The esteemed historian of slavery and capitalism Walter Johnson had a great Boston Review piece a couple of weeks ago about how the legacies of racism are going to determine who suffers the greatest i
On October 12, 1898, a racialized battle over strikebreaking broke out in the southern Illinois coal mining town of Virden, Illinois. The so-called Battle of Virden demonstrates the ways that employer
Oh dear: The artist behind the Elgin mural that depicts a portion of a famous photo of a 1930 lynching of two black men in Indiana said the piece was intended to get people to ask questions, think abo
This debate over whether happy hours should be banned, as they currently are in Illinois, has a clear answer: no. I have lived in states with happy hour. I currently live in a state that does not have
Above: Illinois governor Bruce Rauner There’s nothing good happening to the American worker in 2016, but it is even more discouraging than usual that Republican governors are trying to outdo eac
On March 25, 1947, the Centralia Coal Company’s No. 5 mine in Centralia, Illinois exploded, killing 111 workers. This disaster, caused by extremely unsafe working conditions from employers utter
Given the ideology of the Republican Party in 1865 and 2013, I guess it is fitting that Springfield, Illinois is looking to sell off the public cemetery where Abraham Lincoln is buried to a private co
On November 13, 1909, at the Cherry Mine in Cherry, Illinois, a coal car filled with hay for the mules who worked underground rolled down a track. Earlier that week, an electrical outage had struck th