Salt Of The Earth Film Summary

The two films I watched for this film journal were Harlan County, USA and Salt of the Earth. The two films were both about miners fighting for their rights. Harlan County, USA is a documentary about the Harlan strike in Kentucky. The miners wanted to get better safety measures and pay. The Duke Power Company would not take the necessary precautions to protect the miners from unsafe conditions in the mines. Salt of the Earth focused on the Mexican miners in New Mexico who went on strike because of being treated unfairly compared to the Anglo miners. The Mexican miners wanted to get better pay, better working conditions with the addition of sanitary conditions where they were living. Through worker solidarity these demands were met after …show more content…
The Mexican miners had to deal more with the authorities while the Duke Power Miner’s encountered hostilities more from miners who continued to work during the strike. The authorities in Harlan Country were there mostly to keep the peace and make sure no one got hurt. However, the miners who continued to work did take aggressive actions towards the protesters and someone was killed due to the violence. This escalated the feeling on both sides that they needed to be able to protect themselves from one another. This divided the miners however the support of other UMW chapters helped the Harlan County miners …show more content…
Harlan County, USA gave me a better idea of how people group together to fight for their rights. This has reinforced my understanding of the class materials we have learned over the course of the term. Race relations was displayed in Salt of the Earth and showed the struggles of minorities who were not given the same rights as non-minorities. These films related well to Lichtenstein and Yates. I could make connections between what the groups were doing and what Yates and Lichtenstein suggested doing in those