Organizing in Chaos

In the early 1900s, when she was about 16 years old, my great-grandmother went to work for the telephone company in Louisville, Kentucky. "The salary was very low, the hours was very long, the rules were very strict, and so on."[1] Her day started at 7am and did not end until 5pm. She had only a thirty-minute meal break. Her pay? $7 per week (which is about $234 today). Later, after some more organizing "and a little state law," other things improved. Years before, her grandfather Bluford Middleton labored to clear the way for the railroad that would run from Mammoth Caves to Louisville. He earned $1 per day.

Labor unions started organizing in Kentucky before 1900.[2] In 1919, a former president endorsed the idea of unions: “‘I wish to insist upon the high importance of interposing no obstacles to the organization of labor, which must organize to be on an equality with employers,’ said William Howard Taft in an address . . . before the National Hardwood association.”[3]

Future union leader Tom Raney joined his father in the Kentucky coal mines at age 16.[4] He continued working in the mines until 1933, when he started working for the United Mine Workers.[5] By 1951, Raney had survived an assassination attempt; the following year, he was harassed by police for allegedly driving too fast through a school zone.[6] Later in 1952, two UMW members were killed in a roadside ambush.[7]

Tom Estill Raney was born shortly before my great-grandmother started working for the telephone company.[8] His family had deep roots in Eastern Kentucky, extending back generations.[9] His father, born in 1868, died in 1944 of “terminal pneumonia,” likely from his labor in the coal mines.[10] Tom Raney later became a deputy sheriff and served a term in the Kentucky state senate.[11]

Labor organizing has a long and honorable history in our country. Recent legal and rhetorical attacks will not and cannot stop that work. And we can take a page from the history of those early organizers. They did not stop when faced with threats and assaults; neither should we.

[1] Mary Elsie Middleton (La Verne, California), interview by [redacted for privacy], June 1980; recording privately held by Melanie Proctor [address for private use], El Cerrito, California, 2025. Mary Elsie was born in Larue County, Kentucky, birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln.

[2] “Kentucky Labor Unions Organizing,” Daily Public Ledger (Maysville, Kentucky), 22 January 1900, p. 3, col. 5; OldNews (www.oldnews.com). All websites were accessed 9 February 2025.

The United Mine Workers had a trademark by 1890. Trademark registration by The Shaker Soap Company for United Mine Workers Soap brand Laundry Soap., 1890; photograph, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2020712585/).

[3] “Taft In Favor of Labor Organizing,” The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 21 June 1919, p. 18, col. 2; OldNews (www.oldnews.com).

[4] Tom Raney (Pikeville, Kentucky), interview by Professor William E. Ellis, 24 September 1980, at 2:39–3:10; William H. Berge Oral History Center (https://oralhistory.eku.edu/files/original/01998c1f17f42e92dad8438ad231cb84.mp3). The audio file is somewhat muted, but still audible.

[5] Ellis Interview with Tom Raney, 24 September 1980, Pikeville, Kentucky, at 3:39.

[6] “John L. Lewis Asks Wetherby Action in Leslie Violence,” Middlesboro (Kentucky) Daily News, 9 October 1951, p. 1, cols. 1-2; OldNews (www.oldnews.com).

“Union Official’s Trial Postponed,” Middlesboro (Kentucky) Daily News, 30 January 1952, p. 1, col. 5; OldNews (www.oldnews.com). He “protested that several carloads of police officers were following him at the time,” possibly in retaliation for his efforts to unionize miners.

[7] “Shot in Ambush at Manchester,” Middlesboro (Kentucky) Daily News, 25 June 1952, p. 1, col. 5; OldNews (www.oldnews.com).

[8] 1900 U.S. census, Bell, Kentucky, population schedule, Cary, enumeration district (ED) 21, sheet 16B, dwelling 315, family 332, Estille (6) in household of Ruben Rainey; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/176401361).

[9] Tom Raney’s grandfather was born in Kentucky in about 1828. 1850 U.S. census, Pulaski, Kentucky, population schedule, Division 1, unnumbered page opposite page 32 (stamped), dwelling 432, family 432, Boler Raney; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8054/records/15726155).

Ruben Raney’s death certificate lists Boler Raney as his father. Letcher County, Kentucky, death certificate no. 265, Ruben Raney (1944); imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7884/records/176401361).  .

[10] Letcher County, Kentucky, death certificate no. 265, Ruben Raney.

[11] ‘Tom Raney,” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), 12 May 1987, p. 4, col. 3; Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/109907808/).