It was [and still is] used to signify that what happened in the realm of politics, a field largely controlled by men, affect women's everyday lives. Hennen attributes this abandonment to the increasingly conservative John L. Lewis, the longtime and powerful president of the UMWA, who feared . 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. 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. 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. Afterwards, they gathered near the picket line at the Eastover property in Brookside. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. New subdivisions named Tall Oaks and Colonial Heights. 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. Some of the women say they haven't had a drink of water since moving to the Brookside camp. After breakfast, we travel fifteen miles east to Evarts. Five miles north of Harlan, we drive up Inspiration Mountain. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. My man was mashed up in the mines. Lifelong resident of Harlan. (Fifty million tons of union coal are mined in western Kentucky; only 6.5 million tons of union coal are mined in eastern Kentucky.) We never would find out what happened. Strikebreakers were often beaten. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. "We could lay down, fight the police, or let them scabs go to work. 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. "We've took about all we can take," he says. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. When Barbara finishes her answer, Wirtz raises a clenched fist and says, "Right on!" Mr. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? Other times, he says, "Roof was workin', rock was a-hangin', and it sounded like thunder. Overturned car bodies everywhere. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Exist Dates. "Yarborough says he just don't want nobody tellin' him how to run his mine," Deaton says. 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. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. In the bloody 1930s coal wars, miners known to be union members were fired and evicted from company-owned homes. These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Bill McQueen says that the shuttle car into the mine usually has no brakes, and that it can only be stopped by putting it in reverse. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. "Not at all," Yarborough says. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. Evarts welcomed the miners because it was filled with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores and company men in political positions vanish. KCA's constitution and by-laws were adopted on April 28, 1947, "to promote the best interest of the coal mining industry in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and all those engaged therein". ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. "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. Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. Harlan County in eastern Kentucky, which has been brought out into the spotlight this summer by the violence with which the local Coal Operators' Association has carried on this attack, is, as far as I can find out, a pretty good medium exhibit of the entire industry: living conditions are better than in Alabama and perhaps a little worse . One of the better houses is already being demolished. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? Did she find the stick on the ground? Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. However, after the dust was clear, the anti-labor coal country would end up being represented by unions. Harlan County. Interment at Resthaven Cemetery, Keith, Ky. Visitation 6-9 p.m. at the Grays Knob Bible Church. McQueen says that in late 1972 he burned his fingers to the bone on a switchbox where a blown fuse had been hot-wired. It is unclear who fired that shot but both sides claim that the other side did it. It was Miller who defeated W. A. Violence erupted that would periodically repeat itself for the next eight years. 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. Our delegation arrives on time at the Eastover office in Brookside. . In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . 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. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. 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. The accident was investigated by Rufus Bailey, Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. Others claim that his death was caused by an election concerning slot machines into the county. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. Make your practice more effective and efficient with Casetext's legal research suite. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. They are demanding the standard UMW provision requiring the company to pay a royalty of seventy-five cents a ton on mined coal into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. 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. It does not store any personal data. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. However, the battle continues to this day. Project Summary. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. Trailer parks called Walnut Grove, Mobile Manor, and Mesa Village Mobile Manor. 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." I glance at the new Piedmont magazine, Pace. What a marvelous view! Available for both RF and RM licensing. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . 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 . At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. Expand. Kentucky communities discussed include Artemus, Burdine, Jenkins, Jellico, Van Lear, and Wheelwright; and Kentucky counties include Bell, Clay, Floyd, Harlan . I've got five living children and four dead. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. But relatives did come and take the children. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. HARLAN COUNTY COAL OPERATORS ASSOCIATION. Only three of the families in the camp have indoor toilets. Free shipping for many products! The Act was an attempt to restructure the industrial sector of the economy and to alleviate unemployment with a public works program. We drive to the Evarts Community Center and report to the other members of the Citizens Inquiry. Toilet paper clings to the bushes and tree limbs five or six feet up from the rushing stream. Strike benefits are $100 weekly for a family, $90 for a couple, and $80 for a single man. Talking to Aaronson, I am reminded of an old tin sign I saw tacked on a tree along the highway as I left Harlan. Biographical History . There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. We come into Harlan County at dusk. Brophy's was the last reform insurgency against UMW leadership until Joseph Yablonski's fatal try. 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. I look at the government statistics once more. The Red Cross eventually became involved in the county along with several local charities. 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. In 1973 the 13-month Brookside Strike brought almost 200 workers to battle Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant, a company owned by Duke Power. Pierce mentions the "toothpick incident." 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. 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. Here at Kentucky Tennessee Living we fully support the coal miners and their families. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. And always there is a murky roadside stream, beech and sycamore trees lining its banks. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. Blair. Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. On the way back to the Mount Aire at the end of the day, we pass back through Brookside with its deteriorating mining-camp houses along the stinking Clear Fork River. The sign man for R C Cola has worked this territory well. They are merely a service organization, Yarborough says. "Why couldn't the original thirteen colonies live with the same British policy that applied to all other British colonies?" The Kentucky Coal Association is an IRS designated 501 (c) (6) nonprofit organization that aims to educate its members and the public of coal production and safety in the state of Kentucky. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". Two hundred people crowd. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. We're all involved. "We run because we wanted to testify, and if we hadn't run, he woulda had us in jail." For a time after the hearing, he says, it appeared that Duke had softened. I've read that in its heyday, the Blackjoe coal camp consisted of 60 or so houses. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. They tell of two night incidents when rifle shots were fired at the picketers by unidentified persons. Conflict broke out again the 1970s in what was known as the Brookside strike. Word precedes him. Two more Inquiry panel members join us, Willard Wirtz, who was Secretary of Labor under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Reverend Max Glenn, executive director of the Commission on Religion in Appalachia. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. 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. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. "The danger's just the same," they say. That year, annual wages dropped from $1,235 to $749. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. 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. He discusses the formation and activities of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association . He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. (This . J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." 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. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. The main problem, he says, is that the company wants a "no-strike" clause, so that the union cannot strike during the contract period. Isolated trailer houses. 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." Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. 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. 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. But is it really hurting? There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. 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. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. 8 N.L.R.B. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. This law was enacted to try to reverse the hardships to those who were out of a job because of the economic collapse of the Great Depression.
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