Harry Simms (December 25, 1911 – February 11, 1932), born Harry Simms Hersh, was an American labor leader from
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
. He was sent by the
National Miners Union to
Harlan County, Kentucky during the
Harlan County War to organize the mine workers there.
On February 10, 1932, Simms was shot near Brush Creek in
Knox County, Kentucky 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 and
Jim Garland, 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 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