Harry Simms (December 25, 1911 – February 11, 1932), born Harry Simms Hersh, was an American labor leader from Springfield, Massachusetts. He was sent by the National Miners Union to

Harlan County, Kentucky Harlan County is a county located in southeastern Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its county seat is Harlan. It is classified as a moist countya county in which alcohol sales are prohibited (a dry county), but cont ...

during the

Harlan County War The Harlan County War, or Bloody Harlan, was a series of coal industry skirmishes, executions, bombings and strikes (both attempted and realized) that took place in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s. The incidents involved coal miners ...

to organize the mine workers there. On February 10, 1932, Simms was shot near Brush Creek in

Knox County, Kentucky Knox County is a county located in Appalachia near the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,193. Its county seat is Barbourville. The county is named for General Henry Knox. It is one ...

by a sheriff's deputy who also worked as a mine guard for the local coal company. Simms died of his wound at Barbourville Hospital the next day. He was memorialized in a ballad, "The Death of Harry Simms" by

Aunt Molly Jackson Aunt Molly Jackson (1880 – September 1, 1960) was an influential American folk singer and a union activist. Her full name was Mary Magdalene Garland Stewart Jackson Stamos. Biography Jackson was one of fifteen children born in Clay County, ...

and

Jim Garland Jim Garland (April 8, 1905 – September 6, 1978) was a miner, songwriter, folksinger, and folk song collector from the coal mining country of eastern Kentucky, where he was involved with the communist-led National Miners Union (NMU) during the ...

, and his funeral service at the

Bronx Coliseum The New York Coliseum is a defunct sports venue and auditorium in the West Farms section of the Bronx, New York City. The auditorium was originally built for Philadelphia's 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition, and transported in 1928 to Starlig ...

attracted a crowd of some 20,000 people.Strike Songs of the Depression, by Timothy P. Lynch, page 76 The folk singer

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

popularized "The Death of Harry Simms" after learning it from Jim Garland at the Newport Folk Festival in the 1960s. Tao Rodriguez Seeger has performed a cover version of the song with the Allegro Youth Orchestra.

References

External links

Songs
The Death of Harry Simms.
a song written by his personal friend Jim Garland and Garland's stepsister Aunt Molly Jackson {{DEFAULTSORT:Simms, Harry (labor leader) 1911 births 1932 deaths American communists Assassinated American activists People from Springfield, Massachusetts Jewish American trade unionists People murdered in Kentucky Deaths by firearm in Kentucky 20th-century American Jews Trade unionists from Massachusetts