Memorial/Mourning Badge: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers

Object/Artifact

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

Name/Title

Memorial/Mourning Badge: Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers

Entry/Object ID

RM.0001

Description

Laminated button (approx 1" circle) with pin back, ribbon attached with gold-stamped lettering on it. Button shows photographic portraits of both Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers. Ribbon reads: "They fought the fight and kept the faith that justice and liberty should not perish in Mingo County District 17 U.M.W. of A." (lettering in all caps)

Use

Public mourning.

Context

Produced by the United Mine Workers Union after the murders of both Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers in Welch, WV on August 1, 1921.

Collection

UMWA Collection

Made/Created

Date made

circa Aug 1, 1921

Notes

probably commissioned by UMWA District 17 leadership

Dimensions

Dimension Description

dimensions approximate

Height

8 in

Diameter

1 in

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Roger May

Person or Organization

William Sidney "Sid" Hatfield

Provenance

Notes

Given as a gift to Roger May by his 6th grade teacher, Gerald Alspaugh. Alspaugh was May's teacher at Turkey Creek Grade School, Pike County, Kentucky.

Exhibitions

Exhibition

Bloody Mingo

Notes

Enclosed in a shadowbox frame provided by owner. Secured to wall.

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

Sid Hatfield & Ed Chambers memorial badge, 1921: Families in the coalfields lived in a system where the representatives of law and order often sided with company interests and not their own. Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers stood out as exceptions to this rule. Many of the Red Necks who marched to Blair Mountain in August 1921 wanted retribution for their murders.