For the 1976 documentary film, see Harlan County, USA.
Harlan County War (filmed in 2000) is a TV movie about a 1973 & 1974 coal strike with Holly Hunter playing the part of Ruby Kincaid who was a Harlan County mine worker's wife that is nearly killed in a mine cave-in, because of her husbands injuries, Mrs. Kincaid joins the picket lines in his stead during a long, violent strike.
The Harlan County War was a violent labor dispute between the United Mine Workers Union, a labor organization many Harlan County
June of the same year, the strike was over; but not because an agreement had been reached by the conflicting factions; it had been stamped out by local officials and the National Guard. Union leaders were barred from the mines and 44 men ended up standing trial on various charges. The violence directed at coal miners and union members did not end with the strike however.
Unfortunately, there existed a virtual reign of terror throughout the county; financed in general by a group of coal mine operators in collusion with certain public officials. Because of this, Harlan County Harlan County Harlan County
Some or most of the treatment dispensed by the coal company owners or operators upon the miners leaves little room for misunderstanding as to why the resulting violence ensued. Most of such treatment was pretty much standard throughout the industry of the day, which included:
The building and the towns were company owned and coal companies provided a form of money, called scrip for a payment method. Scrip could only be used within the towns where the miners worked, this in turn, forced the workers to buy everything from the company. This created a hardship for miners because the prices in company stores were about fifty percent higher than in the privately owned stores. As if that wasn't bad enough for the miners, “cuts” were also deducted from their wages before they got paid. These cuts were for "rent, mandatory doctors' bills (even if the miner or his family did not see a doctor), a burial fund was withheld, along with "mine expenses," which included fuel, explosives, and any work that was required for the repair of tools a miners use in mining the coal.
Perhaps the most offensive act taken by the company owners was reading the workers' mail. In the event that a letter was read which was (deemed by the company) to be offensive to the company or in any way distasteful to the owners, then the mail was destroyed. The only post office which was available in the town was located at the company store, so the miners were unable to obtain the freedom of speech which was even then federally guaranteed to all citizens, including coal miners.
The events that led up to the Harlan Coal Mine Strike in 1931 which ultimately led to a domestic war, began in mid-April of 1931. A crude union made up of 17,000 people held periodic marches that included from 2,500 to 4,000 miners marching down to the Harlan Courthouse. Early May of 1931, witnessed vigilantes attacking the miners in rout of the march.
On May 5, 1931 armed deputies headed over to Evarts, KY, a town about six miles away from Harlan and found miners waiting for them. When the deputies arrived, a shot was fired which resulted in a riot. The person who actually fired the first shot is not known but a company clerk and a miner died that day.
In the summer of 1973 another long hard strike (which also led to bloodshed) began at the Eastover Coal Company's Brookside mines that did not end until 1974. It began when the owner of the mine, Duke Power Company refused to sign a UMWA Contract since workers at Eastover Coal Company's Brookside Mine and Prep Plant in Harlan County, Kentucky had recently voted to join the union. As expected, Eastover management refused to sign the contract and also just as expected the union went on strike. Duke Power brought in replacement non-union workers (called scabs by the striking miners). Also of little surprise, the replacement workers would not honor the picket lines stationed by the miners, so to no ones surprise violence followed. The local Judge Hogg, himself a coal operator ruled in favor of Eastover when the picket lines were alleged to be illegal by Eastover. And finally, it was no great surprise that the judge was often accused of being bought off by the company, as were several local leaders and law enforcement officials.
Aside from the bloody mine dispute history that Harlan County
Harlan County, Kentucky is the site of a rare criminal case in which a man, by the name of Condy Dabney, was convicted in 1926 of murdering 14 year old Mary Vickery who was found alive about a year later. That event did come as a surprise, even in the area that was to become “Bloody Harlan”.
Sources … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War_(film) http://homepage.mac.com/barbarap2/home/laborcrises/Harlan.htm http://home.earthlink.net/~audra-bill/harlan.htm http://www.squidoo.com/Harlan-County-Kentucky
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