Harry Simms (labor leader)

Infobox Person
name = Harry Simms


caption =
birth_name = Harry Hirsch
birth_date = 1913
birth_place = Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
death_date = Death date|1932|2|11
death_place = Barbourville, Kentucky, U.S.
other_names =
known_for =
occupation =
nationality = American
party = Young Communist League

Harry Simms (1913 - February 11 1932), born Harry Hirsch, was a Jewish American labor leader from Massachusetts. 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 by a sheriff's deputy who also worked as a mine guard for the local 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. [cite book |last=Hevener |first=John W. |coauthors=Robert Gipe |title=Which Side Are You On? |year=2002 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252070778 |pages=p. 77–80]

References