Harlan County War
| Harlan County War | |||
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| Part of the Coal Wars | |||
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| Date | 1931–1932 | ||
| Location | Harlan County, Kentucky, United States | ||
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The Harlan County War was a series of coal mining-related skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other. The question at hand: the rights of Harlan County coal miners to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. Before its conclusion, two acclaimed folk singers would emerge, state and federal troops would occupy the county more than half a dozen times, an indeterminate number of miners, deputies, and bosses would be killed, union membership would oscillate wildly, and workers in the nation's most anti-labor coal county would ultimately be represented by a union.
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. On February 16, 1931, in order to prevent operating at a loss during this period, the Harlan County Coal Operators' Association cut miners' wages by 10%. Capitalizing on the general unrest created within Harlan's already-impoverished labor force, the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) attempted to organize the county's miners. Employees who were known by their bosses to be union members were initially fired and evicted from their company-owned homes. However, before long, most of the remaining workforce had struck out of sympathy. Only three of Harlan's incorporated towns were not owned by mines, and hungry and evicted workers and their families sought refuge in them, primarily in the town of Evarts. They found sympathy there with spurned politicians and business owners who wished to see the company stores vanish.
At the peak of the first strike, 5800 miners were idle and only 900 working. Those who worked were protected by private mine guards with full county deputy privileges, who were legally able to exercise their powers with impunity outside the walls of their employers. They operated under sheriff J.H. Blair, a man who made his allegiance to the business owners clear: "I did all in my power to aid the operators… there was no compromise when labor troubles swept the county and the 'Reds' came to Harlan County." The citizens of Harlan, for their part, lost any illusions they may have held about impartiality in law enforcement. Songwriter Florence Reece reported:
Strikers exchanged gunshots with private guards and local law enforcement, and strikebreakers were set upon and beaten. The most violent unprovoked attack by mine workers occurred on May 5, 1931, and became known as the Battle of Evarts. The miners lay in ambush for cars carrying company men, and shot at them. Three company men and one striker were killed in the exchange of gunfire.
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