Alabama Mining Institute.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many coal industry companies provided employee housing and services near the mines. These company towns allowed ownership a certain amount of control over its labor. The Alabama company towns owned by the members of the Alabama Mining Institute, an organization of coal mining companies, were carefully segregated by race. These segregated towns had separate houses, schools, churches, and other facilities for white and black workers and their families. The emergence of the affordable automobile and a reliable highway system led to the decline of the company town system by the 1930s.

From the description of Alabama Mining Institute Photograph albums, 1922-1923 (inclusive). (Harvard Business School). WorldCat record id: 52815603