In December 1921, thousands of women marched across the coalfields of Southeast Kansas to protest unfair labor practices. They were dubbed the “Amazon Army” by the New York Times, and their fight for democracy and labor rights led to state and national legislation.
Area residents can learn about these history-making women at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 12, at the Iola Public Library. Humanities Kansas speaker Linda O’Nelio Knoll, from the Miners Hall Museum in Crawford County, will present the “Army of Amazons: Women’s Fight for Labor Rights in Kansas Coalfields.”
Southeast Kansas is sometimes called the “Little Balkans” because of the variety of nationalities — French, Swede, British, Italian, German and Eastern European — who settled in the area to work in the booming railroad and coal mining industries.
They often faced 12-hour work days with hazardous working conditions. Child labor was common. By the 1920s, the wives, daughters, mothers, sisters and sweethearts had their fill of somber goodbyes as their loved ones left for the mines each morning, not knowing if they would return. In December 1921, they joined striking miners with a mass march that made headlines across the nation.
“They considered their cause one of conserving democratic values rather than one of revolt,” Knoll writes on her website about the event, amazonarmy.com.
“The women’s actions echoed feelings of solidarity with male members of the mining community and linked the miners’ struggle to American ideals of justice and equality, which ultimately led to national social reform.”
Knoll helped found the Miners Hall Museum in Franklin, a town of less than 500.
The museum is dedicated to the rich coal mining history of this corner of Kansas. The museum was part of a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit called “The Way We Work” in 2013. Over 5,000 visitors from 38 states and five foreign countries came during a six-week period. Knoll brought her Amazon Army program to the Iola library in 2012 in the lead-up to the Smithsonian exhibit.
Knoll has received various awards as an educator. Her play, “Army of Amazons: An Oral History of Southeast Kansas,” received an Emmy nomination in 2013 for Best Historical/Culture Program Segment through the Sunflower Journeys PBS- KTWU series.
Tuesday’s program is part of Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau and 21st Century Civics, a collection of resources inviting Kansas communities to discuss and learn more about the history of American democracy and the shared responsibilities of citizenship.
Twenty-first Century Civics is made possible with support from “A More Perfect Union: America at 250,” an initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
