The Six-Foot Strike Leader Who Defied Calumet Police in 1913
On September 10, 1913, a tall, determined woman named Anna “Big Annie” Clemenc made national headlines. She refused to step aside during a tense miners’ strike in Calumet, Michigan. Standing over six feet tall, carrying herself with quiet but unwavering strength, Big Annie became a symbol of labor resistance in the Copper Country Strike of 1913–1914.
Married to a miner Annie was deeply connected to the struggles of the Western Federation of Miners. Annie threw her support behind the fight for better wages and safer working conditions. On that September day, she blocked a strikebreaker from entering the mine. When police told her to move, she stood her ground, calmly saying:
“No, I’m not going. I have a right to stand here and quietly ask the scabs not to go to work.”
Jail Did Not Silence Her
Her act of defiance landed her in jail, convicted of assault and fined. But far from silencing her, the arrest made her famous—earning her the nickname “Big Annie” in newspapers nationwide.
Born in Calumet in 1888 to Slovene immigrant parents, Annie grew up in a mining town dominated by the Calumet & Hecla Mining Company. She worked from a young age, helping her family while also aiding injured miners through her church. Her unusual height—6’2”—made her a striking figure. In 1913, she became president of the newly formed Women’s Auxiliary No. 15 of the Western Federation of Miners.
Annie was a constant presence in the strike. She marched in her plain gingham dress, carrying a massive American flag on a ten-foot pole. She led funeral processions, including the solemn march for victims of the Seeberville Affair, and later for the tragic Italian Hall disaster on Christmas Eve 1913, when a false cry of “fire” caused a deadly stampede that killed more than 75 people, most of them children.
Hard Life for a Tough Woman
After the strike, Annie traveled the Midwest on a lecture tour. She raised funds for the Italian Hall victims and calling for workers to unionize. Her later years were marked by difficult marriages, financial hardship, and personal tragedy, but her name lived on in labor history. She was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, honored for her courage and leadership in one of Michigan’s most turbulent labor battles.
Today, Big Annie Clemenc is remembered not just for her towering height, but for her towering spirit—a woman who stood her ground in the face of power and never stopped fighting for working people.
