedented levels of unrest and violence in the United States, as it did in many other places.
The continual outbreaks of strikes, rioting, labor unrest, and anarchist terror made it easy to believe that behind it all was a Bolshevik plot to undermine the US government.
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“The Memphis Blues”
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Mark, when you refer to the coal strike, to which one are you referring? I ask because there is a massive coal strike in West Virginia in 1921, the Battle of Blair Mountain. If you’ve yet to encounter it, it’s intense.
I’m aware of Blair Mountain, but we’re not there yet. This one was in 1919. There were a number of coal strikes in this era, and they were always important. In those days coal powered most factories, trains, and heated most homes, so an interruption in the coal supply was a very big deal.