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In the Midst of Terror She Went out to Her Work -- Part I

© Mara Lou Hawse

Fannie Sellins was a labor organizer -- and from all accounts, she was an exceptional one. But she paid with her life. According to Russell W. Gibbons, of the Philip Murray Institute of Labor Studies, Sellins was "a heroine of labor who made the ultimate sacrifice for [the] union cause." William Z. Foster, leader of the great steel strike of 1919, believed that Sellins was among the best of the unions' organizers. "[She] had an exceptional belief in the workers and she went out and organized them. . . . She took the initiative and in the midst of terror went out to her work."

Sellins was a contemporary of Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, and like Jones, Sellins, as a female labor organizer, was a radical for that period of time. Sellins was born Fannie Mooney, in New Orleans in 1872. She married Charles Sellins, a garment worker, in St. Louis, and after his death, she worked in a garment shop to support herself and her four children. Eventually she moved from St. Louis to Chicago where she became involved with the union movement there. She helped organize the United Garment Workers of America, became secretary of her garment workers' local, and in 1911, participated in a major strike.

Later, because of her outstanding abilities, she became an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America. She was sent to the nonunion coal fields of West Virginia; there, she was charged with "inciting to riot" and was sent to prison. She served six months of her sentence before she was pardoned by President Woodrow Wilson.

In 1917 Sellins moved to New Kensington, Pennsylvania, to work under Philip Murray, as an organizer and troubleshooter for UMWA District 5. She quickly became involved in organizing miners in the Allegheny Valley, a notoriously antiunion area. It was known as the Black Valley because of the often violent opposition of mine owners to union organizers. Largely because of Sellins's efforts, many thousands of miners and other workers in this district were brought into the union.

Historians describe Sellins as "an able speaker" who had "boundless courage, energy, enthusiasm and idealism." She provided heart to the local labor movement, and earned the undying hatred of employers in the Black Valley district.

The United Mine Workers Journal called Sellins an "Angel of Mercy," who went into the miners' homes, talked to their wives, took care of their sick, and helped them in other ways. As she spread the tenets of Americanism among immigrant miners and changed their expectations, they became disenchanted with poor living conditions and began to demand more for their labor.

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