I got to do a piece for The Progressive's 2012 calendar which is themed around forgotten American history. My little bit of forgotten history involves the Molly Maguires who were coal mining Irish immigrants living in 19th century Pennsylvania. They unionized, and due to poor working conditions, low pay, and long hours they decided to strike. Of course their corporate bosses/enemies didn't like this, and to make a long story short, 20 of the union leaders were wrongly convicted of murder and later executed. For more info, here's the always reliable wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Maguires
