happy? – Feb 6 (Which Side Are You On?)

Subject: happy? – Feb 6 (Which Side Are You On?)
From: Abby Sale
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 08:28 AM

On approximately 2/6/1931 in Harlan County, Kentucky: 11,000 miners strike following a wage cut. The National Guard arrests leaders and escort scabs into the mine. Strike leaders are charged with murder. That night Florence Reece wrote:

          Come all of you good workers.
          Good news to you I'll tell,
          Of how the good old union
          Has come in here to dwell.
  
                   "Which Side Are You On?"

By July 25, 1931, there were sixty-five hired thugs who had been deputized by Sheriff John Henry Blair in Harlan County alone (JH Blair is the infamous sheriff in the song (Gaventa 100). The miners were denied their right to join unions and their right to free speech (Dreiser 4). Houses of striking miners were raided by dozens of machine-gun-carrying deputies (Dreiser 66). Miners were beaten and murdered; there were eleven unpunished murders of mine workers (Dreiser). from Pete Seeger, Carry It On

Dreisser, Dos Passos and other writers went down there to check it out - they were indicted for criminal syndicalism to overthrow the government. per People's Almanac

David Shea (r.m.f) writes: I have it on good authority that she was in the kitchen baking some muffins when the company goons starting banging at her door. They were after her husband who was a union member but when they found out the damn commie wasn't home they settled for Florence instead and hung her by her thumbs and rode off.   When she finally managed to free herself she searched for a pen and scribbled the words to the immortal anthem which she set to a popular hymn. {Frank Hamilton suggests it may be "Lay the Lilly-O".}

ALSO:
NYC: The first full US minstrel show given by "The Virginia Minstrels," led by Dan Emmett, was 2/6/1843
(There's more to it than that, though. See Wikipedia: Minstrel_show)

Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky

Subject: RE: happy? – Feb 6 (Which Side Are You On?)
From: mandotim
Date: 06 Feb 06 - 09:17 AM

Also; Waitangi Day in New Zealand
Also; my forty-eleventh birthday!
Tim from Bit on the Side