This may be of interest to our friends in the United States and especially in the state of Illinois.

The Mother Jones Heritage Project in Illinois will be unveiling a new permanent marker  at Highway I-55 Northbound, Coalfield Rest area at 12 Noon on Tuesday, 11th December 2018. All are welcome

Among the guest speakers will be Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mineworkers of America and Prof. Elliott Gorn, biographer of Mother Jones.   Mr. Roberts will officially cut the ribbon to unveil the new marker.

The following information on the new marker has been received from our friends at the Mother Jones Heritage Project:-

The large outdoor marker profiles Mother Jones, the Cork-born agitator for labor rights.

The indoor exhibit tells the story of the 10,000 coalfield women who marched to Springfield in 1933 in the Mother Jones tradition.

We will launch two walking tours as part of our Stories series:
1) an interactive tours of the Union Miners Cemetery/Mother Jones Monument in Mt. Olive Illinois
2) a walking tour of Virden Illinois, where the the UMWA waged a defense of unionism in 1898.
These tours will include performances, songs and mapping that will bring this story to a broad audience in the years to come.

We are grateful to our donors and supporters, who boosted these efforts and have done so much to keep this effort going, including the following organizations whose contributions have boosted this effort:

Government of Ireland,  United Mine Workers of America, Mother Jones Foundation, Springfield & Central Illinois Trades & Labor Council, Southwestern Illinois Building Trades Council, Illinois Labor History Society, Illinois State Historical Society, Illinois Humanities, Northern Illinois University, Rick Hargett, Shane Austin (Ironworkers), Barbara Miller, Amy Bromsen, Bill Parker, Laurel Parker, Jeanne Graham, Terry Reed, Jim Dixon.

We thank the following teams who have been working on these projects:

Historical marker design and installation include:  Elliott Gorn, Kate Klimut, Rosemary Feurer, Stephanie Seawell Fortado, Dave Rathke,  Shane Austin of Ironworkers, Witt Sign-Chicago

Team for indoor exhibit: Rosemary Feurer, Elliott Gorn, Stephanie Seawell Fortado, Greg Boozell, Sophia Varcados (NIU creative services), Kate Klimut, Ace Sign-Springfield

Team for tours and stories: Rosemary Feurer, Kate Klimut, Sophia Varcados (NIU creative services), Greg Boozell, Mark Raupp, Vivian Nesbitt, Bill Yund, Bucky Halker