Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. Grover Jennings says that six months ago he applied for a job at the Mary Helen mine and was apparently accepted, but that when he went back for his physical, Clyde Goitis, an official at the mine, said, "Buddy, there just ain't no way I can do anything for you. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. The name comes from a series of United Mine Workers strikes and labor-management battles which ended in a gunfight between deputized mine guards and miners on May 4, 1931, in the tiny community of Evarts. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. But negotiations for a contract with Eastover soon broke down, and on July 30 the miners at Brookside began the strike that now, as we arrive, is in its eighth month. She talks about hiding behind cars on the picket line for protection from the "gun thugs." She talks about a standoff against Basil Collins and the scabs and gun thugs. The women spent the night. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. He says that negotiations were broken off on November 28, 1973, because of the miners' insistence on the full terms of the standard UMW contract. Listen to "Harlan County Coal" from Pistol Annies' album, 'Hell of a Holiday,' out now: https://pa.lnk.to/HOAHAY Chorus:Making decorations out of shotgun she. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. In the face of what promised to be a lengthy struggle for the Harlan County coal miners of 1931, their wildcat strike had left thousands jobless and many homeless as well. KCA's constitution and by-laws were adopted on April 28, 1947, "to promote the best interest of the coal mining industry in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and all those engaged therein". Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Harlan County. She says that she and some of the other women hid out last night to avoid being served with a contempt citation from Judge Hogg's court. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. Lois Scott says that the women organized the Brookside Women's Club and got involved in the strike "because we knew that if the women didn't come in there would be violence." But what of the people of Harlan County? A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. I currently live in Tennessee but my hope is to one day come back home to live in the beautiful mountains once more. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). . We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. We hope that you have enjoyed our stop in Bloody Harlan and the history of the longest and still ongoing coal struggles of the United States. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Big Boy. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. It was the most violent attack of the Harlan County Coal wars and the most violence would only last fifteen minutes in total but would forever change the name to Bloody Harlan. On Jan. 25, 1890, a new union, the United Mine Workers of America, was formed, and in 1903 its young president, John Mitchell, led the union on a successful 24-week strike. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. Before the first meeting of the Citizens Inquiry, we sit around and talk with the Inquiry chairman, Daniel Pollitt, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. Destitute miners were in no position to take a 2 wage cut; yet, in February of 1931 the newest in a long series of wage cuts occurred, reducing miners' weekly pay by 10 percent. Its initial land holdings were in the Irwin gas coal basin in Westmoreland County, but as these were exhausted the company purchased 14,000 acres of undeveloped coal land along the border of Boone and Logan Counties in West Virginia in 1923-28. . Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. It was [and still is] used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect women's everyday lives. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. More than twenty-four babies out of a thousand die before they are one year old, and the expenditure per child in the public schools is one-half the national average. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. And, even so, it usually takes forty-five minutes to an hour for the inspector to get from mine entrance to the face of the coal. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. Duke went into the coal business directly in 1970 when it organized Eastover Mining Company as a wholly owned subsidiary and, through it, bought several mines in eastern Kentucky, including the one at Brookside. Special Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a neighboring county judge who has been assigned to the case, entered an early order limiting the strikers to three pickets at each of two entrances to the Eastover Mining Company property. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. So we lay down in the road." They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. We come into Harlan County at dusk. There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. The Harlan County Coal Operators Association, still functioning today, spent nearly a half million dollars from 1927 to 1938 to combat unionism, most of it going to pay strongarm men to terrorize the miners and their families. They relate federal mine-safety figures which show that in 1971 the accident rate in the Brookside mine was three times the national average, and in 1972 was twice the national average. Done. Overturned car bodies everywhere. Visit us and take a step back in time to learn more about how Harlan County helped build a nation at Portal 31 Exhibition Mine tour or come experience the delight of . Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." Blair. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Killed - 12. 1931, only $13.5 million. In the throes of the Great Depression, Harlan County coal owners and operators, in an effort to expand national dependency on their fuel, chose to sell below cost. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. When the smoke had cleared, the bodies of three guards and one miner were found, and an undetermined number of other dead and dying had been carried away into the mountains. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. Filmed during the coal strike of 1974-1975, this documentary does much to capture the tension brought on by the injustice of the coal operators to the coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. This series of skirmishes and strikes, lasting from early 1931 into 1939, began because of the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association's (HCCOA) decision to cut miners' wages by 10%. Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. . Evarts welcomed the miners because it was filled with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores and company men in political positions vanish. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. Dateline New York City, November 13, 1931: Dreiser again denies the charge and adds, "Even if it were true, I wouldn't give a damn. Capitalizing on the general . The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Wirtz says that his arbitration experience tells him that if Eastover really wants to negotiate in good faith, the remaining issues, tough as they are, can probably be worked out. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. It is too early for dolor. There was a scuffle when a state police captain tried to remove one of the women, she says, adding, "Captain Cromer did get hit several times; I hit him with a stick myself." Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. Jacqueline Brophy is the daughter of Pat Brophy, who went into the mines when he was twelve, and who, in 1926, ran against John L. Lewis and lost. In 1973 the 13-month Brookside Strike brought almost 200 workers to battle Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant, a company owned by Duke Power. 1938) Copy Citation . Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. By 1908 the union had . They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." Now, along a cloudy green stream, or through deep cuts in the mountains, or high atop a timbered ridge, looking down on green quilt-patch valleys, we wind our way toward Harlan. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. McDonald's. The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. Abstract. It seems to me that for a great many people in Harlan County-for poor people and a lot of coal miners the whole county is a jail. Arnold Miller, who was an active coal miner until three years ago and is now the reform-minded president of the United Mine Workers, has asked me to serve as a member of a "Citizens Public Inquiry into the Brookside Strike.". (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. Following this episode, the women say, Norman Yarborough asked Judge Hogg to hold the UMW and a number of miners and women in contempt of the Judge's order limiting the number of picketers to six. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Dateline Newport News, Virginia, November 12, 1931: Dreiser denies the charge and says he wants people to concentrate on the facts of the labor dispute and "get the American mind off sex for a moment." ~~ David Sergent. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Biographical History . This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. They are neatly and attractively dressed. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. "I've been juiced a lot, and I've had to just set down thirty-five minutes because it just takes the pep out of you." Darrell Deaton, president of the Brookside UMW local, says he was caught in a belt line last year because he had to work alone, without a helper. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." This law was enacted to try to reverse the hardships to those who were out of a job because of the economic collapse of the Great Depression. The issues had been narrowed down to Eastover's demand for a "no-strike clause" and a limit on the power of the safety committee. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. by Ron Soodalter. This action did not go unnoticed by the labor unions and the United Mine Workers union decided to attempt to organize the already-impoverished labor force of the area. In 1970, Joseph Yablonski had led a rank-and-file revolt against Boyle, and Yablonski and his wife and daughter had been brutally murdered by killers hired with union funds. At first, heading northwest on modern Route 23, through Kingsport, Tennessee, Weber City, Virginia, and Gate City, Virginia, the sights are the same as almost everywhere else in America today. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. The Harlan County Wars took on its own epic spin on the ongoing fight between labor disputes and the coal operators and owners lasting almost ten years. "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. Done Citation. The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. It was settled in 1819 by Virginians led by Samuel Howard and was known as Mount Pleasant until renamed in 1912 for Major Silas Harlan, who was killed during the American Revolution at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Battle of Evartshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, Battle of Evartshttps://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, Battle of Evartshttps://wiki2.org/en/Battle_of_Evarts, Harlan County Warhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, A Brief History of Harlan County, USAhttps://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, Harlan County Warhttps://everipedia.org/Harlan_County_War, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/background-coal-strike, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/local-elite, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/new-york-writers, https://appalachiancenter.as.uky.edu/coal-strike/national-miners-union-and-other-radical-groups, The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act)https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-wagner-act-of-1935-national-labor-relations-act-2060509#:~:text=%20The%20Wagner%20Act%20defines%20and%20prohibits%20five,or%20administration%20of%20a%20labor%20organization.%20More%20, BOMB IN AUTO KILLS KENTUCKY OFFICIAL; Harlan County Attorney Predicted Assassination for Backing Troops in Election.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/05/archives/bomb-in-auto-kills-kentucky-official-harlan-county-attorney.html#:~:text=HARLAN%2C%20Ky.%2C%20Sept.%204%20%28AP%29.%20%20The%20death,his%20automobile.%20View%20Full%20Article%20in%20Timesmachine%20%C2%BB, Elmon Clay Middleton https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, KENTUCKY HOLDS FOUR IN AUTO BOMB KILLING; Harlan Prosecutors Death Is Laid to His Fight Against Slot Machines.https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, Blackjewel Bankruptcy Leaves Damaged Lands and Miners Compensation in Limbo, https://ohiovalleyresource.org/2021/03/22/blackjewel-bankruptcy-finalized/, This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, For more about us, you can visit our Facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/kytnliving, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs0oV5gFzIS2JdMJ3HvTOgA, When we forget our past and who we are as a people, then we become who they say we are. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Willard Wirtz says that it is important to remember that one side of the dispute felt confident enough about their case to arrange to spread it before the widest possible audience. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. "We took the sticks with us," she says. The Harlan County Wars took on its own epic spin on the ongoing fight between labor disputes and the coal operators and owners lasting almost ten years. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Their foothold there ultimately ended because the local clergy who were the labor organizers found out that the union was communist in nature and held animosity toward religion. (This . Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. The warrant was never served. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . Done. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. He says that, standing. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". They lobby in Frankfort and Washington and sponsor an annual "Coal Miners Day" to try to get more high school students interested in mining engineering. There is no water in the house. Burger Chef. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. Available for both RF and RM licensing. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. "We've took about all we can take," he says. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. There was no standard contract for the miners. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. The decade-long conflict between miners and the coal operators who adamantly resisted unionization has been immortalized in folksong by Florence Reece and Aunt Molly Jackson, contemplated in prose by Theodore Dreiser and Sherwood Anderson, and long been obscured by . (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931-1939 Carletta A. Bush Early accounts of the Harlan County mine wars place the inability of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to establish a permanent foothold in the county, first at the feet of of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at If for example, they did not behave in the way the companies wanted them to, they could lose all their benefits up to and including their jobs. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. ", Bill McQueen says that when the shuttle's lights and brakes were not working and the inspector was coming, the foreman would say, "Park it." On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?"

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