had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. Rev. Big Boy. 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. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. 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. 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. Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . Willard Wirtz says he senses that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is a major factor in the dispute, that it doesn't want a settlement with higher wages and benefits and tough safety provisions to be made by Eastover, because it fears the domino effect of such a settlement on the rest of the companies in the county. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . There was an addition to where miners could choose their own representation for these negotiations. Even pop culture cannot ignore its impact with such shows as Justified. However, the battle continues to this day. I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. 1931, only $13.5 million. 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. Nannie Rainey takes us into her four-room house where she and her husband and five children live. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. 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.". Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. Three Point, Harlan County, Kentucky September 16, 1943 No. The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. . "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). 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." In one of these, the septic tank has been out of order for several months. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. 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. 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. There were shots exchanged and all three deputies and one striker were killed. 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. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. ~~ David Sergent. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? If those under them behave in an approved manner then they receive housing, work, food, and other perks of their position. Abstract. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. 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. Garbage along the roadside. Biographical History . Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. Under this Act, the right to organize in ones workplace was granted as well as it outlawed any discrimination whether employed or seeking employment based on union membership. The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Faith Primitive Baptist Church. The decrease in wages, unemployment, and irregular employment caused "poverty, hunger, and disease.". Prior to Miller's election, the union had become corrupt, dictatorial, and a frequent collaborator with the mine owners. We are told that Eastover has announced its intention to tear down the mining-camp houses and move the striking miners out. These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. Jacqueline Brophy is the daughter of Pat Brophy, who went into the mines when he was twelve, and who, in 1926, ran against John L. Lewis and lost. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. The men and women were released on good behavior. Following this episode, the women say, Norman Yarborough asked Judge Hogg to hold the UMW and a number of miners and women in contempt of the Judge's order limiting the number of picketers to six. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. 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. 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). Duke Power Company of North Carolina, he says, is the sixth largest utility company in the world. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. That commitment has never waivered, and has grown . Exist Dates. 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. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". Copy as parenthetical citation. 2012: $1,552,717. ", "They've done discriminated me," Grover Jennings continues. 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 . Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. Nonunion workers were attempting to leave the mine. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. Miners in Harlan County, Kentucky, have drawn national attention with their direct action occupying a railroad track to halt a coal train . 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. A rural county of 27,000, Harlan County's average household income is about $29,000. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." But relatives did come and take the children. They say no action has been taken on this report. They are neatly and attractively dressed. It read: RE-ELECT GAW, JAILER. 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. What a marvelous view! However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. But mostly the scenery is depressingly bleak. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. The transcript will be published as a book. 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. One of the towns that were a refuge was Evarts, Kentucky. There was no standard contract for the miners. The UMW union called in the National Guard to help them. Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. As part of his New Deal, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented and had passed the National Industrial Act. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. 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. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. By 1908 the union had . Jacqueline Brophy asks why public services have broken down. (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) The Benham Coal Company records (151 cubic feet, 302 Boxes; dated 1911-1973) focus primarily on the early years of Benham Coal through the 1940s. 8 N.L.R.B. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. It seems to me that for a great many people in Harlan County-for poor people and a lot of coal miners the whole county is a jail. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." We never would find out what happened. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . 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. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. In response, the coal owners and operators decided to sell their fuel at below cost to increase the national dependency on coal. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. It is clear that these women have been a main factor in keeping the mine shut down. There are very few vacant houses in the county. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Whitfield's family was from Alabama where his father had been in the coal business. Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. Word precedes him. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. Each contract varied from mine to mine. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. In America, the word describes a region, including Harlan County, Kentucky, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic coast. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . Why wasn't the fuse replaced at once? Mostly, the miners were fighting for improved working conditions, higher wages, and better housing options for their families. 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 . Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . 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 . The Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. Harlan County to unionize miners. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." 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. A third generation coal operator, he served as President of the Harlan County Coal Operators and the Harlan Mining Institute, as Vice President of the Kentucky Coal Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Associated Industries of Kentucky. It has assets worth $2.5 billion. USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. 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. Expand. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. 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. 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. Why couldn't Eastover live with the same national UMW contract that so many other companies have accepted? There is a suit still in litigation. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. The Federal Government, with the Commissioner of Labor in a fact finding role, acted as a 'neutral' for the first time in contributing to settlement of the bitter coal strike. Harlan County. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. It is too early for dolor. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. I can see twenty-five miles to the southeast, five ridges. Capitalizing on the general . Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) 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. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." 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." Someone had planted dynamite in his automobile and when he started it up the car blew up. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. Done. A shoulder blade and five of his ribs were broken. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) 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. "Not at all," Yarborough says. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. Darrell Deaton, president of the Brookside UMW local, says he was caught in a belt line last year because he had to work alone, without a helper. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . 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 . 3.' 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. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads.
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