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. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. 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. The Act also made a provision for a National Labor-Relations Board to designate a legal structure for the workers to conduct fair and legal elections of their officers and representatives. The accident was the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . When fuses blow, they are not immediately replaced; the cable is spliced or "hot-wired" around the fuse. He fined the UMW $20,000. Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. 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.". Done Citation. At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. Other clippings detail the earlier bloodshed and misery in Harlan County. We stop for fish and chips at a chain-operated Long John Silver's Sea Food Shoppe, as out of place in the Cumberlands as a clam in a spruce tree. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Two hundred people crowd. There were constant beatings of the miners by the Sheriffs deputies. Segment Synopsis: Lois Scott continues her conversation from her previous interview. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . On one excuse or another, such as not having personnel readily available to accompany the inspector into the mine, the company can delay the inspection. the meeting room. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. He said that when the coal industry was at its height in 1928, the peak of . 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. Since the county began mining, over one billion tons of coal have It was Miller who defeated W. A. No concessions or deals were made between the two factions and the membership of the United Mine Workers union plummeted. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. 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. "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. . [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%. Harry Caudill, attorney and author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands, will not be able to join us in Harlan because of legal business. Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . The United Mine Workers of America represented 400,000 miners at that point and promised miners safer work conditions and higher wages. The Harlan County Coal War is one of the . Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. They say no action has been taken on this report. Those with running water rent for around $20 a month, plus electricity. And we're burning up people to make electricity. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. Carl Horn of Duke Power and Arnold Miller of the UMW had talked, and negotiations had been resumed. Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. 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. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. America in the Harlan County Mine Wars, 1931-1939 Carletta A. Bush Early accounts of the Harlan County mine wars place the inability of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to establish a permanent foothold in the county, first at the feet of of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? 4 . There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. An open shop is where union membership is allowed but not mandated to work at that location. From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. Early accounts of the Harlan County mine wars place the inability of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) to establish a permanent foothold in the county, first at the feet of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association (HCCOA) and secondly at the worn work boots of miners who, when work was plentiful, saw little or no need for a union. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. 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. What a marvelous view! 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. These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." Listen to "Harlan County Coal" from Pistol Annies' album, 'Hell of a Holiday,' out now: https://pa.lnk.to/HOAHAY Chorus:Making decorations out of shotgun she. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. had them make me go in and pin it because it wasn't done right the first time. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. 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. They have probably helped keep their own men from exploding too. 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. [ 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%. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." 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 . (Eastover, to repeat, now pays portal-to-portal wages for inside workers in its other mines and has raised the wages of nonstrikers to the UMW level.) 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. In response to the violence, the Kentucky National Guard was called upon and arrived for the first time in the county to try to stem the violence. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. 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. A reporter asks us again how we can expect to make an unbiased report when we've heard only one side. Did she find the stick on the ground? Killed - 12. 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. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. Funeral Wednesday March 1 at 11 a.m. at Grays Knob Bible Church. [videorecording] Contributor(s): Kopple, Barbara; First-Run Features (Firm) Cabin Creek Films; Publication details: New York : First Run Features, 1976. . Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. But negotiations for a contract with Eastover soon broke down, and on July 30 the miners at Brookside began the strike that now, as we arrive, is in its eighth month. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace . ", What about federal inspection? "I don't like to handle that raw juice," he says. ~~ David Sergent. With unprecedented access, Kopple and her crew captured the miners' sometimes violent struggles with strikebreakers, local police, and company thugs. Blair. "We want safety all the time, not just when the inspector comes," Jerry Johnson says. And I can't get you off of that couch. One of the better houses is already being demolished. "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. The decision caused unrest in the county among the miners. There were ten lodges that were chartered for the National Miners Union. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. 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. We hope that our hearings will help hold down violence. The unrest continues in Harlan and surrounding counties as there have been many strikes. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . But you must remember I am an immoral man. They want the terms of the standard UMW contract or better. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. Harlan County. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. The county was once part of Knox County, only becoming official in 1819. 1 mine in Evarts, in Harlan County, Kentucky. On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. I look at the government statistics once more. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. Miners die, and last year was the deadliest in American coal mines in more than a decade. However, the battle continues to this day. Freda Armes says, "I run him off. Harlan, city, seat of Harlan county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., in the Cumberland Mountains, on the Clover Fork Cumberland River. Our drive takes us upstream along the yellow-brown Clear Fork River. 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 Brookside labor dispute erupted spontaneously soon after Miller's election. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. There is a suit still in litigation. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. 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. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. or smaller. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". 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. CBS is represented by a camera crew, and there are a number of national reporters. 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. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . 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. Bill Doan says that the roof bolts often didn't have enough torque on them, sometimes causing roof falls as high as thirty-five feet above the regular ceiling, and that once he complained about this to the visiting inspector in the presence of his foreman. Seen 'em carried out on a stretcher," she says. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. He says that they do not need the UMW to look after them; he will do that. "Boss walks up and says, 'We've got to make this mine look good now, boys; the inspector's comin','" Jerry Johnson says. 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. . And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. Does the Association hire for all the mines in the county? ("Tony") Boyle for the national presidency of the UMW in 1972 in an election closely supervised by the federal government. Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? The median family income is $4600 a year. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. 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. The Great Depression of 1929 through the late 1930s hit Harlan County Kentucky.
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