I remind her that Duke and Eastover executives were invited, and have refused to appear before us. The group publishes policy papers on the benefits of coal for Kentucky and sponsors the "Friends of Coal" initiative. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. But will Norman Yarborough ever agree to recognize the UMW? The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 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". The bosses wouldn't go in, but I've. 4 . They fed strikers' children as well as the employed, blacks as well as whites. Each contract varied from mine to mine. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. 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 was transferred to a worse section, he says. B.W. 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 . When this strike was broken in1924, none of the non-union mines in Harlan County, all of which were members ofthe Harlan County Coal Operators Association, would employ a man from BlackMountain."Many of the men who worked at Black Mountain transferred to LocalUnion No. (The union has told us that they are quite willing to limit the contract to the Brookside mine.) The latest unrest in Harlan County came when in July of 2019, Black jewel LLC filed for bankruptcy and liquidation. Perched atop Inspiration Mountain is the modern Mount Aire Motel. Grace Elizabeth Hale. "I've been juiced a lot, and I've had to just set down thirty-five minutes because it just takes the pep out of you." Pic from Harlan County USA of a Coal Camp. 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. After the railroad arrived in 1911 . United States Washington D.C. District of Columbia Washington D.C . He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. Dateline New York City, November 13, 1931: Dreiser again denies the charge and adds, "Even if it were true, I wouldn't give a damn. When they went to jail, they say, some of the women took their children with them. Daniels was one of the most hated deputies in the county due to his anti-union views. Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. "Dreiser, Woman Indicted," one headline reads. ~~ David Sergent. This caused the clergy to denounce the union. Norman Yarborough, head of Eastover Mining Company, is not coming either. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." I look at the government statistics once more. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". She pays $10 a month for rent and $10 a month for electricity. While it succeeded in organizing thousands of miners, it failed to complete a bargaining agreement with Harlan County's coal operators. The Harlan Daily Enterprise story of September 16, 1943 is serious and straightforward: 17 miners are trapped a mile underground and help is on the way.. Much of the story is about help. 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. 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. 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. As the motorcade approached a single shot rang out in the air. 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. Is the safety provision in the UMW contract the sticking point for Eastover? Before this war was over it is not known exactly how many miners, coal operators, deputies, and bosses would be killed. 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. Leroy Helton says he still owes a lot of bills that should have been paid by SLU. Mr. But I ain't leaving because this is my home.". Pricing; Switch; Big firm; Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Whitfield recalls working in his father's coal mines during the first years of commercial mining in Harlan County, and he describes the conditions. 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. It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. Pierce has brought the actual Courier-Journal clippings about the Dreiser inquiry and shares them with us. 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." "The way I figured it, they done that because it was just a faster, way of getting coal." These guards were legally able to protect these men during their off duty time. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. He does say, I think primarily for the record, that he would like to see negotiations begin again. 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. 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.". The SLU was largely seen as serving the interests of the mine owners rather than the workers. Interview Summary. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . "You could hunt for one, but there just weren't one there," he says. Or all you're gonna get's a chunk of Harlan County coal. "I don't try to blacklist anybody," he says. 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. 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. 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. Did she find the stick on the ground? One of the towns that were a refuge was Evarts, Kentucky. The name comes from a series of United Mine Workers strikes and labor-management battles which ended in a gunfight between deputized mine guards and miners on May 4, 1931, in the tiny community of Evarts. Yarborough tells us that the company does not now object to paying the miners for portal-to-portal time for inside mine work, but that the union wants comparability for outside workers too, in effect requiring the company to pay outside workers overtime for all work in excess of a seven and-a-quarter-hour regular day. On February 16, 1931, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association reduced wages for miners in that part of eastern Kentucky by 10 percent. Yarborough is tough and unyielding. Enforcing the operators' political will, both within and outside the law, was the Harlan County Coal Operators Association. : The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39 (Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! Featuring a haunting soundtrack-with legendary country . . It has assets worth $2.5 billion. 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. Miners laid in an ambush on the day of May 5, 1931, near the Evarts railroad crossing. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". These battles will end the Coal Wars proper. Drift mines back into the mountains follow the seam of coal wherever it goes." And you wondr why I keep running my mouth . I have two children and four grandchildren from a previous marriage. You just don't hit a woman in Harlan County." 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. 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. In response, the United Mine Workers of America attempted to organize the miners. Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. We huddle before breaking up. How does the Harlan County Coal Operators Association fit into the picture? James Sizemore says that frequently float dust, which is dangerously explosive, would get too heavy in the mine, and he would complain, but that. There is no water in the house. Soon enough, most miners had gone on strike out of solidarity. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Yarborough replies. Nannie Rainey says, "I told him if he got my children, he was gonna haveta take me too." They exercised their powers with impunity and operated under Sheriff J.H. An investigation was conducted on Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields. One of the better houses is already being demolished. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. Faith Primitive Baptist Church. Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners The letter states that Eastover has now raised the wages in their other mines to the UMW scale and is paying the miners for time spent with the mine moving to and from the face of the coal. (There is such a provision in the standard UMW contract.). 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. Most of the land is owned by the mining companies. In 1970, Joseph Yablonski had led a rank-and-file revolt against Boyle, and Yablonski and his wife and daughter had been brutally murdered by killers hired with union funds. It does not store any personal data. There are nearly 40,000 people in the county, a drop of 36 percent since 1960. She speaks in a soft, pleasant voice. 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. I was born in Florida and grew up in Burdine, Kentucky. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Its profits in 1973 were $90 million, up 14 percent from the year before. 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. "Roof falls are a constant hazard, but the bosses just keep on rushin'.". Up at seven on a Monday morning, I walk out onto the balcony of my motel room. Based on this new Act, from October 27, 1933, to March 31, 1935, the mines ran as open shops. 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. I remind her of what Bill Doan has said: "You work with one eye on the roof, one eye on your job, and your mind's outside.". (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.) 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. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. 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. Four men were arrested in connection with this murder. There is a suit still in litigation. I've got five living children and four dead. "The danger's just the same," they say. The miners charge that Eastover has hired what they call "gun thugs." Coal employment in Harlan county dropped 53.7% in the second quarter of this year compared with last year, driven by Blackjewel's bankruptcy. [Verse 2] I got 27 peopl coming over to this house. The motorcade stopped and the deputies got out of their cars to return fire. 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. It is an area of Kentucky that you only go to if you are intentionally going to the county. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The warrant was never served. 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. 1931, only $13.5 million. Why haven't the car bodies been removed from the highway and the streets? If you protested this safety violation, he says, "the boss would just say, 'Run it.'" 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. By 1908 the union had . "But if they call me and ask if a man works for me, I simply say yes or no.". Harlan Fuel Co. Download PDF. Rev. The Price of Coal, Part II. Three of the federal reports state that there was no safety committee at Brookside, as required by law. Working barns of gray-black weathered wood. Middleton died on the scene. All too many Americans are under the naive belief that, while unions may have been necessary in the 30's, they are no longer needed in the United States today. McDonald's. They just laughed about it, and we kept on cuttin' coal. Why is garbage left on the roadway? "They sent me to 'Waterhole No. "I've got so many duns from the hospital that I just quit lookin' at them. Several folk singers and other artists toured the United States to raise money during the strikes. I've talked to Norman Yarborough, and you ain't bringing no union down here. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. Ky., told the Senate Civil Liberties Committee as it resumed its investigation of alleged terrorism in connection with Harlan County Coal Operators' efforts to resist union organization drives. And I can't get you off of that couch. 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. Wanted to be able to spend their money at a store of their choice besides the Black Mountain Coal Company store. All during the day they worked in shifts, trying to penetrate to the point where the explosion occurred. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. It is home to lawyers, doctors and coal operators; it has a hospital, several banks and a few fast-food . We never would find out what happened. Killed - 12. He is dressed more like a miner than a mining executive. [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%. Special Judge F. Byrd Hogg, a neighboring county judge who has been assigned to the case, entered an early order limiting the strikers to three pickets at each of two entrances to the Eastover Mining Company property. From July 30, 2019, through September 28, 2019, coal miners and their families have blocked roads and railways demanding their payment. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. Garbage along the roadside. There are still ongoing strikes today and the violence in Harlan County Continues. Genders. The radical ideology of the union began gaining some ground in the mountains. 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. After this, the first strike occurred, in which only about 13% of strikers showed up to work. Others say they intend to speak and write about what they have heard. Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. Their foothold there ultimately ended because the local clergy who were the labor organizers found out that the union was communist in nature and held animosity toward religion. Why are people allowed to dump raw sewage in the streams? At first, there were little battles with gunshots being exchanged between the strikers and the private guards, and the local law enforcement agents. The coal companies refused to back down from their positions and change anything. Mine operators viciously opposed miners' efforts to unionize, particularly in Harlan County. 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. We return to our series on the Coal Wars of the United States with Bloody Harlan and the Battle for Evarts. They say no action has been taken on this report. Duke Power Company appears to be the key to breaking the deadlock in negotiations. 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). Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Which Side are You on? We first hear from a number of the striking miners about safety conditions in the Brookside mine. My man was mashed up in the mines. Another press member criticizes Barbara Bode for having raised a clenched fist during the women's testimony. When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. Harlan County to unionize miners. by Ron Soodalter. 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. Pay ranged from $17 to $32 day, the average being $25. On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. 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 . "It's one of 'em," Yarborough says. I have been married to David W. Sergent since May 4, 2013. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. The prospects for settlement do not look good unless Duke begins to feel public pressure. There is one ostentatious feature about him, though: a large, multi-diamond ring on the third finger of his left hand. The coal miners, lean and tough from Kentucky mountain life, knew how to fight back. 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 Brookside mine is capable of producing only about a half-million tons of the 15 million tons of coal Duke uses each year. Source Citation [ }] Descriptive Note Contributors from initial SNAC EAC-CPF ingest. Depression-era Harlan County, Kentucky, was the site of one of the most bitter and protracted labor disputes in American history. At first, heading northwest on modern Route 23, through Kingsport, Tennessee, Weber City, Virginia, and Gate City, Virginia, the sights are the same as almost everywhere else in America today. 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. Exist Dates. Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Miners also wanted the right to organize and have a union. He says that negotiations were broken off on November 28, 1973, because of the miners' insistence on the full terms of the standard UMW contract. ", What about the Southern Labor Union? Expand. There was no standard contract for the miners. Some of the miners also claim that the state police have tried to intimidate them. The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. We gather back in Evarts and announce that our report will be ready in two or three weeks. Mr. Blanton explained the reasoning behind coal camps. "If we could monitor these inspections, perhaps we could cut down on the fatalities," he says. My brother died at the age of forty. The company also agreed to abide by any agreement reached between the . 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. 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.