The Segregated Mines of Roslyn
Strikes in the coal fields led to a tense, uneasy truce between white and Black miners, who worked the same pits but remained strictly separated.
There is a patched-up peace at Roslyn, and nearly seven hundred miners, white and Black, are now at work. The disturbing element which caused all the trouble and strikes in which the whites engaged have left for other black diamond fields. The white miners remaining, about two hundred, have gone to work in the same mines with the darkies, but there is no affiliation between the two. Before the whites resumed work, concessions were made, and now the miners receive $1 per ton. Mr. Kongley, the manager of the mines, has gone east, but will return in April, when he will be prepared to contract with the white miners for yearly work. By this means it is thought that strikes will be obviated. If satisfactory arrangements can be made, the colored miners will be worked exclusively in mine No. 3. A new mine is to be opened as soon as possible, and the diamond drill has again been called into play to fix upon the proper location.
“The white miners remaining, about two hundred, have gone to work in the same mines with the darkies, but there is no affiliation between the two.”
The 1889 labor conflicts in Roslyn reflect the complex racial dynamics of Washington's early industrial era, where mine operators frequently pitted ethnic and racial groups against one another to weaken union solidarity. This 'divide and conquer' strategy created lasting social divisions in coal towns that are still studied by labor historians today.
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