John Llewellyn Lewis (February 12, 1880 – June 11, 1969) started life as a coal miner of Welsh descent in Iowa and quickly worked his way up the union ranks to be president of the United Mine Workers of America for over four decades. He moved the headquarters of the UMWA to Washington, DC to be closer to the people in power. As president of the UMWA, he increased wages by ten times, started the first safety regulations in the mines, and started health care facilities where there weren't any before. He was also one of the founders of the AFL-CIO. To do all this, he defied two presidents, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. He supported Wendell Willkie for President in 1940 and pulled the miners out on strike in the middle of World War II causing a major energy shortage. During the strike, Lewis was strung up in effigy at the corner of Washington and Oronoco, outside Lee-Fendall, as a traitor for hurting the war effort so much. In 1945 to 1950, Lewis led strikes that Truman denounced as threats to national security. Lewis secured a welfare fund financed entirely by the coal companies but administered by the union with Lewis as its chair until his death. He retired as President of the UMWA in 1960.