Question

Read the excerpt from "Finding Unity in the Alabama Coal Mines.” The southern state of Alabama was a stronghold for Jim Crow practices. Nevertheless, the UMWA was able to bridge the racial divide in that state, forming a powerful interracial labor union fifty years before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s would make racial integration the rule of the land. In the context of Alabama in the 1900s, the UMWA was culturally and historically significant because it

Answer 1

The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) was at one time the most powerful union in the United States. In 1900s, it was culturally and historically very significant, because it was a segregated organization. This means that it was a separate entity, and it did not depend on other organizations. They were independent and had their leaders. That's why they managed to bridge the racial divide, forming a strong interracial union.