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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. My man was mashed up in the mines. However, they did make a greater effort than the United Mine Workers with relief as they opened soup kitchens around the county. Barbara Kopple 's Academy Award-winning Harlan County USA unflinchingly documents a grueling coal miners' strike in a small Kentucky town. 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. "We've took about all we can take," he says. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. He hopes the other side will do the same. By 1908 the union had . Eastover agreed to sign the 1971 wage pact of the Bituminous Coal Operators Association which is in force at 1,200 mines. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. Unemployment in 2017 was 9.4 percent, far above the national average. The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. With this Supreme Court ruling, all but one of the open shops in Harlan County went back to the previous mine operations. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". We never would find out what happened. 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. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. 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. Harry Simms, who was a Young Communist League organizer was killed in Harlan. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . They lobby in Frankfort and Washington and sponsor an annual "Coal Miners Day" to try to get more high school students interested in mining engineering. The Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. Faith, power, and conflict: Miner preachers and the United Mine Workers Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. 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. Harlan County, Kentucky in a Post-Coal America: A Case Study Si Kahn says that Eastover tried for a time to operate the mine with "scabs," but that the mine was shut down when the coal miners' wives and other women joined the men on the picket line. 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. Harlan Fuel Co, 8 N.L.R.B. 25 | Casetext He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. Exist Dates. "With all those state police, we knew we had three choices," she says. 1938) Copy Citation . Yarborough comes out of a staff meeting and ushers us hack to a large, paneled meeting room with folding tables and chairs. The most memorable of those are 1964, 1966, 1969 (The West Virginia Black Lung strike that the miners won) 1971, and the 1974 Strikes. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Free shipping for many products! 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. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" 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. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. Copy with citation. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' The issues had been narrowed down to Eastover's demand for a "no-strike clause" and a limit on the power of the safety committee. 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. Domesticity and Depression: Kentucky Coal Mining, Song, and Organizing [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%. 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. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. He was transferred to a worse section, he says. Si says Harlan is a dry countyno legal liquor and no beer. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Interviews with residents of Hazard who discuss the coal miners' union, the harassment union miners faced from large mining companies, and the unofficial strikes that are being organized in Hazard County. At these locations, the mine wages began to be comparable to other jobs around the nation. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. Their General Secretary recently released some facts which help to illustrate the reason for much of the unemployment in the county. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. 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." He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . The mining company had ordered a motorcade to deliver food and supplies to the strikebreakers known as Scabs. Clyde V Bennett Jr. (1930-2000) - Find a Grave Memorial 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. Blaine Sergent, coal leader, putting up his check at the end of a workday in Harlan County, Kentucky, in 1946. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. Which Side are You On? : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 I have also attended the University of Pikeville. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. It comes to a bill of about $20,000 a week for the national union. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, 47 miners died, six of them from just one county in eastern Kentucky . If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. The Harlan County Coal Wars 1931-1939 - Kentucky Tennessee Living Figure 2: Harlan County Coal Mine Employment, 2000-2016, (KYEEC, 2017) In 1942, shortly after Harlan County experienced record high coal mine employment, the county experienced is highest production levels with 15.6 million tons of coal being produced in this year (KYEEC, 2017). Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. 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. These women have organized a special kind of feminist movement, and the issues to them are life-and-death issues. 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 Kentucky mining camps still had the paternalism idea in their mists and the ever-independent Appalachian people were not having it. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. Lois Scott says that the women organized the Brookside Women's Club and got involved in the strike "because we knew that if the women didn't come in there would be violence." And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Done. October 31, 2016. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. The Price of Coal, Part I - kentuckymonthly.com These disputes were still brewing when on December 8, 1934, the United Mine Workers Union was threatened by deputies and mine bosses. 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. She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. 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." As in Germany, the AFSC used need alone to determine who got fed. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. One of the better houses is already being demolished. Now and then, there is a neat, new frame house or a Pic and Pay market between scattered tarpaper shacks. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. No Neutrals: The Harlan County Miner's Strike of 1931 Interview with Lois Scott, August 27, 1986 - Nunn Center A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. But is it really hurting? This caused the clergy to denounce the union. or smaller. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. 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. Apparently, this is one of Eastover's major objections. It does not store any personal data. I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. Is that the only objection that is holding up a settlement? Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. 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. Nevertheless, as the county seat, the city of Harlan has resources much of the county lacks. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. Cite. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? The Price of Coal, Part II. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. My brother died at the age of forty. 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 . A federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the company could leave damages to the environment, abandon assets, and not pay the coal miners owed wages. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. The miners speak of other dissatisfactions with Eastover and the old Southern Labor Union contract. Movie Review: Harlan County, USA (1976) - organizing.work She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. [ 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%. You come out of there lookin' like a hog that's been rootin' in the mud.' Forty percent of the county's dwellings lack some or all of plumbing, water, or toilet facilities. Don Dalton, UMW Safety Director for Region Six, explains this. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. I have attended the University of Kentucky. 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. 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." 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. (That is a tough point.) A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. As discussed in a previous video. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. 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. 1940-49 Harlan Co Miners Deaths - USGenWeb sites Steeped in Appalachian culture and surrounded by the influence of coal, Harlan County has amassed an interesting reputation and national attention with rest of the world. 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. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. "A gun thug pulled a gun on us, and I broke a switch over his head, and the little gun thug pulled out," Lois Scott says matter-of-factly. Garbage along the roadside. 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. "Here at Brookside, if you called someone from SLU, he might come in a week, he might come in two weeks, but when he did come, he'd go into Eastover's office and talk for an hour," Bill Doan says. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. She says that the women decided that they couldn't fight guns with switches and that they had taken sticks with them the next time. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . He then answers a question he wasn't asked. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Looking for protection by the Kentucky National Guard, many were surprised to find that they broke the picket lines instead. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. 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. 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. But Barbara Bode has arranged for eleven of them to come up onto the stage at the same time, and they seem to take strength from their numbers. When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. During the day, a man came and said that if their children weren't out of the jail by night, the welfare people would take them. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. We drive through the streets of the town of Harlan, past the stores and houses, past the Harlan Baptist Church with a sign out front which reads: "If you are unkind, you are the wrong kind." 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. Poffitt, Jacqueline Brophy, and I meet the other members of the Citizens Inquiry in a private dining room in the Mount Aire: James David Barber, chairman of the Political Science Department at Duke University and author of The Presidential Character; Monsignor Geno Baroni, president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, a Catholic priest whose father is a retired Pennsylvania miner with black lung; Barbara Bode, president of the Children's Foundation in Washington; and Dr. Raymond Wheeler of Charlotte, North Carolina, president of the Southern Regional Council. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. . Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. James Willard Pope officiating. ~~ David Sergent. 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. By comparison to Harlan, the Pittston strike in 1989-1990 shut down almost 70% of that company's production (and completely halted production during the Moss 3 refining plant occupation) and won back the health care benefits of around 1500 miners and their families, as well as the Coal Act of 1992 that requires all coal operators in the U . 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. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Overturned car bodies everywhere. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. Only 23 percent of those in the county over the age of twenty-five have completed high school. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. We feel that we have provided a national forum for the miners to tell their story. 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. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) - Plot - IMDb The money was . The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. And I can't get you off of that couch. Background to the 1931-32 Strike - University of Kentucky 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). Their activities began with a demonstration and march in Harlan on September 27, 1973. 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. . The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Here, too, are some of the richest natural resources in the countryand some of the poorest people. They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. 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." 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. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. At Brookside, this would amount to $400,000 a year. Each contract varied from mine to mine. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? 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. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. Horn's letter questions the fair-mindedness of the inquiry members. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners National Labor Relations Board - Board Decisions Jul 5, 1938. 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. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. 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. The Widows of Harlan County - CBS News Battle of Evarts - Wikipedia Mr. 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. McDonald's. Louis Stacy that he has several times been running a defective roofbolting machine when word came that inspector was on his way. There's water in the mine because the pumps often won't work. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. 8 N.L.R.B. 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. Remembering Bloody Harlan | Parallel Narratives When a miner complains, Jerry Johnson says, the foreman says, "If you don't like it, you can always get your bucket," meaning pick up your lunch bucket and get out. 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.
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