Miner Curtis Cress, 34, says towns that . 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. Before Senate Civil Liberties Committee. Washington, D.C., April 15 These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. The Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Interview Summary. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. There is a hard edge in her voice, and her blue-gray eyes are flashing. Did she find the stick on the ground? Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. 9:03 PM. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. 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. It is also women's day before the Citizens In-quiry. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. 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. Dalton points out that there were 132 mine fatalities in the United States in 1973, only seventeen of them in UMW mines. They want portal-to-portal pay from the time they enter the mine until they leave it. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. No more union coal mines remain in Kentucky, home of the deadly battles Find the perfect harlan county coal stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. They're trapped. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. Over one thousand shots were exchanged during those fifteen minutes. 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. If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" The money was . All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. 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. Harlan County War History, Impact, The Free Encyclopedia . These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . 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. Harlan, Kentucky coal miner killed - World Socialist Web Site - wsws.org Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. The men's life depended on my job, but I knowed if I protested I'd a got fired. Background to the 1931-32 Strike - University of Kentucky There was no standard contract for the miners. The company will probably demand a new election. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. So we lay down in the road." Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. Battle of Evarts - Wikipedia 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. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. 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 took forty-five minutes for someone to come and help get him out, Deaton says. 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 speaks of "my people" and "my men." They say no action has been taken on this report. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. 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. There is no water in the house. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. He then answers a question he wasn't asked. The miners, impoverished due to their already low pay (this coming in the form of company scrip, room, and board), decided enough was enough, and some of them . This active organization is made up of those who represent the leader in the mining industry. 2012: $1,552,717. She doesn't know where she will go when the camp is closed. The United Mine Workers union also cited that they did not have the resources to help in the battle. 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 . Printing - Angelfire On May 5, 1931 the pot boiled over; in Harlan County Kentucky, heavily armed deputies and company men, called "gun thugs" by miners, confronted disgruntled union men on a road near Evarts. Fifty miners and their wives have at one time or another been held in contempt of this order. 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. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. The union abandoned its efforts after less than a year. The committee has invited owners as well as workers to participate in the hearings, but the impression we get is that management will not appear. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. 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. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. 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. 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. 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. by Ron Soodalter. Harlan County War Wiki - Everipedia A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. The Wagner Act of 1935 (National Labor Relations Act or NLRA) guaranteed the rights of workers to choose to organize. Breaks in the cable, they say, are often just wrapped with mask-ing tape and exposed again to the water. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". The Price of Coal, Part II. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters.