DOCUMENT RESUME ED 313 198 RC 017 335 AUTHOR Arnow, Pat, Ed. TITLE Working in Appalachia. INSTITUTION East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City. Center for Appalachian Studies and Services. PUB DATE 88 NOTE 41p. AVAILABLE FROM Now and Then, CASS, Box 19180A, East Tennessee State University, Johnson. City, TN 37614-0002 ($2.50). PUB TYPE Collected Works - Serials (022) -- Creative Works (Literature,Drama,Fine Arts) (030) JOURNAL CIT Now and Then; v5 nl Spr 1988 EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Coal; Employment; Essays; Geographic Regions; Interviews; *Mining; Occupations; Personal Narratives; Poetry; *Work Experience IDENTIFIERS *Appalachia; Appalachian People ABSTRACT This journal issue focuses on a variety of Appalachian occupations, particularly but not exclusively, coal mining. The lead article is an interview with John Sayles about his movie, "Matewan." Sayles sees the Matewan massacre as a great movie theme, "like a classic American Western...but with a difference--the violence was collective, and it was political." The afterword to Matewan, the Battle of ,.air Mountain, is the subject of Denise Giardina's novel, "Storming Heaven." In an interview Giardina says, "I see coal as a curse." She envisions Appalachia without coal as Vermont or New Hampshire, clean and prosperous. The magazine also includes profiles of coal miners, a farmer, a rug hooker, and a shoeshine man; poetry about mining and Appalachia; and photos of past and contemporary Appalachian workers. An interview with a traditional farmer explores the place of the worker who resisted modernization because "hillside farming and all didn't suit a tractor." Films about novelist Harriet Simpson Arnow and the Banner Mine disaster, books about making "Ma,.ewan" and southern cotton mills, and television shows about the Mud Creek Clinic and the Frontier Nursing Service are reviewed. (DHP) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 5.1fauther 1 newoudt THIS "PERMISSION TO MATERIAL HAS SEEN GRANTED BY U.S. OFPARTNEVIT Of EDUCATION. Office of Educator's' Rtsearch and Improvement Pa+ Av-1,0,0 EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) /Ths 'TMs document has been reproduced as from the person or omatfizahon ongmahng It 0 Mmor changes have been made to miorove reproduction oualdy TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Pants of mew or opirtons stated in thd docu- INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." ment do not nectssanly represent official 0E141 posMon or policy BES1 COPY HVAILHIA.1 "Now, I didn't make no baskets back when I was able to work. Maybe one now and then to use. Just now and then. I didn't have basket. time to look at a Needed one, made it. Or somebody, one of the neighbors wanted one, I'd maybe make one." Jesse Joshes, SO, has spent most of his life working his Scott County, Va., farm. During the last 15 years, he's cut back on his farming and begun devoting more time to the only slightly less physically denstiding process of producing fine Appalachian white oak baskets. Jones fells the white oaks he needs, prepares the splits and does all the final weaving. His work has been Baskets and Basket Makers in Southern Appalachia. featured in John Rice Irwin's Contents. Now and Then Editorial Board 2-3 COLUMNS Closed Eyes 17 Ron Johnson With this issue we welcome five new members FEATURES' Robert J. Reerement Living 17 to our editorial board. They join (Jack) Higgs. Marat Moore Rita and Sheryl Nelms Where .the Rubber Meets Quillen, our charter members. The editorial the Road board provides us with a generous supply of Our Minister's Other good ideas, writing and encouragement. Our John Sayler 5 Heaven ..... 23 . new advisors are: Itifarat Moore - Bert Allen, Randy Oakes associate professor of psychology at Milligan College, Milligan, Tenn., Fighting 'Sack 29 Diamond Jenny *5 . . . was the guest editor of our "Appalachian . Denise Giardina Veterans" issue. A Vietnam veteran himself, he Jone HickS has worked with other Vietnam veterans and Tim Boudreau with exprisoners of war. This year he is working 36 The Runner at the Veterans Administration Medical Center Lives in Coal 11 Georgeann Eskieuich Rehberg at Mountain Home, Tenn., in a project for 37 homeless veterans. 3( Onions Ed Cabbell Mary Alice Basconi directs the John Henry Memorial Foundation in Princeton, W. Va. Through the Kelly Cogswell Another Side ..... 14 foundation, he publishes Block Diamonds Magazine and puts on the John Henry Folk Carol Moore and JenapRockett REVIEWS Festival (this year to be held in Pipestem, W. Va. Photos by Kenneth Murray September 2.4). He teaches Appalachian Studies Harriette.Simpson Arnow at Concord College and is working toward his Dr. Enuf is Still here . 17 1908=1986 .24 doctoral degree in history at West Virginia John Hart University. He was the guest editor for our film-by-Herb E. Sm!th "Black Appalachians" issue. Robert J. Higgs "I never did change Pauline Cheek's Appalachian Scrapbook is published by Appalachian Consortium Press. things here" 20 Black Coal Miners She has studied the history of the rug hooking Jane Woodside hi America- industry that sustained the economy in the ...... 1930s near her home of Mars Hiil, North 26 bY Ronald L. Lewis Majestic . _22- Carolina. (and has written a story about it that G.E,NeaSrnan and Lany. Ed Sniidderly appears on page 35). She was the guest editor Makes for the "Appalachian Childhood" issue 24 Letter from a Writer - Mary Chiltoskey was the editor of our CnOvicts,,Coali. and "Cherokee" edition. She has been a teacher and Harriette Arnow librarian in Cherokee, N.C., for more than 40 Banner Mine Tragedy years. Over the years she has collected folklore, Hooking Past to Future 33 . . . by Robert David Ward and which she has published in books including Pauline Cheek 27 William Warren Rogers . Cherokee Cook lore and Cherokee Plants and Their Uses. Jim Odom- 34 . . . . Appalachian WorkOut Fred Waage teaches English at East Tony Feathers Tennessee State University. He is the author of Thinking in' Pictures two chapbooks: Minestrone and End of the by John Styles 28 World: California Stories. He has served on the POETRY Richard-Blaustein publishing staff of the Frimds of the Earth. published and edited the literary magazine 4 Ain't No Pie Jobs Storming Heaven Second Growth and is founding editor of Now 29 and Then. by Denise Giardina Jenny Galloway Collins Laurie Lindberg . . . Discussion at Age Seven 4 =1 =1 =1 Like a Family Georgeann Eskieuich Rettberg by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall The Strikers 12 and others . . 30 Staff . Joseph Barrett Director - Richard Blaustein Marie Tedesco the answer is blowin' Associate Director - William Cook Mud Creek Clink 31 Editor - Pat Arnow 12 in the wind video by Anne. Johnson Poetry Editor - Jo Carson Bob Henry Bober Mary Swaykus Research Associate - Jane Woodside Working Mother 13 Support Staff - Carolyn Cerrito, Ruth . Frontier Nursing . . . 31 . Hausman, Margaret Liu, Terena Rita Quillen video by Anne Johnson Slagle, Kathy M. Smith, Cathy 13 Summer of 1908 Jo Ann Crawford Whaley and assistance from Glenn McKee Allison Puranik Kingsport, Tennessee ©Copyright by the Center for Appalachian Fixing Supper 13 by Margaret Ripley Wolfe 32 Studies and Services. 1988. Suzanne Clark Edward L. Ayers SBR No 130-024-87 Now and Then/1 From the involvement. in edialikg, et consulting projects Editor and service to public schools. All of this has been like casting When John Sayles' coal. mining bread upon the opened in New York movie, Matewan, waters; the Center and other large cities in the fall of has grown and 1987, I heard wonderful things about because f )unshed it. This independently produced movie of the support it brought to life a dramatic moment of has given to its West Virginia coal mining history and faculty members was a crusading union film. and fellows. I was thinking about calling Marat Today, however, Moore, an ex-coal miner who is now a Brenda Wilson, coning department, LeowFerenbach, despite its record reporter for the United Mine Workers Johnsoi /City, Tenn., 1973. of accomplishment, of America's hoping she might Journal, From the the Center for Appalachian Studies be able to track t?own the filmmaker and Services is at a critical point of for an interview. Before I could get Director development. Excellence costs money, around to it, she called me. She said and the requests for support we are that she had already seen Matewan receiving will soon outstrip our three times, it was a great film, and This latest issue of Now and Then is resources unless we can build up a she had interviewed John Sayles and going to press just as we are in the substantial endowment for the CASS wondered if I might like to have that midst of putting together our budget Fellowship Program. Preparing a for Now and Then. You bet. and action plan for the fifth year of the typical book manuscript costs between John Sayles is not the only artist Center for Appalachian Studies and $600 and $1,000; publishing a major gaining recognition for focusing on the Services. At times the work has book or phonograph record can cost coal mine wars in West Virginia in the seemed endless, but there have been between $5,000 to $10,000; major 1920s. Denise Giardina's nationally plenty of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards films can cost much more. acclaimed novel Storming Heaven during the past few years. There is Publishing a magazine of the quality covers that same time and place. nothing more satisfying, from my point is not an of Now and Then Giardina, who lives in Eastern of view, than to work with talented, inexpensive proposition, either. If you Kentucky, also sees the parallels creative people and to see promising haven't subscribed yet, I urge you to between now and then. She talks ideas become exciting realities. We do so now. Even at the modest cost of about that, and her own activism in an have seen the CASS Fellowship $7.50 per year ($10 for institutions interview with Tim Boudreau on Program support the diverse activities and libraries) every subscription helps, page 9. of regional artists, scholars and public and if you can help us even more by It was hard to tear ourselves away service advocates, resulting in books, giving a gift subscription to a friend or from coal mining stork s in this issue. records, films, radio programs, school your favorite library, that would be Besides the inherent high drama, coal residencies and other projects directly better yet. If you are able to make a mining brings up endless economic and benefitting our region; we have been larger donation and would like to know social implications for Appalachia. able to add new courses and seminars more about the work of the CASS But it is the goal of Now and Then in family practic- and anthropology; Fellowship Program, please call or to portray the many dimensions of we have helped our faculty members write me in care of CASS, Box Appalachia, not just the most obvious write grant proposals to support 19i80A, ETSU, Johnson City, Tenn. and dramatic. regional writing residencies and a 37614-0002, 615.929-5348. We've This issue is filled with stories and seminar on the cultural and historical come a long way in a short time, but poems about a variety of occupations links between Scotland and we need your help now more than and lifestylesfrom manufacturing Appalachia. We have sought to help ever. Stay with us. soda pop to shining shoes, from our colleagues grow professionally by plowing Ix hind a horse to peeling sponsoring travel to conferences, by Richard Blaustein onions. subsidizing the preparation of This edition is dedicated to all those manuscripts and by encouraging their who work in Appalachia. O 0 0 Now and Then Magazine Pat Arnow Now and Then haS been published since addressed stamped envelope. We will be 1984 thieetimes a year by the Center for careful but not responsible for all materials. Appalichian Studies and Services at East Address all correspondence to: Editor, Now Earl R Yates was editor/photographer of and Then, CASS, Box 19,180A, ETSU, Tennessee State Untversity. SUbscriptkrns Throwster, a newsletter of the Leon-Ferenbach O 0 -are $7.50 per-year ($10.00 for institutions Johnson City, TN 37614-0002. Company, from 1963 to 1977 He is currently and libraries). East Tennessee State University is fully in employed at HellQuaker in Johnson City ISSN. No. 0896-2693 accord with the belief that educational and 'Subinissiors of poetry, fiction, scholarly employment opportunities should be The views expressed in these pages are and peiaonal essays, graphics and available to all eligible persons without regard ni those of the authors and do ecessarily lihoti=c-oricened with Appalachian life to age, sex, race, religion, national origin or represent opinions of East Ter are see State aecompahied by a self- handicap. Univers4 or of the State Boak. vf Regents. 2/Now and Then From the Archives By the 1920s Upper East Tennessee On March 12, 1929, a strike which est.....,,,shed in Clinton, Tenn., in 1906. had experienced the boom and decline began at Glanzstoff and spread to Collections that contain significant of the timber industry and the Bemberg, eventually resulted in the amounts of strike-related or union- introduction of the railroads. Railroad placement of National Guard troops in related materials include records of the industrial agents and local chambers of Elizabethton. International Woodworkers of commerce were actively trying to In an article published by The Nation America, Local 5-313, and the entice Northem and foreign industries in 1929, visiting joumalist Sherwood Kingsport Press Strike Collection. to locate in the region with promises of Anderson ecounted hi., impressions of Union activities ere further abundant natural resources, tax a secret union meeting he attended. documented in the Bemard H. Cantor exemptions and cheap nonunion According to Anderson, when the Papers (1959 -78). The Cantor papers labor. In 1913 Carolina, Clinchfield rumor spread that anyone joining the focus on his work as a labor and Ohio Railroad industrial agent union would be fired, one man arbitration judge in Johnson City. F.M. Runnels wrote to S & F responded: "Well, then we will go back The archives holds a number of Manufacturing, a textile manufacturer to the hills. I lived on birdeye beans materials related to coal mining. The in Pennsylvania, that there was "no before there was any rayon plant and Marat Moore Collection consists of better help in the world than this can live on birdeye beans again." photographs, and audiotapes (with mountain type of girl that works ten Another view of the strike is contained original and edited transcripts) resulting hours per day for practically one-half in the Helen Raulston papers which from interviews of 35 women coal the wages that you are forced to pay." include a transcript of interviews with miners. In this same letter, Runnels suggested three former Bemberg employees who The Council on Appalachian that Johnson City, Tenn., might be the worked through the strike. According Women Records also contains some place for the company to escape "the to Raulston, the local workers were information on women working in the annoyance of strikes." Negotiations by "well satisfied" and the weekly salary mines. In the Broadside Televisior. industrial agents and chambers of of $11.20 was "good wages for people Collection there are a number of video commerce with outside capital did not even used to 20C a week." She tapes which detail mining and union bring more industries to Appalachian maintained that the union was organizing in the mines. communities, and industrial work and responsible for keeping the workers Photographs of miners can be found union activities became a part of agitated. in the Appalachian Photographic community life. While opinions about the strike may Collection and in the Kenneth Murray A joint effort by the Johnson City differ, it has to be admitted that the Photographs. two giant rayon plants introduced and Elizal-,ctliton Chambers of The Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Commerce promising tax exemptions industrial work and the resulting union Railroads Records contain extensive and cheap labor helped to persuade a activity to Elizabethton and Carter materials on the location of industries German company to locate two huge County on a much larger scale than in the region and on the railroad's rayon plantsAmerican Bemberg and the communities had experienced in service to the various industries. In American Glanzstoff Corporations previous years. addition, the archives has slide/tape just outside of Elizabethton, Tenn. The The Archives of Appalachia holds a programs on logging and on coal news was greeted with great number of sources relating to mining in southern Appalachia and anticipation. According to the Johnson Elizabeth ton's rayon plants in scattered issues of the Southern City Staff-News, at opening particular and the industrialization of Lumberman for 1926-1927. ceremonies on October 29, 1926, the region in general. The Helen With the industrialization of southem company officials predicted Raulston Collection consists of two Appalachia, industrial work and union employment of 2,000 persons within 16mm films (and a duplicate on video- activities have been and continue to be the next two months. This promise cassette) of the 1929 strike. Two 1982 an integral part of Appalachia's was especially encouraging to a town interviews with three former employees economic and community life. whose population, according to United are included as part of the collection. The archives desires to continue States census figures for 1920, The archives also holds 71 copies of acquiring materials which relate to exceeded that figure by only 749. The the two rayon plants' publ;cation, The industry, work and unions. For more Staff-News reported that at maximum Watauga Spinnerette which includes information on any of these materials, capacity the rayon plants would much information on the employees please contact the Archives of employ 10,000 individuals. and major events at the factories. Appalachia, Box 22,450A, East With the beginning of the Great Another source conceming the rayon Tennessee State University, Johnson Depression in the United States and of City, Tenn. 37614, phone: (615) manufacturers is an American labor problems at the two plants in Bemberg Research Department report 929-4338. 1929, these expectations for which describes the production of 0 Glanzstoff and Bemberg began to rayon. -Norma Thomas and Marie Tedesco wane. The mountain labor proved to In addition the archives has the =3 be dissatisfied with their low wages. records of Magnet a hosiery mill Now and Then/3 Ain't No Pie Jobs Another motor clOwn &left has z inch water cold water seeps into leaky boots feet stay cold and ache way past dinner and finishing up In the shop Hands swell from concrete too can't weafa weck:ing band Discussion At Age Seven evenon Weekends off The grinder manicures some nails twier My father lifts The torch bums eyes bright red his Millers and coughs out spews hot metal through two shirts the steel mill. He's busy Read the bulletin board at quittin time resting. maybe another job up for bid somebody's got 9 Beale puppies Iris eyes scan school's all day on the 25th the pages of a book good bass boat for sale- he's forgetting. probably'Lonnie's he never got called back Cigarette smoke spirals up through a lamp shade. No jobs posted I sit and wait for him to say could be a lot worse "I don't remember." Remember 83? NO WORK 'TIL FURTHER NOTICE Georgeann Eskievich Rettberg Thinking on the way home of hot suppers and warm kids trying to keep it that way. Jenny Galloway Collins :CâNis Jenny Gil Of Letc .; a 'GeOrgeann_EskieutCh Rettberg ,teaches 'kindergarten and ;214h, iin Mountain Review, fourth ark! fifth grade-poetry workshop for the Pittsburgh others.:,She; PubliaSchods: Herwork-km been published In Panhandler, Sojourner and the Mill Hunk -18" area. Herald. ftddenPo 7 11-41-"-1"it Where the Rubber Meets the Road John Say les talks about his coal mining movie Matewan Marat Moore On May 19, 1920, a showdown on the main street of a West Virginia coal town made history in the American labor movement. Eleven armed guards from the infamous Baldwin-Felts detective agency came into the town of Matewan after carrying out forced evictions of pro-union families from houses owned by Stone Mountain Coal Company. Mayor Cabell'Testerman and his young chief of police, Sid Hatfield, challenged the evictions. After the guards attempted to arrest the two with bogus warrants, shooting broke out. When the smoke cleared, seven guards, two townspeople and Mayor Testerman were dead. A local jury acquitted Hatfield in the guard murders, but a year later he and a friend, Ed Chambers, were gunned down as they walked up the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, W. Va., where they were facing trumped- up charges. The murders of Hatfield and Chambers sent shock waves throughout the coalfields, and triggered the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, when 10,000 coal miners marched to do battle against company guards and state militia. Ikse cucq Matewan, With the 1987 production of John Sayles, a novelist and 014, "1 independent filmmaker, realized his goal of nearly a decade, making a movie k dew° based upon the Matewan Massacre. Sallies has built a reputation and a loyal following outside Hollywood with his Lianna, Return of the Secaucus Seven, thoughtful, offbeat films including Director John Sayles making the movie Brother from Another Planet Baby, It's You. and Matewan. MARAT MOORE: You've had a consciousness in a whole group of And I have always been interested in long interest in Appalachian the theory of America as the melting people than to show a loner against coal miners, since opening your pothow that does or doesn't work in the mob, which is what you usually novel in the West Union"Dues find in Westerns. this country. Virginia coalfields. Why did you I saw those themes, and plus, just a MM: But the Matewan Massacre return to this subject in great movie story. Just the facts are so was only one chapter in a Matewan? much like a classic American Western, 30-year struggle. Why did you SAYLES: There is no place in leading up to the showdown, but with focus on that incident and not, a differencethe violence was America like Eastern Kentucky and for example, on the Battle of Southern West Virginia. Back in the collective, and it was political. It wasn't Blair Mountain which followed 1960s, I hitchhiked through the area, just the sheriff going out there against a year later? and I got a lot of rides from miners the mob. It was everybody who said, SAYLES: At that moment in history, who told me about the black lung 'They're not going to take our sheriff Matewan was where everything came movement and the struggles within the from us.' And then it just kind of blew to a head. Something had to give UMWA. But they all said, This is up, like the opening shot of the film. somewhere. And that's when it came. nothing compared to what it used to When you see the fuse burning down Sort of like Cabin Creek earlier. Or be. You should talk to my daddy, or until it finally explodes. That was the Ludlow in Colorado. And it was a time image I had of what happened in my grandaddy. They could tell you when the union movement was at a some tales.' Matewan. crossroads. Matewan was the catalyst SO when I was writing Union Dues, I Coal mining is, I think, where the to Blair Mountain. It came down to rubber meets the road. It is an started reading about the coal wars. that one little town that was the hot And it seemed that in that struggle, elemental act. In World War I, spot. And Blair Mountain was more you had so many American themes in America fought with the coal that diffused. You had 10,000 coal miners marching to battle. A lon5fleEd was mean, how many movies do you see caught between individualism, which is flying, and people were scattered out such an American thing, and the idea about cowboys? And that era lasted everywhere. Using that many extras of unionism. To have a union, they for a very short period of time. was way beyond our budget. That had to sacrifice their prejudices for I felt it was time that this sort of could be the sequel, if we could ever something bigger than themselves. And attention should be paid. There are a raise the money. even though the operators were taking dozen stories you could tell. But it's a MM: How difficult was it to total advantage of them, that was very harder story to get across, finance Matewan? hard for people to do. dramatically, to show the rise of a Now and Then/5 SAYLES: Because of the political money I'd made writing screenplays. racism, which was unusual for a union nature of the film, it was hard to get Matewan cost just under $4 million. to do. It was an important risk for anybody interested. About four years The period and the size of it would them to take. The union's message air), the producers actively started have cost a studio from $10 to $15 was, 'Don't let the operators divide trying to raise the money. It was a long million to make the same movie. But you, don't fall into this trap.' Racism haul. They went everywhere. We did for us, by being very labor-intensive was one of the strongest barriers the send it out to the studios, but we and shooting for seven weeks instead union faced. made it very clear that we wanted full of 15 to 20, we were able to get it We.talked to people 'from that area control of casting, editing, done for under four. everything. to do research. One of the nice things So we weren't surprised when it came that happened is that once we got MM: Matewan reflects some back real quick. down there with our various solid research, especially in the But I knew it wouldn't turn out to be departments, the art department dialect of Mingo County. How the kind of movie I wanted it to be if it immediately made contacts with local did you go about digging up the went through the studio system. They people, with miners, to get the kind of history? might have been interested in it, but it set dressing we needed. We needed a would have gotten changed along the mule and a cart, and old miners are SAYLES: Since the script sat on the way. The organizer wouldn't have been collectors. And when we'd get three shelf for several years, I had time to a Wobbly, and somewhere along the hardhats, we'd get three stories to go deepen my knowledge of the history way, he would have said, 'Yeah, I used along with them.,So we were Collecting and just about what conditions people stories while we were collecting other had to contend with. Looking at it, you materials. had to wonder how they were ever able to build a union. I read a lot more about the pattern of immigration. In 1920, one-quarter of 3t all coal miners in West Virginia were !Sliiikkl'r Black. The mines in Alabama were tapping out, so those men needed the work and were often offered jobs that they had no idea were scabbing jobs. And 1920 was one of the first years for lynching in American history. There must have been a lot of trepidation. West Virginia wasn't T Alabamait wasn't as dangerous to be a Black man therebut the racial tension was there. They were stuck in a boxcar that was nailed shut, given some bread and water, and then two days later, the door was opened in West Virginia. And when that door opened, not only would miners be throwing things at them because they were breaking the strike, Union leader Sid Hatfield, 1894- 1921(1.) but the company told the Actor David Strathairn playing Sid Blacks they owed $200 for Hatfield (r.) Josh Mostel playing Mayor Cabell train fare, and if they didn't work tc Testerman in Matewan (I.) to be a pretty good shot,' and then he pay it, they'd be arrested as thieves. Mayor Cabell Testerman (r.) would have picked up a gun, and he The Italians were a different story. would have been there at that Most of the ones who came to West MM: Immigration had a great shootout at the end instead of being a Virginia were brought right off the impact on the region. And the boat. They'd never worked in a mine, pacifist. theme of Appalachia as a After we got it back from the and very often some guy who didn't melting potand the struggle to studios, we went to people who had a speak any Italian would be telling them overcome ethnic prejudiceis a how to put off a shot and then walk history of investing in small films. The major theme of the film. movie almost came together a couple out. So they were carting out dead of times and then fell apart. Once we bodies every day in some of those SAYLES: In West Virginia at that were on our way to West Virginia to mines. time, the cperators hired what they shoot and got a call that the loan Reading the UMW Journals from called a 'judicious mixture' of one-third didn't go through. So we made Brother that time, I was impressed by what a mountain people, one-third Alabama From Another Planet in between with strong stand the union took against miners, and one-third immigrants from 6/Now and Then CA coming in the camp, but they patrolled Greece or Italy or Yugoslavia. It was a noose. When the guy hanging from, in between the Black sections and the an incredible melting pot. The asked the kiu what it was, ne boy operators thought they could put them white sections and the Italian sections. said, 'That's one of them Baldwins, in separate coal camps with armed You couldn't pass between them you know, the state troopers.' guards between them. That was the without a good reason, and'they would It's like Northem Ireland, where the company solution to what they saw as demand to know your name. It was kids feel like they're in a war movie, like South Africa today, where they the cancer of unionism. but the bullets that are flying are real. keep the workers separated from their MM: Union sympathizers were families. The company had the miners not only targeted as MM: Religion plays an under lock and key. Communists, they were important role in Appalachian deprived of their constititional culture and has been central in rights. That's something that MM: In 1985, close to the time union organizing struggles, both people from outside the past and present, In the movie, you were making the movie, coalfields have a hard time church scenes provide a coal miners in Mingo County were engaged in the most bitter counterpoint to the conflict, believing. strike since the 1920s against showing fatalistic attitudes SAYLES: That's right. In those days, played against the ideas of A.T. Massey Coal Co. Were you foremen were told, 'If you see more aware of this history coming social justice. than three coal miners sitting together back onto the people of the Tug SAVLES: I wanted to show the and talking, break them up and tell us Valley? what their names are.' There were battle went on in the pulpit, with some SAYLES: Yes, we did hear about spies. They knew whom they had company preachers arguing against the grown up with, whom they could trust that. One of the UMWA members who union, saying it was of Satan, and coal was in the movieplayed a Baldwin to spread the word. miners in the pulpit preaching for the agent, in factwas on selective strike People were paranoid because they union as salvation. Like any ideology, had a reason to be. You see scenes in against Massey. And when we were you can interpret the Bible to mean filming, one man told us he'd been the film where the organizer is crawling very different things. through the coal camp because the down to Mingo County visiting his In West Virginia, if you go to a town family, and his 10yearold nephew BaldwinFelts guards were everywhere. of 500 people, you might have 40 was in the backyard with a GIJoe doll Not only would they keep people from churches, all different denominations. James Earl Jones in a Coal Mining Role Veteran actor James Eari Jones has played many leading roles in film and theaterfrom his staning role in Fenlei on Broadway to his portrayal of author Alex Haley in Roots. Young audiences, however, may know him best as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars. In Matewan, Jones plays "Few Clothes" Johnson, a Black miner once described as "one of the fighten'st union men" in West Virginia. (I was also surprised to find out that zb., many Lewis was my hero. All my Mends in grade kids near Beckley didn't know that history. I'd school thought Franklin D. Roosevelt was be in the mail there and would ask them if God. For me it was Lewis. I listened to,him on they knew about the Matewan Massacre, and the radio, so even at that age I knew about the 1 most of themhad never heaid of It. It's not United Mine Workers. Actor jail* Earl Jones something that is taught in the schools. And stir, Lewis, I think the United Mine Workers has remained an honorable MM: Todayi-South African miners are institution. It's a union that hasn't lost.sieht of engaged in a life-or-death straggle to Its values. keep their, union alive much like the MARAT:MOORE:-At this stage in your MM: The events surrounding the early organising battles of the UMWA. career, you could.have youichoice of Massacre led to thelargest speaks to the rolisi'WhYsda you choose a minor DO you think Matewan' Matewan; armed confrontation in the United' current situation? role in I low-budget film about the 'States since the Civil War: Did this Veit Virginia mine wars? 'JONES: I don't know how anybody gets over history surprise you? being spoiled the way management in South JONBS:14y:agent had read the script and JONES: Africa his been Spoiled for generations. They It was shocking to me.to realize that she said, thinmy, thia'Cloesn'tmean any, after the MateWan Maisacie, during the Battle have had, essentially, slave lahor. money or altirgaiart, big here's a project, you .Management wanted'that in West Virginia, of BlaiiMiiintain',"One of the top heroes of: might be interestecrin.' She was right: Lwanted they wanted it in Kentucky, they wanted It in World War I was sent to West.Virginia to fly a to:work with John Sayler. Pennsylvania and,Coldrado. They wanted all bombing mission against.the miners. That Ware yOu'liiie of UMWA histbry '.MM: the advantages. And if somebody hadn't made makes you realize how high rip in the ranks of 0141d* mat.ewan? the government was the resistance to the a stand, they could have had slave labor. In a- JONES: Very simple way the film tells that story'. Al a kid-in:Mississippi, John L miners' cause. Now and Then/7 I 0