Scenes from the Road

On Wednesday, as I drove from Lincoln to Carbondale, I passed a sign for the "Mother Jones Memorial" in Mount Olive, Illinois. I probably wouldn't even have noticed it if not for exposure I'd had to Mother Jones Magazine. So I took a short detour from I-55 to a cemetary in town and found the memorial. She is buried near victims of the 1898 mine riot in the Virden coalfields.

If you're not familiar with Mother Jones, she was a socialist and early leader of the labor moment. You can read one account of her life at the Illinois Labor History Society website.