The Mine Wars

To meet the growing demand for coal in the early 20th century, West Virginia companies needed more miners. African Americans mixed with European immigrants and native Appalachians in the mines and the coal towns. Coal operators felt that diversity would keep unionization at bay.

West Virginia coal operators built small, company-owned towns for their miners to live in. The coal towns were almost always unincorporated; there were no elected officials, no independent police forces. Owners hired private detective agencies to watch over their workforce. Company towns were also untethered from the free market competition owners usually championed.

When labor organizer Mother Jones arrived in a West Virginia coal town in 1901, residents were skeptical and mine guards were hostile. The United Mine Workers of America had successfully organized other mining operations in the U.S., but West Virginia remained tightly controlled by the coal company operators. "The Mine Wars" premieres January 26 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

In July 1881, James Garfield was shot by an assassin at a railroad station in Washington, DC. Over the next two months, his doctors tried to save him, though many would later blame the president's death on their lack of proper sanitary measures. Based on the bestselling book, "Destiny of the Republic" by Candice Millard, "Murder of a President" premieres Feb. 2, 2016 on PBS American Experience.

President James Garfield was only four months into his presidency when he was shot by a deranged office seeker. The President was bedridden for two months while doctors probed for the assassin's bullet with unsterilized instruments. When Garfield died in September, the entire nation joined his widow, Lucretia in mourning the late President. Premieres February 2 at 9/8c on PBS American Experience.

The story of small people going up against very big forces for a better nation. In the first two decades of the 20th century, coal miners and coal companies in West Virginia clashed in a series of brutal conflicts over labor conditions and unionization. "The Mine Wars" premieres on American Experience January 26 at 9/8c.