Woman from Spillertown

Book excerpt: Kathryn Kish Sklar calls this work "a major contribution to our historical understanding of the role of women in organizing American miners in the twentieth century." Agnes Burns Wieck was a crusading labor organizer, an activist known as "the Mother Jones of Illinois." This first book-length biography is a unique portrait of her energy and unremitting dedication to social justice. Wieck organized miners' wives and led a movement of Illinois coalfield women. She used her talents as a journalist and a public speaker to campaign for a decent standard of living, for good schools and working conditions in communities free of corporate domination, and for union democracy, racial equality, and acceptance of women in political life.