Coal Miners' Strike, Harlan County, Ky., 1932

The Harlan County War, or Bloody Harlan, was a series of coal industry skirmishes, executions, bombings and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other. The Harlan County coal miners campaigned and fought to organize their workplaces and better their wages and working conditions. It was a nearly decade-long conflict, lasting from 1931 to 1939. Before its conclusion, an unknown number of miners, deputies and bosses were killed, state and federal troops occupied the county more than half a dozen times, two acclaimed folk singers emerged, union membership oscillated wildly and workers in the nation's most anti-labor coal county were ultimately represented by a union.