Middleton died on the scene. On Friday, March 25, a continuous mining machine operator was killed by a wall collapse at the Huff Creek No. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . This series of skirmishes and strikes, lasting from early 1931 into 1939, began because of the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association's (HCCOA) decision to cut miners' wages by 10%. 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 . Abstract. The nearest ridge is green with spruce and pine. 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 . Paternalism is the practice of people who have a business or other authority to restrict the freedoms of those who are subordinate to them. October 31, 2016. The miners say that they often have to stand knee-deep in water while handling 440-volt electrical cables. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? It seems that unfriendly local law enforcement officials kept a constant surveillance on Dreiser, hoping to catch him in something that would justify a criminal charge against him. I don't like- workin' in them kind of conditions." Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. He says that, standing. 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. Crossing the Clinch River, we turn onto Highway 421 and leave the modern world. 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. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. 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. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. I have attended the University of Kentucky. The Harlan County Coal Wars lasted from 1931-1939. Here and there, we also see white-blossoming pear and dogwood trees. 8 N.L.R.B. 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. Some of the women went to jail with the men, and some took their children with them. Among coal miners, Harlan County, Kentucky, is known as "Bloody Harlan." When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. "I don't know nothing about the electrical part." Capitalizing on the general . In 1981, he traded coal mining for gold mining as one of the founders of the current . USBM Final Investigation Report (1.7 Mb) Successful Rescue . The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. Project Summary. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The airline magazine contains an article on southern skiing, a feature on hot, winter drinks for the "Piedmont palate," an article on how tough it is to be thirty-three and middle-class today, and a success story about an Atlanta bra, sleepwear, girdle, and pantie company. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) A month later, back in Washington, I meet with Bernie Aaronson at UMW headquarters. 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. Dixon and union leaders worry that the union's disappearance in Kentucky has opened the door for coal operators to . A historical marker says we are near the Little Shepherd Trail, the setting for the novel Shepherd of the Hills. In the year of "the energy crisis," Coal is King again at $30 a ton. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. 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 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. They had no safety committee, the miners say, and the federal reports bear them out. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. Where will the families go? On May 24, 1931, Sheriff Blair rescinded the miners right to assemble and tear-gassed a union rally. Sheriff Blair was voted out of his office in 1933 and died just a year later. Harlan Daily Enterprise, September 17, 1943. It does not store any personal data. She talks about hiding behind cars on the picket line for protection from the "gun thugs." She talks about a standoff against Basil Collins and the scabs and gun thugs. 9:03 PM. 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. At Washington's National Airport, I board Piedmont Airline's fat little silver jet on a Sunday afternoon in early March. Each contract varied from mine to mine. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. 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. This was thirteen percent of the workers showing up for their scheduled work times. Captain James Cromer of the state police later tells news reporters, "The women are a problem. The slab of slate, more than 51 feet long, and 17 feet wide and weighing tons, was dodged by two men. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. Rev. They range in age from about twenty-one to seventy. During the rest of the afternoon, the miners talk about what has happened on the picket line and in the local court. 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. 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. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. 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 . I've got five living children and four dead. 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. 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. The UMW had made written proposals for compromising these issues a little. HARLAN COUNTYHarlan County, Kentucky, is a rural county located in a major coal-mining region in the Appalachian Mountains. 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. If you wouldn't do it, they'd just say, 'Get your bucket.' So we lay down in the road." We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . If any attractive woman became interested in me, I'd think it was a very lovely thing. Pricing; Switch; Big firm; These interviews with major coal operators document their personal histories and the history of the coal industry in eastern Kentucky during the twentieth century. 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. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. Freda Armes says, "I take a cloth and strain the water to cook with. The women are nervous about testifying, afraid of retaliation. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. Thirty percent of the families lack automobiles. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. 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. But is it really hurting? No one knows who fired the first shot but when it was over four were . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. He is a sturdily built, self-assured man of about fifty, with a strong, square jaw and a rough, weathered face. Finally, in 1939, the coal companies agreed to allow unions in their coal mine operations. We soon get into a discussion about Dreiser's 1931 inquiry. Mrs. Herschel Gaw, wife of the ailing jailer, locked them all up. Tuesday morning: Norman Yarborough has agreed to meet some of our group. The judge's fines and sentences were appealed. There are very few vacant houses in Harlan County and virtually no available land to build on. Bobby's wife, Becky, who died in 2013, was a lifelong advocate for the people of Harlan County. And lastly, the Harlan Fox Mining Co - presumably derived from the Harlan Fox Coal Co - was in operation from 1925-1932. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". 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. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. 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. (Brookside) were the only two mines of the Harlan County owner/operators association who rejected a 10% pay increase in 1933. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. Done. The transcript will be published as a book. The strikebreakers were under the protection of private mine guards. Some seventy-five state policemen were on hand as the crowd gathered. The women spent the night. 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. The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. Before the first meeting of the Citizens Inquiry, we sit around and talk with the Inquiry chairman, Daniel Pollitt, a professor of law at the University of North Carolina. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to . 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.