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. Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. The members of the Inquiry panel leave the Community Center to visit the coal camp at Brookside-rows of delapidated frame houses, identical except for their weathering gray, green, red, and beige paint. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. or smaller. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. 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. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . It reports that "Piedmont" is an adjective derived.from Italian words that literally mean "formed at the foot of the mountains." It is the second coal mining fatality in . The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." He fined the UMW $20,000. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. In Harlan County, Kentucky, the 1931 Battle of Evarts ended in four deaths. In Harlan County on July 7, 1935, during a celebration of the Wagner Act, a group of disgruntled deputies severely beat up several miners and dispersed the crowd. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . Attempts to organize led to the dismissal of employees who were suspected of having leanings toward the organization and having them evicted from their family homes. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. . Word precedes him. Harlan County U.S.A. by Felicia Elliott, August 2, 2016. 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. He hopes the other side will do the same. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? 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. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. 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. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. 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. 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. Partial Transcript: August 27, '86. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. Each of us makes a statement. While their main objectives were a steady job, a decent wage and a program of safety checks . Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. 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. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. 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. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? 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. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. What a marvelous view! Done Citation. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Barbara says that she was reacting spontaneously to the spirit and determination exhibited by the women, that their testimony was the highlight of our hearings. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. 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. The warrant was never served. Grace Elizabeth Hale. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. 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. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. My man was mashed up in the mines. If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. Middleton died on the scene. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Cite. However, the battle continues to this day. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. 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. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Sudie Crusenberg, a plain woman in a cotton dress, gives us some idea of what life is like for a coal-mining family. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. Expand. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. Though the union had made substantial inroads into the Central Appalachian coalfields by 1930, when miners in Bell and Harlan Counties went out on strike in early May, 1931, the UMWA removed its support. There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Mr. With the added protection for workers and the addition of collective bargaining between the workers and their employers. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. The men and women were released on good behavior. Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. 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. 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. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. It is too early for dolor. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. 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. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. It doesn't seem like enough. Lifelong resident of Harlan. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. The Citizens Inquiry meets in the attractive, river-rock Evarts Community Center, directly across the Clear Fork from the site of the 1931 "Battle of Evarts." He run all the way down the stairs and out of the jail." He speaks of "my people" and "my men." Rev. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. 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 miners express extreme dissatisfaction with Eastover's medical and retirement benefits. There are very few vacant houses in the county. There was no functioning safety committee Medical and retirement benefits were minimal and unreliable. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . 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. "They don't want miners havin' any say in safety." He then answers a question he wasn't asked. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. He tells me that the miners plan to picket on Wall Street, hoping to give Duke problems with its stock. Blair. J. D. Skidmore says that, back in the mines, the phones are always out of order, there is no transportation out until the end of the shift, and it's a one-hour walk to daylight. But, Aaronson says, Norman Yarborough had then called back to say, simply, that there was nothing of further interest to them in the negotiations More public pressure on Duke is needed, he says. I have taken several classes in Journalism as well as in the Appalachian History, Literature, and Sociology during my time at those schools. We come into Harlan County at dusk. 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. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. The money was . It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . Done. A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have There had been several clashes with the "scabs," the mine guards, and the state police, Kahn says. And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . He says that, standing. Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. 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. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. "This whole country is like a layer cake," Si Kahn says, "a layer cake of shale, coal, and sandstone. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . Where will the families go? 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. They are neatly and attractively dressed. Sometimes, they'll be a black scum on the rag." 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. (This . 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. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. ", 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." Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. 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 percent. by Ron Soodalter. It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. There is no water in the house. 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. Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. Biographical History . "They didn't say nothin'; all they want's coal.' The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. 2011: $1,161,330. And I can't get you off of that couch. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. 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. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. During the Great Depression of the 1930s coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, struck against the coal operators for better pay and better working conditio. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. It has assets worth $2.5 billion. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. The transcript will be published as a book. The distance a miner had to walk and how time was looked at was in 15-minute increments. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. 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. "I cain't get a job nowhere in this 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 . Harlan County to unionize miners. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. 25 (N.L.R.B. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. By 1908 the union had . The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. The Price of Coal, Part II. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. 5355, atEvarts . 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." The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Willard Wirtz asks how it will all come out, how the strike will end. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. Chicago citation style: Harris & Ewing, photographer. "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. One night, they saw a secretary for the Dreiser group enter Dreiser's hotel room, and they placed toothpicks against the door to determine whether she ever came back out during the night. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. 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. Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. 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. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. What did the foremen say on those occasions? It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Interview Summary. The median family income is $4600 a year. 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. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. McDonald's. On the plane with me, it turns out, is another member of the Citizens Inquiry, Jacqueline Brophy, who is the director of the Labor-Liberal Arts Program of Cornell University's School of Industrial Labor Relations in New York. Documents the 1973 Kentucky coal miners' strike against the operators of the Brookside mine and the Duke Power Company, which resulted from the company's refusal to honor the . [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%. In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. They also plan to join with a North Carolina group in protesting Duke's requested rate increase, and they are going to attend the meeting of Duke's stockholders on May 30. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. 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. 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. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Neither will Dr. Robert Coles, psychiatrist and author of Children of Crisis. The final straw was when 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. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". 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. 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.
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