One hundred and twenty-eight men, and the convict-lease system that put most of them there
On the morning of 8 April 1911 an explosion tore through the Banner coal mine near Littleton and killed 128 men, which still ranks among the fifteen worst coal disasters in American history. The likely cause was a spark igniting gas: seven men died in the blast itself, and it destroyed the ventilation fan. Without the fan, blackdamp filled the workings and another 121 suffocated. About forty dug their way out through the rubble. Seventy-two of the dead were Black convicts, leased to the mine under a system that sent men underground as punishment, and that is the part of Alabama mining history this ground holds.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours of here.
