‘WHICH Side ARE YOU ON?’ FLORENCE REECE - - author of one of the most impt. labor songs ever written - - dies on this day in 1986 in Knoxville, Tenn., at 86. A Mine Workers union activist, she penned the song after her home was ransacked by Harlan County sheriff J.H. Blair and his gun thugs during a 1931 mine strike. Give a listen and pass this on. Thank you Mrs. Reece – we remember. Reece (1900-1986), American social activist, poet, and folksong writer was born in Tennessee, the daughter of a coal miner. In 1931, during the Harlan County epic strike by the United Mine Workers and the National Miners Union, her husband, Sam Reece, was a union organizer. To intimidate the Reece family, Sheriff J. H. Blair and his men illegally entered their family home and terrorized Florence and their children. That night she wrote the lyrics to "Which Side Are You On?" on a calendar that hung in the kitchen of her home. youtube/watch?v=Nzudto-FA5Y
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 10:01:40 +0000
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