Credit: Image donated by Corbis - Bettmann
In 1936, George Earle became the first Democrat elected governor of Pennsylvania since 1891. In office, Earle and a new Democratic majority in the state legislature pushed through a wave of progressive legislation quickly dubbed Pennsylvania's "Little New Deal." In November 1937, Earle traveled to Coaldale to meet with miners conducting a sit down strike 1,300 feet underground in the Number 8 mine. There, the governor conducted a mine inspection and asked the miners to select a representative for an upcoming conference in Harrisburg.
