A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . So we lay down in the road." He'd worked seventy-eight hours straight the preceding week. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Benham Coal Company Records - University of Kentucky or smaller. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. When filmmaker Barbara Kopple traveled to Harlan County, Kentucky, the resulting Academy award-winning documentary, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) captured a historic story. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. One of the better houses is already being demolished. Copy as parenthetical citation. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. 5355, atEvarts . He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . Harlan County Revisited - Memory of a Miner 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." It has assets worth $2.5 billion. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. The local grand jury returned an indictment against Dreiser for adultery, but by that time Dreiser had finished his work and had left the county on the train. 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. 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. 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. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. 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. . Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. Bryan W. Whitfield III (1925-2010) - Find a Grave Memorial 3.' Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . 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. I have attended the University of Kentucky. Harlan: Working under the Gun - Social Welfare History Project Back in my motel room, a gathering place, Bernie Aaronson of UMW says that the union is paying strike benefits and medical bills for the 160 strikers. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Printing - Angelfire Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. [ 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%. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association decided to cut all wages by ten . It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. One of the Deputies was Jim Daniels. Exist Dates. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. 25 (N.L.R.B. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. James Willard Pope officiating. Expand. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. The money was . Harlan County War Wiki - Everipedia She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . 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. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. They are neatly and attractively dressed. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Harlan Fuel Co, 8 N.L.R.B. 25 | Casetext I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." Movie Review: Harlan County, USA (1976) - organizing.work In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . 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 glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Interview Summary. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. What did the foremen say on those occasions? October 31, 2016. The miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. As discussed in a previous video. A thousand feet below me lies a small, green valley, partly shrouded by the morning mist. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. HARLAN COUNTY: Women - The Cinessential (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. 1931, only $13.5 million. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. (This . 4 . The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. . Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. The median family income is $4600 a year. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. 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." Done Citation. ", 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. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. McDonald's. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . And we're burning up people to make electricity. This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. Quakers and Bloody Harlan - Appalachian History 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. Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Workers Two hundred people crowd. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? 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. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" Capitalizing on the general . Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. 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. 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. 2012: $1,552,717. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . Done. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. 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. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. Source for information on Harlan County: Encyclopedia of the Great Depression dictionary. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. To prevent operating at a loss, on February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators Association decided to cut all wages by ten percent. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Before Senate Civil Liberties Committee. Washington, D.C., April 15 He speaks of "my people" and "my men." 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. Laid off and owed pay: the Kentucky miners blocking coal trains No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? 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. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . 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. The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. 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. Which Side are You on?: The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 I am the only man in the United States who would do that sort of thing.". "We took the sticks with us," she says. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. The Brookside Women's Club of Harlan County - New York Women in Film On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Interview with Lois Scott, August 27, 1986 - Nunn Center 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. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. Get a Demo. 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." Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." . Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. The airline magazine contains an article on southern skiing, a feature on hot, winter drinks for the "Piedmont palate," an article on how tough it is to be thirty-three and middle-class today, and a success story about an Atlanta bra, sleepwear, girdle, and pantie company. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". 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. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. 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. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. In "Bloody Harlan" in the 1930s, miners and union organizers faced bayonets and many died fighting the coal bosses, helping to fuel a national wave of organizing. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Eight miners were sentenced to life in prison for the actions that were taken on May 5, 1931. 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. Harlan county coal hi-res stock photography and images - Alamy 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. 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. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. It is beautiful in Harlan County, as pretty as any place in the world. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. 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. . It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. 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. Leroy Helton says miners often have to splice electrical cable, even though they're not qualified to do so. In response to the violence, the Kentucky National Guard was called upon and arrived for the first time in the county to try to stem the violence. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. We're all involved. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes."