I wont deny the coal-mining industrys dark side, the fact that Harlans poverty is extreme, nor that my relatives were among the countys staunchest union-haters. Robert Simpson, 58, mined for about a dozen years in the 1980s and 1990s before becoming a carpenter. Pollitt, D. H. (April 17, 1991). Yablonski had challenged W.A. This is yours. Kopple did provide facts and statistics about the companies and the workers. Do you think this would work? It must have been terrifying to get thrown into the river, and it must have been horrifying when my great-grandfather was murdered. 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. I thought about trying to find something else, but there aint much stuff around here to do, he says. Take the opening scene, when miners descend into a mine. Most of the men are rail-thin, gray cadavers, too polite to push their pamphlets across the divide. 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. Its hard to take Basil seriously until hes shooting. 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. Your papaw was a man of the truth and theres not a bit of truth in that film.. The county has lost five percent of its population in the last ten years, as though Aunt Molly Jacksons Kentucky Miners Hungry Ragged Blues and the Seldom Scenes Leaving Harlan are playing in the hollows on repeat. There had been a strike at the mine in the 1950s. Them might very likely have included my relatives. More than 75 witnesses have been called and about 800 photographs, reports . . The strike turned into a thirteen-month dispute pockmarked by gunfire. Its stood the test of time and makes the list of the International Bartender AssociationsIBA official cocktails, meaning it has an official definition. I sensed that everyone around the table knew that nobody would be going back down in those mines anytime soon. They didnt want to make a lot of enemies because you might have to marry into their families., The real story is people coming in here and stirring up controversy. Glad you enjoyed it! Theres people that still hate me. All this turmoil happened in Harlan County in the early seventies, and right now theres some people who are just beginning to speak to me, he said. Lois Scott, a leading woman in the mining community, is shown playing a major role in galvanizing the people in support of the strike. Top with. He described the film as "One of the better and more rousing labor strike films that calls attention to class war in America, though it doesn't offer enough analysis or balance on the issues (it sees the struggle solely through the miners' eyes)The film does a good job chronicling the plight of the miners and telling their personal stories in a moving way, and the meaningful catchy coal mining songs add to the emotional impact of the historical event. This account has been disabled. My Whitfield family and the scabs give Harlan County, USA its own special verse. But when a friend asked her if shed be willing to join the Brookside women on the picket line, Scott said shed be over the next day. Thank God for them; thank God they're on our side. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. It must have been written all over my face, because Johnson said, Theys a lot better ways to have done thatbut thats what they did. June 22, 2022; list of borana abba gada; alton funeral home; what happened to basil collins harlan county . As I walked toward Nolan and Elizabeth, who were already heading to the car, I set my back to these thoughts and the surrounding peaks. Harlan County, Kentucky: UMWA on a 13-month strike at Brookside mines and on the pick line at Highsplint mine. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. But when Eastover took over the mine from my family, the workers didnt get to choose which union represented themEastover opened with the company-friendly Southern Labor Union in place. We would also visit my mothers parents at their oceanfront condo in Jupiter Island, Florida, near where my coal-operating kin lived in one of Palm Beach Countys more subdued communities, Jupiter Inlet Colony, where Perry Como, Tammy Wynette, golf pro Toney Penna, and the Bissells (of vacuum cleaner fame) were their neighbors. Receive free weekly recipes & inspiration! Later, he considered his family fortunate because neither he nor his seven siblings died from the cold that engulfed the house. Collinss gun thugs fire at the miners homes. The first time I saw Harlan County, USA, in 2011, I was excited and a little afraid as I settled into my theater seat at the Museum of Modern Art. I couldnt see it yet myself. Though Henry taught me that forgiveness is possible. We have set your language to We said, Dont quit. Harlan County USA divides us into two groups: Those that love it and those that hate it. [4] The miners were concerned that accepting such a provision would limit their ability to influence local working conditions. You own it. That kind of shows you where works at, Nolan said. Miners wives are dragged off the line and thrown into jail. Just another site. As I drove to the airport to return home, I looked across the hills and mountains toward Kentucky and thought of something else Jerry Johnson told me. My family is never mentioned by name in Harlan County, USA, but it is alluded to in many passages about the countys history. Learn how your comment data is processed. Suggest an edit or add missing content. For example, when the strike breakers and others hired by the company show up early in the filmthe strikers call them "gun thugs"the company people tried to keep their guns hidden from the camera. Ill call him Henry. 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. Im home where I want to die at, in these mountains here, he says. Add to your scrapbook. 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. I made ten dollars per garden. Others, like Bobby Simpson, draw on religious faith and a ceaseless work ethic to keep going. Strain the contents of the shaker into the glass. Heres what youll need to make a Basil Collins: This basil cocktail is perfect for summer, when youve got a prolific basil plant. Strain the drink into an ice-filled highball glass. "Tony" Boyle for the presidency of the UMWA in 1969, but lost in an election widely viewed as corrupt. But Jack would not sign a union contract, Johnson explained. Pine Mountain stood tall to the north; to the south was Cumberland Gap, across which Daniel Boone led settlers. Harlan would have likely remained sparsely populated if some of the countrys richest seams of bituminous coalalso known as steam coal, which is medium grade and full of a tar-like substancehad not been discovered in its hills. In 1973, he moved into camp housing at Brookside. Learn more about managing a memorial . From an early age, Floyd developed a hobby of exploring caves. A calendar from that year still hung on the wall. There was an error deleting this problem. 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. Many end up leaving families behind to seek factory work in cities or mining jobs in southern Illinois or Alabama. The same holds true for the hurts that can run through a family. Rather than using narration to tell the story, Kopple chose to film the words and actions of the people themselves. I could survive in those hills. tina childress dillon. 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. Its due to the loose handling of facts that frame the strike at the beginning of the film. He agreed to take my call because he worked for and loved my grandfather. Its leprous shackery, most of it, bitter boxes that look to be badly made of pine, family-sized coffins rattling with black lung. I later learned that his scene was filmed in West Virginia, where he lived and worked. I asked him how he felt about the UMWA. The Pittston Strike of 1989. It just so happened that this particular side was our family. Thats what I call a ghost story. This history of hardship and strife seemed distant as I ascended the hill on a quiet day but for the early March breeze riffling through shrubs, and the rasp of silicosis that has blackened Burchel Nolans lungs. Please reset your password. antagonist, leader of the scabbing gun thugs, an old racist cretin named Basil Collins, who unfortunately survived the Bataan Death March in World War Two. There are not many takers. I watched it happen three days in a row. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Basil Collins (45621525)? It wasnt until a Rolls-Royce sat in one of their garages that I fully comprehended the truth: they were indeed quite rich. You couldnt starve me to death., The Brookside strike and the union changed Johnsons life for the betterbut so did Kopple and Lewis. what happened to basil collins harlan county. Verify and try again. That is, if the family patriarch should survive long enough to come up from underground and die slow and awful of coal miners disease. Blair talked him out of it. The FX series Justified is inspired by an Elmore Leonard character from Harlan and is partially set in the town. Subscribe to the free In These Times weekly newsletter: Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is a writer and investigative reporter who has been traveling to Cranks Creek, Ky., since 1989. People are trying to dig roots to survive.. ), 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. Each month, millions of tons of coal are excavated from the seams of the Appalachian Mountains. Rather, it seemed as though the commissary was sitting there waiting for everyone to tumble out of their Studebakers and walk through the door, fresh off the road from the fifties. But for each gain the union made, the owner-operators worked harder to drive them out. Now the trains arent even running anymore. Her voice wobbling like its about to fall down, her face shrunken like an old apple, her eyes behind her big goggle glasses like little explosions: Shes weak and tired, but shes as angry as she was forty years ago. Miraculously, only two people got shot. Basil Collins in Kentucky. Some wanted it, he said, noting that he might have, too, but he didnt like the way people went about trying to bring it in. I thought of the ribbons gathered by Johnsons grandmother, ribbons that were very likely tied around arrangements made by the hands of my own grandmother, who owned the flower shop in town. Its not just for pesto. The battery in Chesters pacemaker has three years left. They talk Southern and theyre red state, if you believe in that kind of color-coding, but I dont and I also dont think that the way you bend and drag your vowels defines the country you come from. But I also see now why the film is so upsetting to my family. Its only those who are at a distance the surface dwellers who get ID tags flashing across the screen to make them official. Add some jingling ice cubes, and its a drink fit for flip flops and summer evenings. She came to the door to greet me. Try again later. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the basil leaves. You can always change this later in your Account settings. Both of us got saved at about the same time. He and others who had been particularly outspoken on the picket line were arrested soon after the strike ended. I knew I would be wracked with grief, whether I stood with these kin or against them. Meanwhile, coal continues to fade from the energy landscape. Basil Collins; Did you know. Its mountain. A few months before I left for Harlan, news broke that the United Kingdoms last deep coal mine had closed, a momentous event signaling the end of a centuries-old industry (think of all those Dickens characters). It cost him his lungs and his life, says Stephens. Lewis described Workman as being expressive of the region as a whole and explained that this kind of generalizing is not unusual in documentary. Becoming a Find a Grave member is fast, easy and FREE. Search above to list available cemeteries. Authors of recipes you'll want to make again and again. In childhood, my eldest brother collected rattles from snakes. At one point, we ran into Donna G. Hoskins, the Harlan County Clerk, who reminisced about a time when the town was so populous that people had to step off the sidewalk to allow others to pass. She reveals that the head scab, Basil Collins, wanted to hire someone to shoot her; however, the most dangerous incidents were the acts of violence by the mine owners against the miners. Display a Gravatar image next to my comments. Lifelong Harlan County resident Priscilla Stephens, 66, recalls the death of her father, Charlie Simpson, from black lung disease in 1966. 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. William Floyd Collins, July 20, 1887 - c. February 13, 1925 Floyd Collin's Crystal Cave. Today, Kentucky coal industry employment is at an astounding low, on par with the figures from 1898 (before the railroad came in). We was done dirty and done wrong.. No one was hurt. Later, after he was convicted of giving $20,000 to another union executive council member to hire the killers of Yablonski and his wife, Boyle appears frail, sickly and using a wheelchair; he was carried up the courthouse steps to face sentencing. 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.. Smiths win has given the community a much needed boost. When my parents divorced, I had to pick sides, and I chose my mothers, as most children do. Nolan, age seventy-one, is a retired miner. Thats the way it was gonna go down.. Wheres the union? About everything is moving, she says. To startwith, lets get at least one thing straight: Harlan County, Kentucky, the location of Barbara Kopples 1976 documentaryHarlan County, U.S.A., isnt really the South, is it? The hurts that people put on each other during a strike dont heal too easy, said Brookside UMWA miner Junior Deaton. They also liked to gamble. Greene quoted a New York Times story published in 1938: A Harlan County camp is no weekend resort for sissies.. When the labor union known as the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) left town at the end of 1931 citing lack of funds, the National Miners Unionbacked by the American Communist Partyarrived. Include gps location with grave photos where possible. Here are our top ways to make basil cocktails: This basil cocktail is great for summer: or anytime you have a bushy herb plant that needs a use! 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. I loved to cut that coal. Your new password must contain one or more uppercase and lowercase letters, and one or more numbers or special characters. Chester had done so well that the company owner tried to entice him to stay with a raise of $1 per hour, from $6.75 to $7.75. This isnt a Southern story, its a bunch of cussing, shooting, old, creaky singing-shadows in Platos cave. Add the cucumber slices and muddle again. We didnt have no rights. Fearing also for the safety of their film, Kopple and her crew began to smuggle their footage out of the county. June 10, 2022 This memorial has been copied to your clipboard. He treats them all as though they are family, but he also rents rooms by the hour. His wife, Annie, died about a decade ago. You have to forgive, but a lot of people dont forgive. Several times she is seen publicly chastising those she feels have been absent from the picket lines. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. Managed by: Carlton William Greve . Try again later. After the strike, Lewis married Jerry Johnson, one of the striking coal miners depicted in the film. Miners went down there and got him and drug him out of his office and put a tin bucket around his neck like a drum. An early scene depicts workers descending into a mine, followed by the title and shots of the Brookside camp and office front porch. And how people here see themselvesas hardworking folk, whether rich or poor, who have a singular culture and history but who are weary of being told theyre not like the rest of us, even while they are exceedingly proud of what makes them so unique. Things are good for the moment, says Judy, 52, who recently moved from part- to full-time status at Walmart. Henry told me that, had I just been some ordinary reporter calling from New York, he would have already hung up the phone. Mud sucked on my boots. 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). Their pamphlets across the divide a Rolls-Royce sat in one of the men are rail-thin gray. Story published in 1938: a Harlan County, USA its own special verse their footage out of UMWA. Fully comprehended the truth and theres not a bit of truth in that film story, Kopple chose to the... 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