Why is fannie sellins called labors martyr

How to Create an Entry. Create a New Entry. How to Create a Tour. Create a New Tour. About Clio. Clio in the Classroom. Clio for Historic Preservation. Clio for Museums. Grant Resources. Support Clio. Fannie Sellins Historic Marker. On August 26, , She witnessed Joseph Starzeleski being beaten by guards, and when she intervened, was shot dead by deputies on the scene. The coroner ruled that it was a justifiable homicide, stating that Sellins was inciting a riot.

Nice chronicle of events that covers the death of Fannie Sellins. Interview with the Author of "Fannie Never Flinched". Instagram post from account "Working Class History" with a brief description of Fannie's life, including a photo of her in prison after the troubles in West Virginia. They were immigrants. Today, we must also remember that the fight for human dignity continues. The Labor movement of a hundred years ago brought people together across nationalities. Our solidarity as workers bridged what would have divided us otherwise.

We must return to that today. Most accepted. This effective action once again put Sellins in the crosshairs of angry coal barons. In , she was assigned to the Allegheny River Valley district to direct picketing by striking miners at Allegheny Coal and Coke Company. The Western Pennsylvania coal field operators had a history of fiercely and violently opposing all union organizing attempts. The matter was complicated because Welsh , Irish , Cornish , and American born skilled miners had refused in the past to be associated with the largely Slavic workers in the pits.

The UMWA was organized as an industrial rather than a craft union to overcome just such divisions. Sellins proved to be an effective bridge to both communities and was skilled at building solidarity.

The bitter strike against Allegheny Coal and Coke, a major supplier to the blast furnaces of Pittsburgh, was both a prelude and a preview of the great Steel Strike which broke out in September. Despite the opposition of many in the AFL, Philip Murray was eager to encourage the union to adopt the industrial union approach of the Mine Workers to overcome that fatal weakness. Foster, who led the Steel Strike, shared that view. Foster would go on to a long labor career and leadership of the Communist Party.

He described Sellins as:. Contemporary press and union accounts are at odds over details and eye witness recollections collected and published decades later are fuzzy. The autopsy performed on Sellins and a grizzly photograph of her crushed skull was undeniable testimonies to the savagery of the attack she suffered. Foster wrote that. A dozen drunken deputy sheriffs on strike duty, led by a mine official, suddenly rushed the pickets, shooting as they came.

Joseph Starzeleski fell, mortally wounded. Sellins, standing close by, rushed to get some children out of danger. Then she came back to plead with the deputies, who were still clubbing the prostrate Starzeleski, not to kill him.

Some accounts place Sellins on the picket line herself—the company claimed she was actively inciting a riot. But most sources place her in the fenced yard of a steel worker family home near the mine gate with a number of children and their mothers when the charge came. After Starzeleski fell wounded, he was beaten as he lay. Sellins tried to intervene when she was clubbed in the head by a mine official. An account in the September 20, , New Majority described the scene:.

The mine official snatched a club and felled the woman to the ground. This was not on company ground, but just outside the fence of a friend of Mrs. Three shots were fired, each taking effect. Multiple accounts agree that Sellins was motionless and lying face down. She was rolled over and a deputy shot her in the face. Another smashed her skull with a shovel.

The photo of Sellins' crushed skull was widely circulated during the Steel Strike. The bodies of Starzeleski and Sellins were thrown into a touring car and whisked away.