West Virginia Mine Wars Museum preserves the state’s labor history in Matewan

By Lauren Rodgers, RealWV

MATEWAN W.Va. — “Do you work for a living?” asked Kenzie New Walker, the executive director of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum. “If you exchange labor for a paycheck, then this museum is for you.” 

Located in Matewan, the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is a people’s history museum sharing the legacy of West Virginia’s labor rights movement. Between 1900 and 1921, West Virginia coal miners unionized, rallied, protested, went on strike, and fought for fair and safe labor conditions in the coalfields. 

Coal miners put their life on the line to ensure that future coal miners and working class Americans could unionize and safely earn a living. 

“We should be proud that we’re the coal state, and we should be equally as proud that we powered an American labor movement,”  New Walker asked.

The museum educates visitors through first-person stories, artifacts from 20th-century coalfields, historical documents, archival photographs, and contemporary art. Its galleries feature everything from coal town scrip to fine art photographs. 

The museum is an all-encompassing, interactive resource for anyone interested in learning about the history of labor rights in West Virginia and America at large. 

“The United Mine Workers Association paved the way for other labor unions, like automotives and steel,” New Walker said, “This is a history for the 99 percent — not just for West Virginians, but for anyone who exchanges labor for a paycheck.”

Taylor Hankins, the museum’s communications director, agreed. 

“The mine wars are a powerful story that affects every American who is a member of the working class.”

The museum was born out of social activism in 2011, when environmentalists and coal miners protested mountaintop removal on Blair Mountain, the site of America’s largest armed uprising second to the Civil War. 

Activists against mountaintop removal decided to create a museum to educate the public on the importance of not only the Battle of Blair Mountain, but also the mine wars as a whole. The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum opened in 2015. 

“There’s not a lot of people’s history museums in the country,” New Walker said, “We’re doing something very special and unprecedented in Matewan and in the coalfields.”

For those unable to make the trip to Matewan, the museum offers many online resources, including free classroom lesson plans that follow state curriculum standards. They also offer classroom “teaching trunks” that allow students to directly interact with material from the museum. 

“Labor rights are something that’s missing from school curriculum, and the museum exists as a way to teach that history in the classroom,” Kenzie New Walker said.

In addition to their interactive online resources and lesson plans, they also have an online shop that sells West Virginia-made, union-made, and American-made products. 

“If people are looking to support people’s history, a great way to support us is to shop online,” New Walker said.

Tucked within the mountains of Mingo County, the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum is a rich educational experience. Its curation, education, and community engagement artfully preserve West Virginia’s labor rights history with honor and spirit. Its excellent documentation of a crucial moment in American history deserves our state pride.