The 1997 Centennial Commemoration and the Memory of Lattimer
The centennial event at Lattimer was attended by the president of the UMWA, labor organizers, local politicians, and community stakeholders, and they commemorated significant places associated with the massacre. Three local cemeteries established markers noting the final resting places of the several of the victims. The memory of Lattimer became important to some during the 1990s when the Hazleton area began to attract immigrants who came for the unskilled jobs and inexpensive housing. Citizens have criticized the newcomers and espoused neoliberal ideals. While immigrants in the late nineteenth century are celebrated because they worked hard to support their families, like the miners at Lattimer, the newcomers, some residents assert, arrived to exploit the welfare system.