An important labor history anniversary occurs this week — on August 26, 1919, United Mine Workers organizer Fannie Sellins was murdered by sheriff’s deputies while she attempted to protect miners’ children during a union strike at Allegheny Steel and Coal Company, West Natrona, PA.
 
On Aug. 26, 2019, the Battle of Homestead Foundation held a centennial commemoration to honor Fannie Sellins and the potent activism she packed into her short 47 years. A film of the event by Pauline Greenlick can be seen here.
 
Sellins spent her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, where there is a movement to publicly recognize her influence. In Western Pennsylvania, a historical marker and memorial can be found in Union Cemetery in Arnold, Westmoreland County, where she is buried.
 
An art exhibit at the St. Louis central library titled Dangerous Women depicts the lives of Fannie Sellins and Mary “Mother” Jones and runs to Jan. 7, 2023.
 
Two notable books on her life are available: 
 
Black Valley: The Life and Death of Fanny Sellins by Richard Gazarik (Saint Vincent College Center for Northern Appalachian Studies, 2012).
 
Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman’s Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights by Mary Cronk Farrell (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2016).
 
And her legacy is musically commemorated in a song written and recorded by Anne Feeney on the 2004 album Original Recordings and performed by Mike Stout on The Point of Pittsburgh CD (2008, American Blue Collar Records).