Skip To Content
Join the Conversation
Funded by
Support Provided by: Learn More
The Mine Wars | Clip

The Coal Town System

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.

Teachers, check out teaching tips related to this video from PBS LearningMedia.

Support Provided by: Learn More

Now Streaming

  • The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools poster image

    The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools

    Explore what happened when the small Mississippi town of Leland integrated its public schools in 1970. Told through the remembrances of students, teachers and parents, the film shows how the town – and America – were transformed.

  • The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools (español) poster image

    The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools (español)

    Explore lo que sucedió cuando la pequeña ciudad de Leland en Misisipi integró sus escuelas públicas en 1970. Contada a través de los recuerdos de estudiantes, maestros y padres de familia, la película muestra cómo se transformaron la ciudad y el país.

  • The Busing Battleground poster image

    The Busing Battleground

    The Busing Battleground viscerally captures the class tensions and racial violence that ensued when Black and white students in Boston were bused for the first time between neighborhoods to comply with a federal desegregation order.

Related Features