Rad History Net (original) (raw)

Interesting stuff, although I think blaming the deportation only on WWI, as if there was no repression after or before the war, is a pretty stupid cop-out.

Historic find in Bisbee courthouse

Feb 22, 2006, 08:21 AM MST

A woman who works at the Cochise County Courthouse stumbled upon original documents that may reveal history pertaining to the Bisbee Deportations of 1917.

Fran Ranaccelli says she found a box full of the documents in the evidence room of the county courthouse, "As I looked it said 1917, I.W.W. and I just froze."

The box contains documents including witness affidavits, and subpoenas of the court case that followed the round up of more than 1200 miners in Bisbee after they went on a strike citing improper working conditions.

The miners who were members of the International [that's Industrial, thank you very much] Workers of the World were rounded up and put on a train and then transported to Columbus, New Mexico where they were abandoned on July 12, 1917. Two days later U.S. troops rescued the men.

UA Vice Provost and Historian Dr. Juan Garcia says finding these documents may offer a painful insight into Arizona history during World War I.

"Nativism and hysteria generated by war can lead people to do things that they normally wouldn't do," Garcia said.

The documents are the first original items from the Bisbee Deportation to be found at the Cochise County courthouse.

Superior Court Clerk Denise Lundin says the documents will become archived.

"We're finding history and we're looking at a document signed by a person who's long dead, who really tells us a story through those documents," Lundin says.

http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=4534398&nav=HMO6

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