Interview with Johnny Bear Childers, May 15, 1988

Interview Summary

Johnny Bear Childers was born in 1910 on Elkhorn Creek near Ashcamp, Kentucky. When he was a young boy, his father, James Childers, took a job as a policeman for the Edgewater Coal Company. His family, who owned three farms on Elkhorn Creek, moved to Marrowbone Creek into a new house that James Childers had built. Childers describes the violence in Hellier. He remembers that on Saturday nights the jail was always full of men arrested for fighting, drunkenness, or beating their wives. He recalls that Hellier once had six or seven restaurants, two barbershops, and two pool halls. Many black miners had been brought in from Alabama and their children went to a separate school.

Interview Keyword

Ashcamp, Kentucky Black miners Childers family Coal camp violence Edgewater Coal Company Elkhorn Coal Field Hellier, Kentucky Marrowbone Creek Marrowbone jail Segregation in coal camps Coal camps

Interview LC Subject

Appalachian Region Childers, Johnny Bear, 1910- Childers, Johnny Bear, 1910- --Interviews Coal miners Coal miners--Kentucky--Elkhorn City Coal miners--Kentucky--Pike County Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Elkhorn City Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--History Coal mines and mining--Kentucky--Pike County Pike County (Ky.) Pike County (Ky.)--Social life and customs Fathers Life Childhood Coal African Americans Coal miners Twentieth century

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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.