About R. S. Sukle

Author, Miner Injustice the Ragman's War

Academic Credentials:

BA in Biology from Thiel College, Medical Technologist MT(ASCP), Registered Clinical Chemist, Virginia Real Estate License, and an eclectic assortment of courses in real estate, computers, law,  and writing classes in memoir, novel, fiction, and screen play.  I worked several years in clinical chemistry research.

Labor History Credentials: I have studied and been exposed to labor history for most of my life.  My parents not only lived labor history but were supporting players for the stars: Phil Murray, Pat Fagan, John L. Lewis, Cornelia Pinchott, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Ella Reeve (Mother Bloor), Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Woody Guthrie, Marion Anderson, and Henry Wallace.

My father was an organizer for United Mine Workers of America and the CIO, Secretary of the International Workers Order, member of the Civil Rights Congress, Progressive party, and New Jersey campaign manager for Henry Wallace's 1948 bid for the US Presidency. During the "Red Scare" under McCarthy, he disappeared in 1951 from the state of New Jersey to return to his isolated family farm well hidden by the wild hills of western Pennsylvania where neither the FBI nor the Communist Party to could find him.  The rest of our family joined him two years later.

Inspired by my father’s fascinating life, I set out to pen a memoir/biography. His alarming stories about the harsh coal mine conditions and the ensuing company brutality, caused me to delve into the history of Russellton, Pa. where he got his start as a union organizer. What I learned compelled me to shift gears and focus on the true, untold story of the 1927-28 strike.

Growing up near Russellton, I  had direct access to people who actually lived through the legendary strike.  After researching newspaper archives, collecting notes from area residents, and compiling my father’s stories and essays, along with preserved family letters, I was able to create, Miner Injustice: The Ragman’s War, a powerful historical novel. 

I now reside in Marion, Virginia and am currently at work on a sequel, Wildcat Strike, the second book in a planned trilogy.  A planned third installment, tentatively titled Loyalty Oath, will be based on trial transcripts and FBI records.

To schedule an interview or receive a review copy of Miner Injustice please contact R. S. Sukle at 276-783-8891,  or  cell 276.759.3890

rssukle@minerinjustice.com