Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Almost immediately after the explosion became known rescue teams, under the direction of J. F. Bryson, safety director of the Harlan County Coal Operators association, started into the entry. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. The county became nationally famous in 1931 and 1932 when it was the site of one of the earliest and bloodiest labor battles of the decade. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. 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. (That is a tough point.) Blair made it clear that he was on the side of the mine operators and the people of the county lost any illusion that the law enforcement would be impartial in this strike. 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. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. In June of 1973, workers at the Brookside coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky voted 113-55 to replace their membership in the Southern Labor Union (SLU) and join the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) union. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. Kahn says that the miners were encouraged by Eastover's management, headed by Norman Yarborough, to join a small "company union," the Southern Labor Union. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. It was two o'clock on a Monday morning when the accident occurred, and he'd been in the mine., more than twelve hours. She's been picketing with the other women. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. 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. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. What did the foremen say on those occasions? The men and women were released on good behavior. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. . The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? Yarborough replies. 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. The unemployment rate in the county is 7 percent; that doesn't count those who have long since given up looking for the scarce or nonexistent jobs. 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. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? 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. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. "The danger's just the same," they say. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. Interviews with residents of Hazard who discuss the coal miners' union, the harassment union miners faced from large mining companies, and the unofficial strikes that are being organized in Hazard County. The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. 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 . 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. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. There were only nine hundred miners working and 5,800 miners were idle and striking during the first strike. Expand. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. The Price of Coal, Part II. 1938) Copy Citation . 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 miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. ", 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. 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." These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. Abstract. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . I say that the issue is whether or not the men will be allowed to have their own union to protect their safety and secure and maintain decent wages and benefits, that if enough pressure is put on Duke Power Company, maybe something will give. 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. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. McDonald's. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . 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." 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. 9:03 PM. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. ", What about federal inspection? Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. No. 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. 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 . 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". So we lay down in the road." "This troubles me; I don't sleep," Yarborough says. Interview Summary. 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. The women say they then organized a "sunrise worship service" to begin at 4:30 on the morning of October 23, on the railroad tracks across the highway from the picket line. We never would find out what happened. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. It is too early for dolor. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Copy with citation. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. 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. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . 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.". 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.". The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. Grace Elizabeth Hale. We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". . Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We stop for fish and chips at a chain-operated Long John Silver's Sea Food Shoppe, as out of place in the Cumberlands as a clam in a spruce tree. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. 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. . 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. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. And I can't get you off of that couch. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. 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. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. Why is garbage left on the roadway? Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. Big Boy. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. 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. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. 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. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. 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. 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 . Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. "We took the sticks with us," she says. All too many Americans are under the naive belief that, while unions may have been necessary in the 30's, they are no longer needed in the United States today. 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. We are handed copies of court records concerning a certain Claude Beach, who has been hired by Eastover during the strike as a "security guard." Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. One of the towns that were a refuge was Evarts, Kentucky. Burger Chef. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this county. "We've took about all we can take," he says. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' Each contract varied from mine to mine. 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. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Lois Scott, a woman of about forty-five, begins to speak first. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. safety director for the Harlan County Coal Operators Association; Moss Paterson, chief of the State Bureau of Mines and Minerals, and State and Federal mine inspectors. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. 2011: $1,161,330. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. 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. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. My brother died at the age of forty. 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. 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. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . 1931, only $13.5 million. "My daddy's a retired coal miner, and he's got the black lung. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. "Not at all," Yarborough says. The women spent the night. Figure 2: Harlan County Coal Mine Employment, 2000-2016, (KYEEC, 2017) In 1942, shortly after Harlan County experienced record high coal mine employment, the county experienced is highest production levels with 15.6 million tons of coal being produced in this year (KYEEC, 2017). Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. Si has signed on as head of the staff for the Citizens Inquiry, which is funded with a five-thousanddollar grant from the Field Foundation. the meeting room. "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. 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. Along the way, we pass through the community of Brookside, its mine-camp houses dominated by the brooding tin presence of the Eastover mine building on the hill. She says that the women decided that they couldn't fight guns with switches and that they had taken sticks with them the next time. 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. Freda Armes says, "I run him off. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . My man was mashed up in the mines. Free shipping for many products! Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. Soon after the "Battle of Evarts," novelist Theodore Dreiser led a citizens' group to Harlan County to find and publicize the bloody facts. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Poffitt, Jacqueline Brophy, and I meet the other members of the Citizens Inquiry in a private dining room in the Mount Aire: James David Barber, chairman of the Political Science Department at Duke University and author of The Presidential Character; Monsignor Geno Baroni, president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, a Catholic priest whose father is a retired Pennsylvania miner with black lung; Barbara Bode, president of the Children's Foundation in Washington; and Dr. Raymond Wheeler of Charlotte, North Carolina, president of the Southern Regional Council.
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