Brookside women from Harlan County, Kentucky

Photographed on the day after Thanksgiving, 1973, these picketers were part of a thirteen-month strike by miners in Harlan County which is remembered for the coal operators’ violent suppression of union organizing. The crucial support of miners’ families, the Brookside Women’s Club, the Tri-State Black Lung Association, and other community residents helped the United Mine Workers Of America (UMWA) win recognition. The story of the strike, the first major attempt by miners to unionize, is told is told in the Barbara Kopple award winning documentary film, Harlan County, USA.

Image from a collection of photographs by Builder Levy of the mines and mining communities of Appalachia.

View the exhibit My Daddy was a Miner for related images.