Guard at a Coal Mining Company Town

Coal mining interests in Alabama built company housing for workers and managed and controlled these towns with heavy-handed tactics by corporate agents. Here, an armed guard watches over a mining town from a hill in this 1937 photo by famed journalist Arthur Rothstein.

Person in a suit and hat holding a rifle while standing on a hillside overlooking a company town and industrial district.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Person in a suit and hat holding a rifle while standing on a hillside overlooking a company town and industrial district.