Make no mistake about it.
The UMWA transformed the lives of millions of people.
People who had been powerless and treated like dirt -
Fought for the right to organize -
And then gradually gained a higher income, safer working conditions -
But most importantly, dignity and respect.
Local UMWA union meeting is held on Sunday morning in schoolhouse.
Inland Steel Company, Wheelwright #1 & 2 Mines, Wheelwright, Floyd County, Kentucky., 09/22/1946
Part I is here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
1946 - Harlan County, Kentucky
National Archives
Photos of the Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry, 1946 – 1947
Lee Russell, 1903-1986, Photographer
Tipple of Mine #31.
Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/06/1946
Motorman.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/13/1946
Eli Sanders, tipple worker, loads coal on car which has fallen off cars enroute to tipple.
He is Pastor of Holiness (Pentecostal Church of God) Church.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
G.W. Hall, district field worker UMWA gives oath to miners joining union.
Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/06/1946
Typical housing and street. P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine,
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Street in company housing project.
U.S. Coal & Coke Company, U.S. #30 & 31 Mines, Lynch, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/19/1946
Going to Sunday school at the Pentecostal Church of God.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
The Baptist Church where many coal miners attend church;
it was built by the miners and is not on company property.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Lucy Sergent, in flowered dress, attends Sunday school at the Pentecostal Church of God.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Sunday school at the Baptist church which is not on company property and was built by the miners. Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Miners and their families gather around the community store and office.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/12/1946
Nearest town to the P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Kentucky.
Evarts, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/1946
Handling serpents at the Pentecostal Church of God.
Company funds have not been used in this church and it is not on company property.
Most of the members are coal miners and their families.
Healing "laying on of hands" ceremony in the Pentecostal Church of God.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Jack Anderson, miner, who suffered fractured spine in slate fall 28 months ago.
Black Mountain Corporation, 30-31 Mines, Kenvir, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/06/1946
Donald Sergent visits Dr. Brooks' office with a bruised foot.
The medical fee at this company is $2.50 per month for a married man.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Blaine Sergent, left, comes out of the mine at the end of the day's work.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/13/1946
Blaine Sergent, coal loader.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Mrs. Rhoda Sergent in her living room. She is an immaculate housekeeper;
she is forty-six years old and has given birth to fourteen children,
six of whom are now living at home and two married sons live nearby, both working in the coal mines.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
The Blaine Sergent family, reading from left to right, front row: Wanda Lee, Lucy, Bobbie Jean,
Mr. Sergent, Donald, Mrs. Sergent; back row: left to right, Louis, Franklin D.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Mrs. Sergent washing.
She is a tireless and meticulous housekeeper and her children are always in clean, starched and ironed clothing. Conversations with other people in the camp determined that this was a normal condition and was not done for the photographic purposes.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Mrs. Blaine (Rhoda) Sergent, pressing her husband's trousers; this was on Friday afternoon
and it is customary for the miners to dress up on Saturday when there is no work.
The Sergents pay $2.30 monthy for electricity and have four drops, electric iron and radio.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/13/1946
Blaine Sergent, with pulled-up leg, talks with his miner friends
on the front porch of the company store on a Saturday pay-day morning.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/12/1946
A miner's wife, a friend of the Sergent family, feeds a fat hog
which will supply the family with lard and meat this winter.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Mr. and Mrs. Blaine Sergent shopping for groceries in Harlan on Saturday afternoon.
They buy most of their supplies in the company store and this year raised most of their own vegetables.
Harlan, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/14/1946
Bobbie Jean Sergent, 4, goes with Lucy, 26, who is blind, to get water.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/13/1946
Bobbie Jean Sergent playing in her front yard.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Louis Sergent, 16, who is in the freshmen class at the Evarts High School.
He and his sister Lucy are the first members of the entire family to complete grammar school.
He and his father are determined that he will get his high school diploma and not work in the mines.
Evarts, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Rufus Sergent, married son, who is now coal cutter and general all around miner.
Rufus did not like school and quit before finishing grade school.
He went to work in the mines ten years ago when he was thirteen years old.
P V & K Coal Company, Clover Gap Mine, Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
Coal miner's child in grade school.
Lejunior, Harlan County, Kentucky., 09/15/1946
1946 - The West
National Archives
Photos of the Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry, 1946 – 1947
Lee Russell, 1903-1986, Photographer
Tipple of the mine and surrounding country.
Independent Coal & Coke Company, Kenilworth Mine, Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah., 07/06/1946
Showers in wash and change house for miners.
Columbia Steel Company, Columbia Mine, Columbia, Carbon County, Utah., 07/05/1946
Part of company housing project.
Independent Coal & Coke Company, Kenilworth Mine, Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah., 07/06/1946
Baby of Boyd Lindsay, miner, in kitchen of his home in company housing project.
Utah Fuel Company, Sunnyside Mine, Sunnyside, Carbon County, Utah., 07/05/1946
Living room in home of Juanita Jimenez, wife, of miner, who lives in company project.
Utah Fuel Company, Sunnyside Mine, Sunnyside, Carbon County, Utah., 07/05/1946
Nick Varanakis, miner, playing the Greek lyre in his home.
Independent Coal & Coke Company, Kenilworth Mine, Kenilworth, Carbon County, Utah., 07/06/1946
Daughter of Japanese miner who lives in company housing project.
Hudson Coal Company, Hudson Mine, Sweet Mine, Carbon County, Utah., 07/04/1946
Part of company housing project. Note garden surrounded by fence in foreground.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Stansbury Mine, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/10/1946
Box car homes for miners. This is part of company housing project.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Reliance Mine, Reliance, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/09/1946
This girl, by means of push buttons, controls loading of coal into cars.
Cars are moved, conveyors, and chutes are operated by these buttons.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Stansbury Mine, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/10/1946
Women pick foreign matter out of coal as it is carried on conveyor thru tipple.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Stansbury Mine, Rock Springs, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/10/1946
J. M. Hawkins (left) former pharmacists mate in the U.S. Navy and Wm. Smith, former Marine,
read notice on the bulletin board at the mine.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Reliance Mine, Reliance, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/09/1946
Miners waiting to go underground on afternoon shift.
Union Pacific Coal Company, Reliance Mine, Reliance, Sweetwater County, Wyoming., 07/09/1946
1970s - Back to Appalachia
National Archives
Records of the Environmental Protection Agency, 1944 - 2006
Photographer: Corn, Jack, 1929-
Row of Miners’ homes in the Brookside Mine company town near Middlesboro, Kentucky.
The home of the Jerry Rainey family is in the foreground. They were threatened with eviction during the strike. The mine, owned by the Duke Power Company, was the scene of a protracted and sometimes violent strike between the mine and the United Mine Workers Union during 1774. The strike ended when a man was shot and killed on the picket line in Harlan County. 06/74
Two young people on their way to a high school function in Brookside, Kentucky, near Middlesboro. They are walking single file on the highway because there are no sidewalks. Strike signs adorn the tree proclaiming the union side of the strike against Brookside Mine Company. Some picketers are partially visible at the extreme left edge of the picture. 06/74
Nannie Rainey, 34, wife of miner Jerry Rainey, who lives in housing owned by the Brookside Mine Company near Middlesboro, Kentucky. The company is owned by Duke Power Company. She was arrested during the strike of 1974 during an altercation on the picket line in which she was accused of shipping a Kentucky state highway patrolman with a switch, a charge she does not deny. She and her children went to jail until bailed out by union officials. 06/1974
A Miner at the Black Lung Laboratory in the Appalachian Regional Hospital in Beckley, West Virginia, Is Having His Lung Capacity Tested to Determine Whether He Has the Disease. Blood Samples Also Are Taken and His Heartbeat Is Monitored While Walking on a Treadmill. These and Other Known Testing Methods Are Used to Determine If Miners Have Coal Dust Particles in Their Lungs Which Cause a Progressive Shortness of Breath 06/1974
Mr. and Mrs. Berry Howard of Cumberland, Kentucky, and the New Truck He Just Bought with Some of His Black Lung Payments. He Retired From the Mines Several Years Ago. The Disease Results From Coal Dust Particles Filling Air Sacs in the Lungs and Causes a Progressive Shortness Off Breath 10/1974
Members of the Beth Elkhorn Coal Company Begin Donning Their Equipment to Prepare for the Kentucky State Mine Safety Contest at Benham, near Cumberland. Each Team Has Different Colored Coveralls That Differentiate Them During the Competition Which Is Fierce, But Good-Natured. The Aim Is to Save Life in the Event of a Mine Accident. These Men Will Go to Any Mine Disaster in Their Vicinity, No Matter Who Is Involved 10/1974
Abe Lester, a Retired Coal Miner, Lives on a United Mine Workers Pension, in Rhodell, West Virginia, near Beckley. There Is Very Little Industry Other Than Coal Mining in This and Similar Towns. Unless the Youths Want to Go Into Coal Related Jobs, They Are Faced with Searching for Employment in the Cities Some Distance Away 06/1974
The Main Street through the Small Mining Town of Rhodell West Virginia, near Beckley. Coal Is the Only Industry Here and in Other Similar Towns. Unless the Youths Want to Go Into Coal Related Jobs, They Are Faced with Searching for Employment in the Cities Some Distance Away. This Can Be a Heart Wrenching Prospect to All Member of the Closeknit Families. 06/1974
Seated in the beer joint he operates in a wheel-chair bought for him by a friend, Arnold, Miller, President of the United Mine Workers Union. He was disabled at the age of 21 after a year in the mines and had to wait 18 years to collect workman’s compensation. He stays current on union affairs and will man a picket line during the strike for black lung benefits. His wife wheeled him in front of a train to stop it. 05/74
Donna Smith, Rhodell, West Virginia, near Beckley, Leads Her Pony to Its Quarters in a Barn by the Railroad Tracks. She Also Lets It Graze Along the Tracks. Her Father Jack, Is a Disabled Miner Whose Legs Were Crushed When a Roof Caved In. He Now Operates a Beer Joint From His Wheelchair and Stays Up on Union Activities. He Has Manned Picket Lines in the Wheelchair 06/1974
Miners Just Leaving the Elevator Shaft of Virginia-Pocahontas Coal Company Mine #4 near Richlands, Virginia at 4 P.M. There Are Three Mine Shifts. The First Two Are Employed in Digging and Removing the Coal. The Midnight to Morning Or "Hoot-Owl" Shift Works on Cleanup Operations. These Miners Are Headed for the Company Shower Room to Clean Up before Going Home. The Younger Miners Run to the Showers and Knock Down Anyone in the Way; the Older Miners Walk 04/1974
Coal City Club in Coal City, West Virginia, a Part of Beckley All of the Men Are Coal Miners. Note That Some of Them Are "Hunkering Down" Rather Than Sitting. This Is a Familiar Stance to All Miners Who Use This Posture in the Mine Shafts Which Have Low Ceilings 06/1974
Miner Homes in a Company Town near Cabin Creek and Charleston, West Virginia. The One Story Structures Have Four Rooms Compared to Those Housing the Mine Superintendents Which Were Two Story with Four Rooms on Each Floor. The Superintendent Homes Were Apart From the Miners, Usually on the Hill Above. It Was a Symbol of the Caste System Which Prevailed in Earlier Mining Days 06/1974
Sunrise over Black Mountain which separates Virginia and Kentucky, near Kingsport, Tennessee.
Harlan County, Kentucky, this area holds some of the richest coal reserves in the eastern part of the United States. The view is towards Virginia. 10/74