Pittsburgh has undergone immense physical and cultural changes the last few years, but there’s still a bedrock of working-class history that continues to shape our city today. This video series lets the viewer pause at familiar spots and take a quick trip back in time.
Hosted by Dr. Charles McCollester and produced by the Battle of Homestead Foundation, these 10-minute videos delve into the fascinating stories behind the more than 60 historic sites listed in Labor History Sites in the Pittsburgh Region, a book authored by McCollester and Howard Scott in 2016 and published by Allegheny County Labor Council.
“History isn’t as remote from their lives as people often think,” McCollester observes. “A lot of the time, it’s literally right around the corner.”
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 24: Pittsburgh Working-Class Sports
THIS episode of “Charlie’s Monday Marker” looks at the legacy of Pittsburgh “working-class” sports in 20th-century baseball, football and boxing.THIS episode of “Charlie’s Monday Marker” looks at the legacy of Pittsburgh “working-class” sports in 20th-century baseball, football and boxing.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 23: Frances Perkins Visits Pittsburgh; JFK-Nixon McKeesport Debate
JULY 1933: U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins visited Homestead and Pittsburgh, speaking to hundreds of steelworkers ... Perkins was the first woman named to a White House cabinet position and known as "The Architect of the New Deal" and a solid advocate for worker rights.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 22: Industrial Unionism and the CIO
PITTSBURGH WAS the site of one of the landmark gatherings of modern unionism — the founding on Nov. 14, 1938, of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), with 34 unions represented and spirited invocation delivered by Fr. Charles Owen Rice, who would gain fame as Pittsburgh’s “labor priest” in an activist career spanning 60+ years.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 21: The New Deal and Labor Rights
IN 1937, in the case of National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, or Wagner Act.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 20: Mother Jones and Fannie Sellins
TWO MARKERS in this episode, each recounting the leadership and heroism of two early 20th-century labor organizers working in the industrial valleys of Western Pennsylvania — *Mother Jones* and *Fannie Sellins*.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 19: The 1919 Braddock Steel Strike
A CENTURY AGO, bitter labor struggles in the steel industry challenged a system of total corporate control over an immigrant workforce supported by the suppression of civil liberties in mill towns and coal patches.
Charlie’s Monday Marker ~ Episode 18: Washington and Guyasota
Washington and Guyasota.
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 14: The McKees Rocks Strike of 1909
The 1909 strike at the Pressed Steel Car Company in McKees Rocks marked a major…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 13: Harwick Mine Explosion 1904
Coal mining in Pennsylvania took a terrible toll of death and injury for workers and…
Charlie’s Monday Makers ~ Episode 12: The Allegheny Arsenal and Pittsburgh Fortifications
On September 17, 1862, while the armies of the North and South wrestled to a…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 11: The Founding of the Ironworkers Union, 1896
The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers was formed on February…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 10: Morewood Mass
The Morewood massacre was an armed labor-union conflict in Morewood, Pennsylvania, in Westmoreland County, west…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 9: Mammoth Mine Explosion, 1891
The Mammoth Mine disaster or Frick Mine explosion occurred on January 27, 1891 just after…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 8: Founding of the American Federation of Labor
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (FOTLU)…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode 7: The 1877 Railroad Strike
The Pittsburgh railway strike occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as part of the Great Railroad Strike…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode Six: Jane Grey Swisshelm
Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm was an American journalist, publisher, abolitionist, and women's rights advocate. She…
Charlie’s Monday Markers ~ Episode Five: Blocking the Cannons, Pittsburgh, 1863
IN THE ANTEBELLUM period, Pittsburgh was a center of popular resistance to slavery. The Republican…