Red Necks and Red Bandanas: Appalachian Coal Miners and the Coloring of Union Identity, 1912-1936

Western Folklore, Winter 2006 by Huber, Patrick

2. On redneck's probable derivation from striking miners' custom of wearing red handkerchiefs, see Colorado Labor Forum 1988, 49; Lee 1969, 98-99; Phillips 1974, 90; Meador 1981, 47; Papanikolas 1982, 92.

3. Williams 2005. As late as the 1989, the UMW continued to use and distribute the symbolic red handkerchiefs to coal miners during strikes. In West Virginia, for example, during the 11-month strike against the Pittston Coal Company in 1989 and 1990, Elaine Purkey (2005), a miner's wife, union balladeer, and grassroots activist, recalled that the union distributed red handkerchiefs to striking miners as a historical symbol of the union's traditions, and the miners and their family members wore them at strike rallies and on picket lines.

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