Meet the Author: Kevin Corley, Christin County Mine War History

Presentation and Book Signing

Central Illinois author Kevin Corley presents his latest fact-based coal mine wars novel Sundown Town.  In 1898, Big Henry Stevens leads hundreds of African-American coal miners and their families from Alabama to Illinois not knowing the mines are on strike. The presentation will be held Saturday, June 29 at 1:00 pm.

Corley will present at the Tri-City Public Library at 600 South Main Street in Buffalo, Illinois.  He will also be telling of lives of miners in Christian County and struggles of these immigrant families and their children based on his other two novels Sixteen Tons and Throw Out the Water.  These two novels tell about the lives of coal miners and their families in Taylorville from 1898 through 1938.  With mine owners employing gun thugs and the National Guard to suppress the new union, miners and their families fight bloody battles to secure a living wage and safer working conditions.  While on strike, the miners struggle to feed and clothe their families.

Corley will be telling these stories from the miner’s own lips and answering questions on these troubled times in Christian County.  The will be no charge for the presentation.