page_title: Roving Picket Movement
section_title: Activities
hierarchical_section_title: Roving Picket Movement / Activities
caption_attribution_description: English: Coal mine tipple in Capels, West Virginia, USA (spelled "Caples" in the photograph's LOC title). Located in McDowell County, Appalachia, West Virginia.
context_page_description: The Roving Picket Movement was the culmination of years of unrest from mine workers about their working conditions in the Appalachian region. The movement lasted from 1959-1965, with goals of reinstating health benefits and improving working conditions. Miners protested at several mines in Eastern Kentucky, and laid and the foundation for future movements within the Appalachian coal community.
context_section_description: When the announcement came that miners and their families would no longer continue to receive their medical benefits from the UMWA Health and Retirement Funds, the miners took action and went on strike. Miners and their families who had lost health care benefits from the UWMA Health and Retirement Funds in the 1950s traveled from mine to mine in caravans protesting. The goal was to shut down non-union mines and those mines that were not paying the $0.40 per ton royalty fee, and to encourage non-union mines to organize themselves. These traveling protestors became known as the "Roving Picketers".
  The threat of violence from the Roving Picketers got the attention of authorities at the federal level. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy assembled a task force, as part of Appalachian Regional Commission with the goal of preserving the union hospitals. The task force successfully created a grant program that would allow non-profits to fund and operate the hospitals. This desire was part of a larger movement of the federal government intervening in Appalachia through antipoverty programs during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations.
  The Roving Picket movement was not necessarily a peaceful movement. There was some diplomacy through lobbying attempts with the federal government. However, the picketers blew up coal tipples, buildings, and trucks as part of their dissatisfaction. There were also instances of arson, shootings, beatings, and personal property such as cars and homes were also blown up.
  Berman Gibson was the leader of the Roving Picket Movement and believed in a method of lobbying to elected officials to achieve the goal of getting the medical cards reinstated. Gibson and his followers were making plans for a miners march on Washington D.C. during the Spring of 1963, which got the attention of President Kennedy. Kennedy was already concerned about growing civil rights unrest, and shortly after the miners made their intentions of a march known, the President created a task force within his cabinet to save the miners hospital.
caption: Machinery such as this coal tipple were destroyed by the Roving Pickets during their protests.
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