Samuel Morgan Church, Jr. (September 20, 1936 – July 14, 2009) was a coal miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1979 to 1982.
Church was born in Matewan, West Virginia, in 1936 to Samuel and Helen (Cook) Church. He was one of eight children. His grandfather had been a mine superintendent, and his father had worked as a miner until an accident crushed his foot (forcing him to leave the mines and become a barber). Th...
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Samuel Morgan Church, Jr. (September 20, 1936 – July 14, 2009) was a coal miner and president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) from 1979 to 1982.
Church was born in Matewan, West Virginia, in 1936 to Samuel and Helen (Cook) Church. He was one of eight children. His grandfather had been a mine superintendent, and his father had worked as a miner until an accident crushed his foot (forcing him to leave the mines and become a barber). The Churches moved to Virginia in 1944, where Sam worked as a shoeshine boy and pinsetter at a bowling alley. He participated in his first strike at the bowling alley, but the employer fired all the striking workers.
At the age of 20 in 1956, Church moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and took a job at a sugar plant.
Sam Church returned to Virginia in 1965 and worked for the Clinchfield Coal Company as an electrician and mechanic. He rose quickly within the union, and was elected a UMWA field representative for District 28 in 1973. Although he...
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