what happened to basil collins kentucky
Johnson, father of three young children at the time, risked everything to bring the union to Brookside. She talks about the women being armed with sticks, mace, and guns. But the strike didnt improve things for the Highsplint miners who joined Brookside on the line. Theres no telling how many guns were out there. People on the picket lines were not allowed to have them, but guns abounded on both sides. Get more of what the mainstream media leaves out. They gather every day, though the scabs mostly leave right around the time the retired union men arrive. Its a shorthand. marking the edge of Harlan County and the Virginia border to the east. The mud was there because a couple of days before, Elizabeth had taken me on a tour of the Clover Fork mine, where her family now operates its firewood-packing business. He traveled as far as the Canadian border and worked as many as 12 days in a row. When images of the Brookside camp are cut with ones from a welfare camp that is in far worse shape, their distrust of the film is solidified. They went around and showed the most dilapidated houses you could find. It must have been terrifying to get thrown into the river, and it must have been horrifying when my great-grandfather was murdered. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. Once they killed Lawrence Jones they knew we was gonna kill all of them. Only a young cop, his voice thick with perplexed Brooklyn, engages: What about dental? I was climbing the mountain of my relatives former coal mine in Harlan County, Kentucky, walking the land where my grandfather worked for nearly forty years. I asked him how he felt about the UMWA. Nolan turned the SUV around at the slagheap and we descended over road ruts to the mine gates. In choosing my handsome preacher father for a husband, a man whose harsh Depression-era Georgia tenant farm upbringing was closer to that of a coal miners than to that of my mothers company familys, she had married down in her relatives eyes. It crackled with the sound of logs being cut in the splitter. Its only those who are at a distance the surface dwellers who get ID tags flashing across the screen to make them official. 0 cemeteries found in Claiborne County, Tennessee, USA. Brooksides rate of disabling injuries was nearly three times the national rate in 1971. Im gonna change things. And they did. Jones was well liked, young, and had a 16-year-old wife, and a baby. We have set your language to Some of the politicians say theyll bring the coal back, but the coal will never be back., Bobby Simpson, 79, has been blind for more than a half-century, but still managed to shovel coal. Rumors flew that a "hippie crew from New York" was sniffing around the strike. Every so often, in a sweet and wistful state of mind, he would show them to me. For Harlanites on the company side, this undermines the documentarys integrity and leads them to question its larger takeaway. I worked on other people's films doing sound and editing, but . I got trout laying down in there if I want to eat one of em. 12. After it was all over with they wouldnt speak to you or nothing, neither. All weve got down here is grocery stores and restaurants.. I was wary that I was violating the same family code that had prompted my maternal great-aunt to write me off for attending Reed College, a Communist, leftist, anti-American institution. My family never forbade me to do much of anything, but I knew they felt that the film was one-sided, a setup, or propaganda. Most of all, they were beside themselves over the fact that they had grown up at Brookside and knew next to no one in the film. I thought again of Johnsons story about my grandfathers cousin Jack. A common refrain was that it was misleading. If you notice a problem with the translation, please send a message to [emailprotected] and include a link to the page and details about the problem. . Billy, seventy-two, with stage 4 black lung that requires him to be on oxygen, looked up from his chair by way of a greeting. This basil cocktail is simple to make: the hardest part is muddling the fresh ingredients! Just another site. We was treated like dirt. As I traveled a ribbon of road across northeastern Tennessee, fields and rolling hills spread before me, dotted with barns adorned with quilts. No unionized mines remain in the state. Shed sell em for about twenty-five dollars apiece. This year also marks the fortieth anniversary of the release of Harlan County, USA. Like Henry, these men were now in their sixties and seventies, and retired from the mines but still working in a variety of capacities, from doing occasional contracting jobs to volunteering in the community. I had Kitts Creek mud on my boots, a red dirt in contrast to the black-brown mud of Brookside. Oops, we were unable to send the email. CHRIST'S HANDS was written in large black letters across a modern brick building. I made ten dollars per garden. Hearing those words made me feel like Henry had bitten the rattle off the snake and handed it back as some sort of peace offering. Learn more about contributing; Edit page. When they arrived, the first thing my grandfathers cousin Jack asked was, Are you all union? When they answered yes, he said, Then git the hell offa my property!) I stand with the filmmakers on their message about Duke Powers corporate greed. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the basil leaves. Most Harlanites didnt take too kindly to NMU presence; only a few hundred Harlan miners went on strike with the NMU, as opposed to 6,800 who went out the year before with the UMWA. Robert Simpson, 58, mined for about a dozen years in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming a carpenter. what happened to basil collins harlan county. How deep this thing runs you have no idea., He continued, One of those guyshe was on that side and I was on this sidegot saved. Ferguson and his fellow Highsplint strikers couldnt receive strike pay, but the UMWA gave them a box of food every week. The strike began in July 1973 and lasted 13 months. In fact, he was born out of wedlock in Harlan in 1946, raised by his grandmother until he was about seven or eight years old. About everything is moving, she says. Bobby has continued the work since Beckys death, but the number of volunteers (like those photographed here with Bobby) has dwindled. Basil Collins; Did you know. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune declared that there have been few better movies about labor struggles before or since.. And thats still too vague. At her apartment, I found photos on display of all her grandchildren and great-grandchildrenall except for me. Oops, something didn't work. Robert and his wife, Judy, live on a plot of land off Route 568 in the tiny town of Cranks. GREAT NEWS! Today, Kentucky coal industry employment is at an astounding low, on par with the figures from 1898 (before the railroad came in). I dont know if there really is a name for the kind of country that the Harlan of Kopples movie is. Its time for us to get just as violent as they are, she says to the Brookside Womens Club, the group of miners wives she began to lead. Youll either be a union man or a thug for J. H. Blair. But what if a person is both of these things at once, or interchangeably? Rowlett moved back after securing a coveted position at the railroad company less than an hour away. The FX series Justified is inspired by an Elmore Leonard character from Harlan and is partially set in the town. Search above to list available cemeteries. I had security. Managed by: Carlton William Greve . The filmmaker obliged. Workmans scene falls immediately after a close-up of the Eastover office front porch, a filmic gesture implying that we are zeroing in on a specific strike in a specific place. When you get up in the morning and you got to take a hammer to make a hole in the water bucket to get you a drink of water, now that aint no good old days, he says. My need to walk this land felt like a hand at my back, pushing me ahead of Nolan and Elizabeth and past the two deer that stood to the side of the rutted road. I grew up far from the world of Harlan, Kentucky, and far from the wealth of my coal-operating Whitfield kin. It rippled cross the country I remember running into a camouflaged crew in Southern Illinois thatd just set a fox they said was rabid on its way down into a mine full of scabsbut I never was able to figure out who won. Oral History Interview with Daniel H. Pollitt, April 17, 1991. Have it in a pitcher, along with cucumber slices and basil leaves for them to help themselves? But these rugged peaks were either washed out on my screen or out of view altogether. The main skill youll need for any cocktail that uses fresh herbs is called muddling. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, and elsewhere. Because the strike continues to inspire so much tension in Harlan, he asked that I not use his real name. In the 1970s, a strip-mining company asserted its ownership over the mineral rights for property he owned and forced him to sell the land. She came to the door to greet me. She notes that Duke Power Company's profits increased 170 percent in a single year. Pine Mountain stood tall to the north; to the south was Cumberland Gap, across which Daniel Boone led settlers. Add the cucumber slices and muddle again. I still see people and they turn their head and walk away from me. We was done dirty and done wrong.. Ferguson is a pro-UMWA miner who appeared in Harlan County, USA. What happens in the movie is this: The men of the Brookside Mine in Harlan go on strike because the Duke Power Company refuses to recognize their right to join the United Mine Workers of America. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. There are lots of ways to use this peppery fresh herb in cocktails! Then he still didnt join the union. In its 1889 coverage of a notoriously cold-blooded feud concerning the Turner and Howard families (both of whom happen to be my ancestors), the New York Times wrote: The country is wild, and the whistle of a locomotive has never been heard by many of the inhabitants. At the time, the county had a population of about six thousand. (Greene told me that 1920s-era Harlan had the highest murder rate in the country, beating out Al Capones Chicago.) Usery Jr. summoned Eastover president Norman Yarborough and Duke Powers board chairman to Washington, D.C., where they signed the UMWA contract at last. But a different storyline and song emerged. This account has been disabled. But this is not made explicit, and it grates some locals. ), Thank God they signed that contract or Id probably still be in prison, Johnson said, speaking again of the strike documented in Harlan County, USA. Trivia. When I first saw Harlan County, USA, I was deeply moved by Workman, whom I had assumed was talking about my family. No unionized mines remain in the. Before Justified, many people got their image of Harlan from the award-winning documentary Harlan County USA which followed the Eastover coal mine strike at Brookside, Kentucky. Back then, Nolan, the security guard, worked for Eastovers Highsplint mine, located nine miles away from Brookside. Try again later. COPYRIGHT 2016 IN THESE TIMES AND THE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS. More than 75 witnesses have been called and about 800 photographs, reports . Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Basil Collins (45621525)? I had to get on to college. I thought about trying to find something else, but there aint much stuff around here to do, he says. I met Dr. James Greene III, the local historian, in front of one of the miners memorials: two tall granite columns engraved with an astounding 1,300 names flanking a center stone of polished black granite. The meat and dairy cases stood waiting for someone to fill them up and turn the power back on. It was enough to feed the Fergusons and their four kids, ages two to thirteen, until a van concealing a machine gun pulled up to his brother Tommys house and opened fire, shooting sixteen holes into the slide of a swing-set Tommy and his wife had just purchased for their children; nine holes into the house; and one into the babys swing. ). A system error has occurred. Yablonski had challenged W.A. Mine workers in Harlan won living wages and benefits following a series of strikes and violent clashes with scabs and mine owners in the 1930s that earned the county the nickname Bloody Harlan.. There was an error deleting this problem. Which side are you on? 1939 - 1945 World War II - Ages: 29 - 24 years. Failed to report flower. I call it The Ballad of Harlan County. If it had a chorus, it would be about how Harlan and Appalachians are represented to the rest of the worldas uneducated, shiftless, and toothless. She talks about a standoff against Basil Collins and the scabs and gun thugs. [4] The miners were concerned that accepting such a provision would limit their ability to influence local working conditions. This story was supported by the journalism nonprofit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Ive always wondered if his killing was somehow connected to labor strife. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. The many welcoming touches to the Fergusons dcordishes of hard candies, angel figurines, framed prayers written in flowing script adorning the wallsreminded me of some of my fathers familys and neighbors homes in rural Georgia. My visit fell during the week of Super Tuesday, and the men chorused over cups of coffee about the Detroit GOP presidential debate (Ive been at rooster fights that werent as entertaining as last night) and the communitys demise. Hailing from Alabama, my great-great-uncles Augustus F. and Bryan W. Whitfield were among those drawn to Harlan seeking opportunity. That chill didnt leave me after I said goodbye to Johnson. Eastern Kentucky has been especially hard-hit: The number of miners employed in Harlan County fell from more than 3,000 in 1988 to fewer than 1,000 in 2014. The nation closely watched this conflict, which drew the attention of writers Theodore Dreiser and John Dos Passos, who eventually came to town as part of the Communist-backed National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners (followed by other left-leaning literati such as Edmund Wilson and Waldo Frank). At the beginning of my trip, I assumed most of my conversations would fixate on the paston the strikes of the 1930s and the 1970s, and the local repercussions of Kopples film. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. I attempted to capture a panorama with my phone as the light broke through the clouds, Jesus-ray style. I am proud of my Harlan heritage, in spite of the history I have struggled to accept, and I am proud of Harlan County, USA. Youll want to extract some of the cucumber juice, so you can give it a little more elbow grease. For me, said Lewis, right at the beginning of the film youre kind of dealing with the broader picture and then narrowing in. The intended broader picture is the greater American coal industry, the USA in Harlan County, USA. These tunes were made from the last breaths of miners crushed by a mine roof collapse and the deathly rattle of black lung. Some, like Danny Stewart, an unemployed fifth-generation miner, are placing their hopes in a Donald Trump presidency to revive the moribund coal industry. It did feel as though the town had gone from Technicolor to black and white since the last time I visited, in 2004. Most residents havent been so lucky. Top with. I felt a crushing sorrow as I talked to Ferguson, who more than once came to tears. During my week in Harlan, I pieced together that this locals-versus-outsiders disconnect is more than a knee-jerk reaction. Because of how the film is edited, one believes that she is referring to the prior owners of Brooksidewhich means she is talking about my family. What you see is the reason why I moved here, said Johnson, who recently left Liberty, Kentucky, where he still owns property. But that doesnt quite get at it, either. When I asked him what inspired him to join the cause, he said, I was fighting for myself and everybody else. This is definitely on the list! We said, Dont quit. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. Meanwhile, coal continues to fade from the energy landscape. The pay was good, and he was able to find work easily in one mine or another. Alex Murdaugh's family long dominated the legal scene in his small South Carolina county but for the past six weeks, Murdaugh has been on the other side of the courtroom, standing trial on murder charges in the shootings of his wife and son. Garnish with a lemon round or of an orange round, plus a cocktail cherry. Thinking about this made my blood start to tell me what my conscienceunderstanding all that I had come this far to learnwanted me to deny: that in the face of violence, I would have stood with my mothers family, even if this meant betraying the very principles that had so long pitted me against them. Coal mining was Americas most dangerous occupation by the 1970s. I had heard that the coal miners memorials in downtown Harlan listed twice as many names as all of the towns war memorial statues combined, and I wanted to see for myself. Greenewho I learned is related to me through my grandmothers familyserved as tour guide as we walked down empty sidewalks. She lived across the railroad track from the mine and camp where her father worked for his uncle Bryan W. Whitfield, owner of the mine. We went home to a leafy suburb that frowned upon my father parking his truck in front of our house (he rebelled and built a special strip alongside the driveway for his pickup). Lewis joined him and took a job in a sewing factory until they moved back to Kentucky to make films together, including, Thank God they signed that contract or Id probably still be in prison, Johnson said, speaking again of the strike documented in. I was a bit concerned that my request to get out of his SUV would get him in trouble with his bosses at Manalapan and Nally & Hamilton, the companies that currently own Brookside and its equipment, though the tipple, the last part of the mine to operate, shut down three years ago. For memorials with more than one photo, additional photos will appear here or on the photos tab. Then they leave and were left with all this animosity., The news media wants to push us down and thats why I hate the news media; they write very few good things about Harlan County., Id give anything to go back down there in those mines.. Chester found work in a gear factory, but home beckoned a dozen years later when one of his children died just three days after being born. Jordan Smith, who grew up singing in Harlan County churches, gave the country a taste of Harlans wholesome side during the 2015 season of The Voice. For years, I fought bitterly with my father, who was often harsh to the point of being cruel, but now he has mellowed with age. (On the ground in Harlan, people largely referred to the company by its local affiliate, Eastover.) Check out the rest of Oxford Americans Southern film issue, or, better yet, go down to the newsstand and buy a copy with a DVD of rare and amazing clips.). When confronted a striker who told people not to talk to her, she was told: "Girl, you gotta tell people here what you're doin'."[3]. (In April 2016, Massey CEO Don Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison for conspiring to violate federal safety standards for the April 2010 explosion that killed twenty-nine miners at the Upper Big Branch mine. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 49th Academy Awards. He grew up at Brookside and worked for Eastover during the strike. 12. Kopple did provide facts and statistics about the companies and the workers. Please report any issues toinfo.crmnyu@gmail.com. Simpson spent 37 years in the mines to support his wife and 14 children. Kopple felt it was important to continue filming (or pretend to, even when they were out of film) because the presence of the crew and staff support seemed to help keep the violence down. Lois Scott, a leading woman in the mining community, is shown playing a major role in galvanizing the people in support of the strike. Youll either be a union man Many who survived were still killed by coal, albeit more slowly. This post is archived, some links or media may be broken. Next came a scene of a wizened old man singing and talking about how his bosspresumably the prior owners of the Brookside minesaid his mule was worth more than him. He officially went to work in the coal mines when he was thirteen years old because his stepfather couldnt dig enough coal to feed the family.. She talks about incidents of violence during the standoff. Harlan remained a rough frontier well into the early twentieth century. Environmental groups say other factors, such as the abundance of cheap natural gas, are behind coals slump. But this practice was primarily limited to anthracite coal mines in PennsylvaniaHarlans mines contain a softer grade of coal.