Harlan County Struggle Collection

Harlan County, Kentucky is known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. During the big coal boom in the early 1900s, Harlan County was amongst the largest contributors. Herndon J. Evans, the editor of the Pineville Sun, argued, The troubles of the coal industry had their inception in war times. Huge profits were held out to those who had little capital and a good lease. Wages ranged as high as $25 a day in some instances. Men flocked to the coal fields by the thousands. Silk shirts replaced the cotton ones and many a peppermint-striped silk shirt found its way to the far-reaches of the mines where only blue denim had gone before. However, after the war subsided and the need for coal died down, so did the need for the abundance of miners as well as mines. The thousands of men who had brought their families to Harlan County to work in the mines to have a better life were now poverty stricken. Many of the mines remained in use, but with the lack of demand for coal, most workers were unable to work full time. Some miners were lucky if they were able to work two or three days a week. By the early 1930s, the miners and their families were suffering from severe destitution. Work was scarce and food was in short supply amongst the families. One woman was even quoted saying, “last summer we ate grass—this winter, I guess, we’ll eat snow.”[url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftn1][1][/url] The miners still trudged on and worked whatever meager amount they could to provide the best that they could for their families. The mines would not have been so unbearable, but at that point, the coal operators and the coal companies themselves had taken advantage of the miners’ civil rights and abused the system. The coal companies were petrified at the thought of unionization. The coal companies denied miners check weigh men, so that the miners would make less per ton than they produced, and there was nothing the miners could do about it. If one was found to have attended a union meeting, he would lose his job; a group of two hundred men lost their jobs in March 1931 because they had attended a United Mine Workers of America meeting. Other unlawful measures were taken in extremes. As if that was not enough, the coal companies had the local police on their payroll. In 1932, John Henry Blair was the sheriff of Harlan County. He and his ‘deputies’ were to see that no miner was to become a member of a union and that no ‘outsiders’ succeeded in aiding the miners. They terrorized not only the miners but their families as well. There are several accounts of coercion that occurred, one extreme example included this account: “He said that one man in his car was shot directly through the head. His wife and children were in the car, the car was ditched, nobody was indicted.”[url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftn2][2][/url] Another account describes a union organizers’ life falling to shambles; he had been away at a union meeting and his home was drenched in bullets, killing his son and seriously wounding his wife. Union organizers and miners were not the only ones terrorized in Harlan; ‘outsiders’ that attempted to assist the cause were intimidated and threatened. Different groups such as college students, committees (including writers, socialites, etc.) seeking the facts about the ‘reign of terror’ in Harlan were denied the basic civil liberties of being an American. They were brutalized; both verbally and physically, that is, if they were even allowed to enter in the county; many groups were denied that right. One of the most significant reasons why the groups traveled to Harlan County was the Battle of Evarts, which occurred on May 5, 1931. The battle was amongst several ‘deputies’ and miners. No one knows who fired the first shot, but in the end, three ‘deputies’ and one union man were killed. After the battle, the local government handled things in an inappropriate manner. As conveyed in a letter by Theodore Dreiser, a writer who was charged with criminal syndicalism because of his interest in Harlan, May 6: Circuit Court Judge Jones calls handpicked Grand Jury and institutes judicial terror against miners. Family of Judge Jones interested in mine properties. In selecting Grand Jury, Judge Jones actually refused to read off names unsatisfactory to him. Hand-picked Grand Jury returned thirty triple murder indictments, thirty indictments for ‘banding and confederating’ and one for criminal syndicalism. There were no indictments returned against those who had killed miners and perpetrated other outrages against them. Illegal handlings of the case occurred throughout the trial; for example, the prosecution had the trial moved two hundred miles north of Harlan to Mount Sterling, Kentucky so that the defense would have a next to impossible time getting witnesses to the trial. Several other complications occurred throughout the court case and beyond. Even after the other judgments were cleared for the dozens of men tried and Governor Ruby Laffoon released three of the original life-termers; four men: Jim Reynolds, W.B. Jones, Chester Poore, and Al Benson were still in prison several years after the battle. Governor A.B. Chandler denied those men their rights even after he had heard several of the key witnesses such as: Dolly Hudson Daniels, the widow of a mine guard killed at Evarts; Sherman Percival, a former guard who was wounded sixteen times during the skirmish; and several other crucial witnesses. Forty-six of the forty-seven jurors signed a petition advocating for the release of the men and Chandler still denied the four men their freedom. Other shameful, unfathomable things have occurred in Harlan. In the 1970s, miners were still being mistreated and black-listed just for fighting for their rights. The government in Harlan was still ruled by the “all-powerful Harlan County Coal Operators Association”[url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftn3][3][/url] and many miners were just struggling to survive. No matter how far the rest of the world advanced, Harlan County was stuck in a world of its own. Regardless of the facts, Harlan County, Kentucky will always be known for two things: bituminous coal and Bloody Harlan. If it is the facts about the battle of Evarts or the mistreatment of the miners the bloodstained history will always follow whenever Harlan is mentioned. [url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftnref1][1][/url] Letter from John Dos Passos. Harlan County Struggle. Folder 1-8. [url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftnref2][2][/url] Memorandum re an incident occurring in Harlan County within the month of July 1934. Carl Vogel.       Harlan County Struggle. Letters. Folder 1-8. [url=file:///H:/Collection%20Mapping%20Project/AIDS%20-%20SAA/SAA%2060%20-%20Harlan%20County%202015.docx#_ftnref3][3][/url] UMWA Boosters Club letter. Carl Dykes. Harlan County Struggle. Letters. Folder 1-8.