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The Pana riot, or Pana massacre, occurred on April 10, 1899, in Pana, Illinois, and resulted in the deaths of seven people. It was one of many similar labor conflicts in 1899 Illinois. ==Background== Striking white miners had been out of work for nearly a year when the Overholt brothers, part owners of one of the four Pana mines, went to Alabama to recruit "scab" labor in an effort to re-open the mines. Previous attempts to open the mines with white non-union workers had failed amid violence. According to first hand accounts collected by Eleanor Burnhorn, a well-known Pana history teacher, in the 1940s, the new recruits were told they would be working in newly opened mines. They were not aware of the strike until they arrived. The black non-union workers were housed in poor conditions either inside the confines of Springside Mine on the northeast side of town or in a building not-so-affectionately called the "Alabama Hotel" by local residents. It was located just west of Penwell mine. Despite the promise of a new life in the North, black workers who did manage to run the gauntlet of strikers were paid in coupons good only at stores designated by the mine owners. This prevented them from having cash to purchase transportation out of town. Their pay was also less than that of the strikers, at 27 1/2 cents per tone. Some were family men, but the majority were a rough lot, consisting of heavy drinkers, gamblers, and those prone to street violence. Striking white miners could easily fit this description, as well. In early 1899, the Afro-Anglo Mutual Association (AAMA) was formed by the black coal miners of Pana in order to protect their interests from white union miners. Although there is a lack of any records produced by the AAMA, an Illinois newspaper paper described its leader, Henry Stevens, as being "''hard as iron and his muscles stand out like whip cords. His biceps are as large as the calf of an ordinary mans leg. He stands about six feet, two inches tall and he will weigh in the neighborhood of 200 pounds.''" Due to previous unrest, the AAMA lobbied the state government of John Riley Tanner to guarantee that black and nonunion miners would receive the same protection from the National Guard as the Union miners. However, the pleas seem to have been ignored because, soon after, Governor Tanner removed the soldiers that were keeping order, which left the blacks at the mercy of local whites, who were openly hostile to them. Stevens responded by sending a delegate to the Governor Tanner, who requested that the soldiers continue their occupation, but again he was ignored. The act of diplomacy, though unsuccessful, represented the black miners' will to resolve the situation peaceably and contradicted their negative characterization as strikebreakers that were so often perpetuated by contemporary newspapers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pana riot」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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