Interview with Lee Sexton, July 26, 1987

Project: Appalachia: Roving Pickets Oral History Project

Interview Summary

Lee Sexton, a retired miner from Lime Fork Creek just outside of Blackey, Kentucky, talks extensively about his activities as a Roving Picket in the early 1960s. He maintains that the roving pickets' movement was a United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) sponsored effort to shut down non-union mines in Letcher and Perry counties in Kentucky. Sexton recalls the process of picketing. He states that the pickets would meet at a predetermined location, and once there decide what mine they would try to close down that day. He recalls that the police treated the pickets very badly in those days, and states that he still has outstanding warrants against him. The charges were apparently forgotten after the roving pickets' movement ended. Sexton also remembers that even some of his friends were not very kind when they found out he was a picket. He had water thrown in his face and was cursed.

Sexton also discusses his career as a mountain musician. He has traveled across the country playing the banjo at folk music festivals, and has cut an album with JuneAppal, the recording division of Appalshop in Whitesburg. Sexton states that he plays the banjo the old fashioned way.

Interview Accession

1987oh173_app096

Interviewee Name

Lee Sexton

Interviewer Name

Doug Cantrell

Interview Date

1987-07-26

Interview Rights

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Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

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Sexton, Lee Interview by Doug Cantrell. 26 Jul. 1987. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.

Sexton, L. (1987, July 26). Interview by D. Cantrell. Appalachia: Roving Pickets Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.

Sexton, Lee, interview by Doug Cantrell. July 26, 1987, Appalachia: Roving Pickets Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.





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