Site of the Lattimer Massacre
Lattimer, PA, Sept. 10, 1897
In the 1890’s, immigrants from eastern and southern Europe did most of the hard labor in the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. They were paid up to 15% less than their English-speaking counterparts. The coal companies of the region added a new deduction to their wages in August of 1897 to compensate for a new state tax on non-U.S. citizens that they employed.
The immigrant miners decided to go on strike to protest this latest loss of wages and the brutal treatment they received from company superintendants, hoping to close all of the mines in the area. Their main goal was for equal pay and better working conditions. On September 10 a group of approximately 400 unarmed striking miners from Harwood marched peacefully to a nearby mine in Lattimer to try to get that mine’s workers to join in the strike. They were harassed on the way by a sheriff’s posse and coal company police armed with rifles and pistols. At 3:45pm the authorities opened fire on the marchers at this spot, killing 19 and wounding dozens. Most were shot in the back while trying to flee.
The sheriff and his deputies were found innocent after their defense characterized the miners as “invaders from the steppes of Hungary”. Miners who were involved with or supported the strike were subsequently fired. Workers who retained their jobs continued to work under the same harsh conditions.
