“I'm taking pictures of the history of today”

Labor History Today

In 1946, as part of a strike-ending agreement negotiated between the Department of the Interior and the United Mine Workers of America, photographer Russell Lee went into coal communities located in remote areas across the United States, documenting miners in 13 states.
Photographs from this federal project have rarely been studied or exhibited—until now. "Power & Light: Russell Lee's Coal Survey" is on view now at the National Archives here in Washington, DC. On Friday, I toured the exhibit with photojournalist Earl Dotter, known as the “American Worker’s Poet Laureate,” and sat down with him afterwards to get his thoughts and reflections.
Later in the show, the R.J. Phillips Band pays tribute to another great social photographer, Jacob Riis, born on May 3, 1849.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: The Battle of Harlan.

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Labor History Today is produced by the Labor Heritage Foundation and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor.

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