100th Anniversary of the Cherry Mine Disaster

This weekend we're heading up to the village of Cherry, Illinois, where my parents currently live, to commemorate the Cherry Mine disaster. My mother's family is from Cherry, moving there from Italy a year after the disaster occurred in 1909. I'm excited to participate in this event mostly because I've always heard stories of the disaster in my childhood. The commemoration event looks extremely well organized with the full participation of organized labor, and the labor folk singer Bucky Halker will be performing at various times throughout Saturday. Here is a flyer I found. I also like this article, from the Springfield paper, because it is education-related. For a brief history of the disaster, with relevant sources, check out the Wikipedia entry.