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
Acquisition
Source (if not Accessioned)
Roger May
Notes
Given as a gift to Roger May by his 6th grade teacher, Gerald Alspaugh
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
Accessories
Accessory
Frame
Location
Location
* Untyped Location
Exhibition, secured
Category
Exhibit
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.
