Jim Garland (April 8, 1905 – September 6, 1978) was a miner, songwriter, folksinger, and folk song collector from the coal mining country of eastern Kentucky, where he was involved with the communist-led National Miners Union (NMU) during the violent labor conflicts of the early 1930s called the Harlan County War.
Garland came to New York City in 1931 with his older half-sister Aunt Molly Jackson and later followed by sister Sarah Ogan where he participated in the Greenwich Village folk music scene.
[1] Two of his best-known songs are "The Death of Harry Simms" and "I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister."
During World War II he moved, together with Sarah's family, to Vancouver, Washington, to work in the shipyard.
Also, Mr. Garland was a participant at the 1971 and 1974 Smithsonian American Folklife Festivals, held in Washington, D.C. Mr. Garland submitted various reel-to-reel tape recordings of himself, his daughter Betty, friends, neighbors and local church congregations to Folkways Records, Inc.