Blair Mountain, WV (1921)
Quote:
On a sultry August morning in 1921, some 15,000 coal miners converged at the foot of the steep, brambly slopes of West Virginia's Blair Mountain. On a high ridge above, coal industry forces, private detectives, and state police officers peered out from fortified positions, training Thompson submachine guns and high-powered rifles on the men below.
After years of violent confrontations with mine operators in West Virginia coalfields, the miners were marching to Mingo County, West Virginia, to free miners imprisoned by state authorities and unionize workers who lived in dire poverty in company towns. But the 1,952-foot-tall (595-meter-tall) Blair Mountain stood in the marchers' path. So the miners—armed with machine guns and other weapons, and wearing red bandannas around their necks—started up the slopes.
The ensuing battle, the second largest civil insurrection in U.S. history, lasted about five days and claimed dozens of lives. And while the miners eventually decided to lay down their arms when federal troops arrived, the battle of Blair Mountain focused national attention on the oppressive company towns of West Virginia and dangerous mines, resulting in part from lagging state safety regulations.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...energy-nation/
See also
http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/thi...tory/0904.html
A couple good treatise...
Here and here and here...
Then there were those who were not exactly enamoured with the new sheriffs in town in Mass and Pennsy.
Before the National Firearms Act was passed in 1934,
any American could legally buy and was not required in most States to register an automatic weapon. In addition to production and sale (limited) prior to WW I, a large number of souvenir weapons were returned from Europe and went on the market. They can still be legally purchased and employed in most States but must be federally registered and are taxed.
Redneck is not really a slur -- except to some people whose opinions count little. ;)
It's also a lot older than the quote implies, though the quote does say "The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) and rival miners' unions appropriated both the term redneck..."
That's a big peanut gallery...
OTOH, well done snark doesn't need explanation. ;)