Interview with Mary Jack Hargis, May 28, 1994

Interview Summary

Hargis discusses her family, parents, grandparents, and siblings. The Hargis family migrated to the region in the 1800s. Hargis tells how she got her first job working in the Island Creek Mine, where she was directed to sweep a mineshaft with a broom. Pulling cable is unskilled labor, and distinguished from the work of an electrician, which requires training and a license. Hargis discusses employment layoffs. She was the only coal miner in her family. Hargis discusses the differences between working in the coal mine, as opposed to teaching. With teaching, you bring a lot of work home after a full day of work. In mining, after you work your shift, you go home and can do whatever you want. In the future, Hargis feels that the standard of living will go down in the region, and young people will have to leave unless industries come in that pay better than minimum wage. People will work in technology, computers, public service, and nursing jobs.

Interview Keyword

Clinchfield Coal Company Coal mining Gender roles Lebanon (Va.) Women coal miners Junior high schools Red Hats Sexual harassment East Tennessee State University of Delaware Teachers Elementary schools

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Appalachian Region--Economic conditions Coal mines and mining--Appalachian Region Gender issues Hargis, Mary Jack Hargis, Mary Jack--Interviews Poverty--Appalachian Region Sexism Women coal miners Women--Appalachian Region Island Creek Coal Company Clinchfield Coal Company Minimum wage

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.