Evans, Herndon J., 1895-1976

Herndon J. Evans, a resident of Bell County, Kentucky, was editor of the Pineville Sun and local correspondent for the Associated Press (AP) in the early 1930s, a period of labor unrest in the Kentucky coalfields, especially in Harlan and Bell Counties. Evans closely followed events in the Pineville area, paying attention to the strikes and attempts by the United Mine Workers of America and the Communist Party's National Miners Union to organize the miners. He was particularly concerned with two delegations composed mainly of writers, including Sherwood Anderson, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Waldo Frank and Mary Heaton Vorse, who travelled to eastern Kentucky to investigate the conditions of miners and their families and who eventually published their findings in Harlan Miners Speak: Terrorism in the Kentucky Coal Fields (Harcourt, Brace, 1932). Evans was also keenly interested in the various groups of college students who came to support the miners. Opposed to the activities of these delegations, Evans worked to undermine their presence and credibility by using his journalistic skills to write editorials for the Pineville Sun and articles for the AP.