Dan Pollitt reads a letter from Carl Horn, Jr., president of Duke Power Company, respectfully declining our invitation. By 1908 the union had . They file with us copies of specific federal safety violation reports, and they say that nothing was ever done to correct these violations. Each contract varied from mine to mine. The officials were listed were the "veteran safety director of the Harlan Coal Operators Association, and Rufus Bailey and H. Hamlin, state . Office files covering topics such as "accounts receivable," "baseball club," "coal production," "garnishment orders," "Harlan Coal Operator's Association," "labor conditions," "medical conditions . Throughout 1931, violence sprouted between miners 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 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. After nearly 40 years of working in coalmines, David . Betty Eldridge is a mildmannered, well-dressed woman of about forty. J. D. Skidmore says, "I have no chance of getting a job in Harlan County if this strike is not settled." With the passage of these acts, there was unrest in Harlan County. A Brief History of Harlan County, USA. Burger Chef. The county became nationally famous in 1931 and 1932 when it was the site of one of the earliest and bloodiest labor battles of the decade. Si sticks a wad of Red Man chewing tobacco in his cheek and begins to fill us in on the background of the Brookside strike. California labor activist Caroline Decker also raised money for the relief of the striking miner efforts. The miners could be fired if they refused to spend their paychecks only in the store. Documentary of mining practices in Hazard County, Kentucky. "Try walking out of there, carrying a man with a broken back," one of the miners says. Three Harlan County incorporated towns were not owned by the coal mines, they became a sanctuary for the evicted and starving miners. We huddle before breaking up. Sadly, the state and federal troops would occupy the county several times. the meeting room. He says that wages are no longer a problem and that the amount of the royalty to be paid into the UMW Welfare & Retirement Fund is not crucially important. 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. No wonder R C Cola has so many signs everywhere. It is not all Duke's fault by any means. The trees are barely beginning to bud in the early March warmth. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. The most shocking moment in Harlan County, U.S.A. (1976) looks at first like an abstract painting. 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. 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. 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. The local grand jury returned an indictment against Dreiser for adultery, but by that time Dreiser had finished his work and had left the county on the train. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Troops had to be called into the county three times to maintain order. This was not just a flashy slogan, and the truth of it is . The National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP) was of the American Communist Party. Yarborough says that he will not agree to the contract applying to Eastover's subcontractors. 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. Harlan County sits in the sweet spot of coal mining in southeastern Kentucky. Harlan County Coal Miners Deaths 1940-1949 1940 1940 Hayes, Petry - Harlan Central Coal Company Totz No. Harlan County Coal Operators' Association. With the opening left by the United Mine Workers union the openly Communist (NMU) National Miners Union tried to help the miners to organize. The remaining workforce then went on strike as a sign of solidarity with those that were fired from their jobs. The aftermath of this battle led to wider strikes in the Harlan County area. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. Midway in the trial, Judge Hogg dismissed the jury and directed a verdict of guilty. So we lay down in the road." A Committee was formed and conducted by Activist Theodore Dreiser under the auspices of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (NCDPP). It does not store any personal data. . Yarborough replies. 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. Bright yellow forsythia has begun to bloom in the yards of Harlan and Brookside and Evarts. It will be a two-hour, winding drive through the Cumberland Mountains to the town of Harlan. 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. 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. He sentenced nine men and seven women to six months in jail and fined them $500 each. ", We break for lunch, prepared by the women of the Evarts Community Center. We come into Harlan County at dusk. "Then he'd come out looking like a sheep-killing dog and get in his truck and run. "Yeah," a coal miner says, "but the land's so poor, you can't hardly raise an umbrella on it.". 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. Many of the houses have no running water, and these families have to carry all their water from a common outdoor spigot. Expand. Done. What will happen now that the first full year after the union election is ending? [ 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%. And, all around, there are the rolling mountains, covered with second-growth timber. Even though things were doing better for the unions in Harlan County, there was still civil unrest. Typical of counties with low income, counties where the mine companies own everything and pay low taxes, our UMW driver says. We never would find out what happened. The miners charge that the Harlan County Coal Operators Association is behind Eastover's refusal to sign a contract. Mr. Nolan, a resident of Cawood, is survived by his wife, Mrs. Stella Nolan . Only to be escorted to the county line and told not to return. "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. It is thought that Middleton was assassinated for backing troops who were present in the County to protect the miners. He speaks of "my people" and "my men." On September 4, 1935, Harlan County Attorney Elmon Clay Middleton, age 31, was assassinated by a car bomb containing eighteen sticks of dynamite. October 31, 2016. Documents the 1973 Kentucky coal miners' strike against the operators of the Brookside mine and the Duke Power Company, which resulted from the company's refusal to honor the . Harlan, district mine inspector of the State Department of Mines and Minerals, and James Bryson, safety director, Harlan County Coal Operators Association. . Prior to the strike, the pay of the Brookside miners started and stopped at the face of coal. The group included John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and a number of other writers and artists. 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. Each of us makes a statement. The miners say that, somehow, management always knows when the government inspectors are coming. (Eastover offered fifty cents a ton.) When McQueen was hurt, his foreman drove him to the hospital and left him there, and he was two hours hitchhiking home. In June of 1973, in a National Labor Relations Board election, the miners at Brookside voted 113 to 55 to affiliate with the United Mine Workers. 1931, only $13.5 million. On May 5, 1931, the Battle of Evarts began. The final straw was when the Harlan County Coal Operators Association cut miners' wages by 10%. the foreman would just say, "We gotta run coal. James Willard Pope officiating. ", What about federal inspection? 2011: $1,161,330. Five men and their titles are listed and all are doing all they can.. 5355 after Local Union 4495 at Black Mountain folded up. Our driver points out Norman Yarborough's two-story frame house, across the highway from the camp and up out of the river bottom. He decided to make Harlan County a test case in the UMW's new, more aggressive organizing efforts. The next morning the toothpicks were still in place, it was said. "In Harlan County, U.S.A., sound anchors, explains, and makes 'authentic' visual imagery compromised by the long history of documentary work in Appalachia.". He says that he will not agree to the Brookside contract applying to "all" of Eastover's operations. The three houses with baths rent for $24 a month, plus $14 a month for electricity. 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. It is a warm night and at every bend in the asphalt road we hear a chorus of croaking frogs. There was no standard contract for the miners. 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. I have an Associates Degree from Hazard Community College and Technical School. Toilets are built out over the river, and the water has obviously been much higher in the recent past. Three of our Inquiry members plan to talk with the president of Duke Power Company. The miners say that all of the strikers have been blacklisted by the Association. 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 the second worst mine fatality in the history of Harlan County coal mining, the worst being Harlan Fuel Company . That means, among other things, an average daily wage of $45. The miners and the coal owners were still having disputes. I have also attended the University of Pikeville. 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. The median family income is $4600 a year. He was transferred to a worse section, he says.