SCHUYLKILL, PA, June 21, 1877.
On June 21, also known as Black Thursday, the first ten of twenty Irish Miners were hung for the murders of 24 mine foremen and superintendants in these Pennsylvania coalfields. Known as the Molly Mcguires, this secret band of Irish Miners took revenge against the Reading Railroad and its mine bosses for the terrible conditions at the mines. They were infiltrated, captured, tried and hung by the Pinkertons and the Railroad for these crimes. This "Gem of American Jurisprudence" stood for many decades until in 1979 the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons recommended a posthumous pardon for the Molly Mcguires. The Pinkerton agent committed suicide 30 years after the hangings. The Workingmen's Benevolent Association, the Miner's Union at the time, was also a target of the Robber Barons who suppressed all resistance to the harsh conditions at the mines. Ultimately, the United Mine Worker's Union became the spokesman for the miner's of these coalfields. A book about this has just been published:
Making Sense of the Molly Mcguires, by Kevin Kenny, Oxford Univ. Press, 1998.
