Battle of Evarts

The Battle of Evarts is the name given to a mining strike and ensuing violence that occurred in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1931. In February 1931, The Harlan County Coal company cut wages for their employees. The United Mine Workers union responded by holding a rally in Pineville, drawing over 2,000 attendees. This and other wage cuts and firings led to a strike, and on May 5 Sheriff Jim Daniels (who was reportedly on the payroll of the Black Mountain Coal Company) and "three carloads of deputies armed with machine-guns, sawed off shotguns, and rifles drove into Everts" to confront the striking miners. It is unclear who fired first, but after the battle, Jim Daniels, two of his deputies, and one miner had died. Eventually Governor Flem D. Sampson called in the National Guard to stop the strike. The strike ended in June after several deaths and arrests.