I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. 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. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. 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. 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. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. However, the battle continues to this day. Hell in Harlan - front page That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. 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. The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. 5355, atEvarts . In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." 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. 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. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. Harlan County War | Military Wiki | Fandom the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. By 1908 the union had . 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. . No Neutrals: The Harlan County Miner's Strike of 1931 On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. 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.". ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. Outlining the legal framework for labor unions and management relations to improve the working conditions for workers. They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. 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). In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Bryan W. Whitfield III (1925-2010) - Find a Grave Memorial The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. No, Yarborough says; it just serves as a central clearing house, so that job applicants won't have to go around and apply at each of the mines separately. Word precedes him. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. Appalachia: Coal Operators Oral History Project SPOKEdb 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. Sheriff T. R. Middleton replaced Blair under the pro-union campaign platform. Frame houses with rusty tin roofs. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." 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. Former Director of Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. 13Month Strike is Ended By Kentucky Mine Accord But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. June 17th of that same year, the first strike was over as the last miner had returned to work. Kentucky Coal Association - Ballotpedia 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. That's an old term in Harlan County, used to describe special, plain-clothed guards. "We've took about all we can take," he says. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. 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. The median family income is $4600 a year. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. Yarborough replies. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. Theoretically, even operators' and owners' children were . 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. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. 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. We look back on the film, which screens this Sunday, February . Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. Coal companies refused to back down while the Red Cross refused to give aid . 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. 8 N.L.R.B. 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. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. Burger Chef. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. The company will probably demand a new election. Altogether, it is a heavy financial burden for the UMW. 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. If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. It took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. The magazine presents a different picture of the people and conditions in the Piedmont region than the one I am to see in Harlan County, Kentucky. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. "I've seen some hurt and some killed. 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. Bill Doan says, "When I got hurt, I couldn't find Jim Miller, the man who had charge of the sick fund." Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. 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. 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. 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. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. Name Entry; Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. 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. Some of the women cut switches and joined the picketers. Rev. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. We hope that you have enjoyed our stop in Bloody Harlan and the history of the longest and still ongoing coal struggles of the United States. 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. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. the meeting room. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. Harlan County. A young woman from the Associated Press asks me, aren't we getting only one side of the story? It is the second coal mining fatality in . Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. (This . 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. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. corporateBody associatedWith : Heyl & Patterson, Inc . 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. In Harlan County, Kentucky, are some of our country's richest natural resourcesand some of its poorest people. 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 United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. . Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. 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. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. . "I've had the foreman to tell me to set timbers or something until the inspector got gone. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. The Coal Strike of 1902: Turning Point in U.S. Policy