Multiracial Labor Organizing and Community Building in Roslyn, Washington, 1888-1907

Abstract

In 1888 predominantly white mine workers in the newly established coal mining town of Roslyn formed a local affiliate of the Knights of Labor and called a strike. As a way to break the strike, the Northwestern Improvement Company recruited hundreds of Black miners from the Midwest. After a period in which racial division threatened to boil over into violence, the strike was ultimately broken and the majority of white miners left town. In the coming years, Black miners continued to migrate there along with European immigrants. By 1904, miners had organized a union across racial lines that led a successful strike. I analyze how conditions transformed in the intervening years to allow the growth of a successful multiracial union. Principally, the absence of native-born white workers created a space for Black and immigrant white workers to build a community that explicitly defined itself through its multiracial character.