The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. She's been picketing with the other women. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. Established in 1916, its membership consisted of nearly all the large mining companies, and it represented the major political force in the county. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. Burger Chef. Two more Inquiry panel members join us, Willard Wirtz, who was Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Reverend Max Glenn, executive director of the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. 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 the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at the worn work boots of miners who, when work was plentiful, saw little or no need for a union. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. When a miner complains, Jerry Johnson says, the foreman says, "If you don't like it, you can always get your bucket," meaning pick up your lunch bucket and get out. It does not store any personal data. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. 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. On September 9, 1935, for the first time since the beginning of the war, troops were dispatched to Harlan County on behalf of the miners by the Governor of the State of Kentucky. "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. The National Industrial Recovery Act only partially succeeded in accomplishing its stated goals when it was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on May 27, 1935, which was three weeks before the Act was set to expire. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. 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. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Interview Summary. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. 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. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Big Boy. We come into Harlan County at dusk. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. He can't never walk again." We are joined by Bernie Aaronson, the young public relations director of the UMW, and John Ed Pierce, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. We are picked up at the airport by Si (for Simon) Kahn, a Pennsylvania rabbi's son who graduated from Harvard, came to the Southern mountains as a Vista worker, and remained here, working for local community groups. On Friday, October 3, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting at the temporary White House at 22 Lafayette Place, Washington, D.C. A . The transcript will be published as a book. Copy as parenthetical citation. Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. Lois Scott explains that during the first confrontation at the mine, she saw a pistol in the front seat of every "scab" car she looked into and that a company "gun thug" pointed a submachine gun at the women from the porch of the Eastover office. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. It is the second coal mining fatality in . Project Summary. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. 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. Overturned car bodies everywhere. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Each of us makes a statement. Available for both RF and RM licensing. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." [citation needed] On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. After the Battle of Evarts, the Red Cross and the United Mine Workers Union refused to help the striking men on the basis that it was now an industrial conflict that needed to be resolved internally. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. And I can't get you off of that couch. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. During the day, a man came and said that if their children weren't out of the jail by night, the welfare people would take them. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. 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. These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. 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. Harlan County to unionize miners. 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. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. I remind her of what Bill Doan has said: "You work with one eye on the roof, one eye on your job, and your mind's outside.". The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in 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. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. The AFSC fed almost 1500 children in Harlan by the end of the 1931-2 schoolyear, as well as about a hundred nursing and expectant mothers. The accident was investigated by Rufus Bailey, Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. . June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. No help came to those that were in starving situations due to no money to spend on food and no admittance to the company store unless they were gainfully employed by the coal mine. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. Done Citation. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. It seems that unfriendly local law enforcement officials kept a constant surveillance on Dreiser, hoping to catch him in something that would justify a criminal charge against him. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Why is garbage left on the roadway? Seen 'em carried out on a stretcher," she says. 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. "Not at all," Yarborough says. "The danger's just the same," they say. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. 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. 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. There is no water in the house. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. ", Bill Doan says that he was hurt in a rockfall at 7:15 one morning and that he didn't get out of the mine until nine o'clock. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. 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. They point out that most of the big coal companies, such as U.S. Steel and others, have signed UMW contracts, but that the smaller companies of eastern Kentucky have held out. These charities began to give aid to blacklisted miners who were unable to find employment as the soup kitchens had closed once the NMU had closed its doors. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Now, forty-three years later, Harlan County is again gripped in a UMW strike, this time at the Brookside mine of the Eastover Mining Company, and another citizens' group has been formed. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Bill Doan says that the roof bolts often didn't have enough torque on them, sometimes causing roof falls as high as thirty-five feet above the regular ceiling, and that once he complained about this to the visiting inspector in the presence of his foreman. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. A third generation coal operator, he served as President of the Harlan County Coal Operators and the Harlan Mining Institute, as Vice President of the Kentucky Coal Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Associated Industries of Kentucky. 5355, atEvarts . They made several attempts at holding strikes against the coal companies, but these failed in Harlan County. 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.". Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . by Ron Soodalter. "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. Si Kahn says that Eastover tried for a time to operate the mine with "scabs," but that the mine was shut down when the coal miners' wives and other women joined the men on the picket line. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. The Price of Coal, Part II. The Seco Train Accident September 20, 1917, New Bank in the Coal Country Installed in 1911, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/new-deal/national-industrial-recovery-act-of-1933/, https://pipiwiki.com/wiki/Battle_of_Evarts, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War, https://labornotes.org/blogs/2019/08/brief-history-harlan-county-usa, 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, 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, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70804679/elmon-clay-middleton, https://www.nytimes.com/1935/09/06/archives/kentucky-holds-four-in-auto-bomb-killing-harlan-prosecutors-death.html, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/?fbclid=IwAR21nYphw4Dul-_EwuAmSWgzsvPLNwsMM0FtV75j0y-mGUHq-lCZjJxZot8, The Flatwoods Monster: Weird Appalachia Cases, Rotherwood Mansion: Weird Appalachia Cases, The Brown Mountain Ghostly Lights: Weird Appalachia Cases. What a marvelous view! There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. It is too early for dolor. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. 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. He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. 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. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Darrell Deaton says there is a direct telephone line to Washington for safety complaints, "but if you identify yourself; you're gonna be out of a job.". They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. He says that wages are no longer a problem and that the amount of the royalty to be paid into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund is not crucially important. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . The Benham Coal Company records (151 cubic feet, 302 Boxes; dated 1911-1973) focus primarily on the early years of Benham Coal through the 1940s. Done. The letter states that Eastover has now raised the wages in their other mines to the UMW scale and is paying the miners for time spent with the mine moving to and from the face of the coal. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. The miners say that they want their own safety committee, elected by the miners, as the standard UMW contract provides, with the right to walk out, losing their pay, when there is eminent danger in the mine. . This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. He hopes the other side will do the same. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. What did the foremen say on those occasions? 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. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. The kind of house she would like, if she could find one, would rent for about $50 a month, but she and her husband cannot pay that much. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Harlan County in eastern Kentucky, which has been brought out into the spotlight this summer by the violence with which the local Coal Operators' Association has carried on this attack, is, as far as I can find out, a pretty good medium exhibit of the entire industry: living conditions are better than in Alabama and perhaps a little worse . We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. The Three Point disaster was the worst suffered in the county since December 9, 1932, when 23 men were killed in an explosion in "Zero" Mine of Harlan Fuel Company, Yancey. 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." The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. the meeting room. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. But, I say, even without further investigation of each of the complaints, it is possible to conclude that fear is an everyday part of the miners' lives. Yarborough's affidavit stated that "the group swarmed out into the roads, stopped cars, and forced company employees into coercive conversations and indulged in generally raucous name-calling and abuse." The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Each contract varied from mine to mine. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Harlan County. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" They're trapped. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . Unlike the previous Coal Wars that took place in West Virginia with the Paint-Creek Strike of 1912 and Matewan that lasted for a year or two. 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.

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