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PITTSBURGH MAGAZINE:
"…Sukle’s research is
sound, and she deftly adopts the voices of the families she profiles..."
Born in
Gloucester City,
New
Jersey, R.S.
Sukle grew up listening to her father’s
amazing stories about his life as a coal miner and organizer for the United
Mine Workers. When Sukle was 21, he confessed to her
of having been a member of the Communist party. He also served as a secretary
for the International Workers Order, where he met such notables as Paul
Robeson, Langston Hughes and Marion Anderson, who pulled
him into the civil rights movement of the early 1940’s. During the peak of the McCarthy Era, he was
forced to take his family to the wilds of
Western Pennsylvania, where neither the Communist party nor the FBI could
find him.
Inspired by her
father’s fascinating life, Sukle set out to pen a
biography. After delving into the history of
Russelton,
Pa. and listening to his alarming stories about the harsh
coal mine conditions and the ensuing company brutality, she felt compelled to
shift gears and focus on the true, untold story of the 1927-28 strike. Growing
up near Russellton, Sukle
had direct access to people who actually lived through the legendary
strike. After researching newspaper
archives, collecting notes from area residents and compiling her father’s
stories along with preserved family letters, Sukle
was able to create a powerful historical fiction, Miner Injustice the
Ragman’s War.
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