By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
While growing up, Labor Day Weekend always meant two things to me. First, it was the time our family finished most of our tobacco harvest, consisting of cutting the mature plants and “housing” them in barns to start the curing process. Somehow, we also found time to take in the nearby Alexandria Fair and Horse Show, as my dad was an officer on the fair board.
I seldom thought about, and perhaps didn’t know what the purpose of “Labor Day” was. But, in general terms, it’s a time to pay tribute to America’s historical labor movement and a celebration of work in general.
Kids walking through mining camp in Evarts (Photo from SawyerFrye, CC By-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
Accounts of labor and labor union activities in Kentucky’s heritage have not always ended well, however. An example is the “Battle of Evarts,” happening in a town some eight miles from Harlan, in Harlan County. At least four died after a coal mining strike occurred with an ensuing skirmish between strikers and local law enforcement.
It was during the time of the Great Depression, which started in 1929 and lasted into the late 1930s. Times were hard, and the main way of making a living in Harlan County was in coal mining jobs. But when in February 1931 coal operators there made many employees wage cuts, the United Mine Workers (UMW) began an organizing effort in the area, much to the chagrin of the operators. Not far from there, in Pineville, a rally for union membership was held and over 2,000 attended.
Soon, miners at the Black Mountain Coal Corporation and other local companies were fired and evicted from company houses because of joining the union. Many affected people became desperate for food and shelter, and in Evarts, miners began looting company commissaries and independent groceries.
On May 5, 1931, ten deputies were riding in three cars while escorting a nonunion miner through Evarts to the Black Mountain mine. John Hevener, writing in the The Kentucky Encyclopedia, described what happened: “Two hundred yards beyond Evarts they were ambushed by perhaps three hundred concealed miners. Many shots were fired. One miner, Carl Richmond, and three deputies—Jim Daniels (the hated chief mine guard at Black Mountain) Otto Lee, and Howard Jones—were killed.”
William Forester, writing in his book, Harlan County: The Turbulent Thirties, noted that Harlan County Sheriff Blair and other “knowledgeable people” that “many more miners were slain or wounded in the battle than were reported as casualties.” And on May 7, Gov. Flem D. Sampson sent 370 National Guard troops to Harlan County and quartered them in Evarts. Gov. Sampson ordered the Guard to leave the county on July 5, two months after the Evarts skirmish.
According to Forester, the disturbances had ended during the period, asserting that “conditions and attitudes exhibited by both sides in the conflict appeared better, but on the inside, bitter scars and hatred still remained.” For sure, the UMW had been turned back in its effectiveness, but the violence at Evarts likely spurred the beginning of the oft-used term, “Bloody Harlan.”
John Hevener finished his article about the Battle of Evarts by stating: “Local coal operators, despite pro-union federal legislation, prevented labor organization in Harlan County until 1938.”
On this upcoming Labor Day, 2022, let’s reflect on both the good and bad actions of labor relations of the past in Kentucky, hoping that we might learn valuable lessons.
Regarding my earlier mention of our family being a mainstay at the Alexandria Fair on those fall holidays, I recall the year Dad procured me a job at the event — cleaning the restrooms. Though it would put a few extra bucks in my teenage pockets, I don’t remember it being a time of celebration of the spirit of the labor movement in my adolescent mind.
Here’s hoping you have a happy and restful Labor Day Weekend.
Sources: The Kentucky Encyclopedia; Harlan County—The Turbulent Thirties (book), by William D. Forester; The Harlan County Coal Wars 1931-1939 (video); The Truth About Bloody Harlan County (video); Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950 (book), by James C. Klotter; military-history.fandom.com/wiki; Bloody Harlan: The Coal Wars (video)
