Florence Reece

Florence Reece (née Patton; b. April 12, 1900, d. August 3, 1986) was an American social activist, poet, and folksong writer. Born in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee the daughter and wife of coal miners, she is best known for the song, "Which Side Are You On?" written in 1931 during a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in which her husband, Sam Reece, was an organizer.

Pete Seeger, collecting labor union songs, learned "Which Side Are You On" in 1940. The following year, it was recorded by the Almanac Singers in a version that gained a wide audience. More recently, Billy Bragg, Dropkick Murphys, and Natalie Merchant each recorded their own interpretations of the song.

Alan Lomax, writing in the American Folk Song Book (1968), says "Florence Reece, a shy, towheaded Kentucky miner's daughter, composed this song at the age of 12 when her father was out on strike. She sang it me standing in front of the primitive hearth of a log cabin in the backwoods of Kentucky in 1937 and it has since become a national union song. The tune is an American variant of the English Jack Munro, "which side are you on" having been substituted for "lay the lily-o"."

Reece appeared in the Academy Award-winning documentary film, Harlan County, USA, singing her anthem to rally the striking miners.

Florence and Sam Reece were married for 64 years, until his death from pneumoconiosis (black lung) in 1978. After a lifetime of speaking out on behalf of unions and social welfare issues, Florence Reece died of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 86 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Discography

• Coal Mining Women (no date indicated), Rounder Records CD

References

Sources

• Biography of Florence Reece on the Appalachian Protest Songwriters web page, Virginia Tech University
• Interview with Florence Reece in Kathy Kahn, Hillybilly Women: Mountain women speak of the struggle and joy in Southern Appalachia. Garden City NY: Doubleday, 1973.

External links

• "Which Side Are You On" lyrics, link to MIDI music
• Florence Reece in the Civil Rights Digital Library (text and pictures)