At precisely 6:30 in the morning on April 8, 1911, an explosion rocked the Banner Coal Mine, the pride of the Pratt Consolidated Coal Company located west of Highway 78 near Littleton in northwestern Jefferson County. When the gas and dust settled, 128 miners lay dead in the dark corridors. Of the total killed, 125 were convicts leased to the mining company from state prisons. The tragedy, the largest loss of life to date in an Alabama mine, led to debate and legislation on the issues of mine safety and the use of the convicts in mining, and moved the state further toward the eventual end of the notorious convict-lease system.
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