those in the Harlan County Coal Operators . Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." ~~ David Sergent. Genders. Done. 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. 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." Biographical History . He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. 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. Lifelong resident of Harlan. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. The records show that Beach was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1954 and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, that he was later charged with carrying a concealed pistol (no disposition shown), and that in 1966 he was tried and acquitted on a murder charge. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. Yellow-dog contracts (Contracts where the employees agreed to never organize into a union before they were employed with a coal company), company unions, blacklists, all tactics that were employed by the companies to bust up unions, and discrimination-based on union activity were all outlawed under this act. It was settled in 1819 by Virginians led by Samuel Howard and was known as Mount Pleasant until renamed in 1912 for Major Silas Harlan, who was killed during the American Revolution at the Battle of Blue Licks (August 19, 1782). McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. 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.". "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. No. B.W. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. 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 United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. 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. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. I look at the government statistics once more. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. The roof is approximately forty-eight inches high in the mine. When drafting these articles, I found that many things have not been taught to the future generations about the struggles for coal miner rights have been in the Appalachian Mountains. The women furnish the panel with a copy of a report from the Harlan County Health Department, dated October 12, 1973, which states that the drinking water in the Eastover mining camp, where approximately thirty of the striking Brookside families live, is "highly contaminated" with fecal bacteria. 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 . Abstract. The men and women were released on good behavior. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. 1931, only $13.5 million. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. Their foothold there ultimately ended because the local clergy who were the labor organizers found out that the union was communist in nature and held animosity toward religion. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. 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. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." 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. 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. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. 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. Now, Tony Boyle is among those who have been convicted of complicity in the murders, and Arnold Miller is the head of the revamped union. 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. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. 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". And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. He says that, standing. . If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. 2012: $1,552,717. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. by Ron Soodalter. Project Summary. 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. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. 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. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. 2011: $1,161,330. On top of that, we learn later, the union is spending $108,000 a year for medical and hospital coverage for the striking miners and their families. 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. Yarborough replies. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . 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." Blair. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. An organic shape, small and shiny and pinkish white, sits . She's been picketing with the other women. . California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. . Past that, the other undulating ridges are blue and hazy. 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. There are very few vacant houses in the county. 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. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. Did she find the stick on the ground? "The personal is political" was a rallying cry of second wave feminism. The Sheriff reportedly got rich on payoffs from the companies, and he used 181 mine company gunmen as special deputies. 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. Exist Dates. 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. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. I'm standing at 2800 feet above sea level. They were convicted on charges of conspiracy to murder. My brother died at the age of forty. 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.
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