H-0211_Audio |
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Object Description
Interview no. | H-0211 |
Restrictions | No restrictions. Open to research. |
Project | H.6. Piedmont Industrialization, 1974-1980: Durham, N.C. |
Project description | Interviews, 1976-1979, about industrialization in Durham, N.C., chiefly documenting experiences of workers in the city's tobacco, textile, and hosiery industries. Some interviewees discuss farming, sawmilling, or domestic service jobs they held in addition to factory work. Tobacco workers focus on work conditions, processing tobacco, the division of labor by gender and by race, labor policies, labor unions, and strikes. Textile and hosiery workers cover similar topics, plus speedups and time studies. Some discuss factory owners William Erwin and Kemp Plummer Lewis. Other topics include race relations (many of the tobacco workers were African American), including segregation and discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere; family life; living conditions; education; music and other forms of recreation; and health concerns. Interviews were chiefly conducted as part of the "Perspectives on Industrialization: The Piedmont Crescent of Industry, 1900-1940" project. |
Date | 6 June 1979 |
Interviewee | Miller, Dora Scott, 1906-1992. |
Interviewee occupation | Factory workers |
Interviewee DOB | 1906 |
Interviewee ethnicity | African Americans |
Interviewer | Jones, Beverly Washington, 1948- |
Abstract | Dora Scott Miller grew up in Apex, NC, and finished high school before marrying and taking a job at the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company in Durham, where she spent nearly four decades. During her tenure there, Miller watched the company evolve into a racially integrated, unionized company. But much of this interview focuses on her experiences there before World War II, when a non-union workforce primarily consisting of black women worked long hours for little pay under white foremen. Miller and her coworkers kept their mouths shut to keep their jobs, but maintained enough strength to vote in a union when it arrived and to form a supportive community outside of the workplace. This interview should prove a rich source of information for researchers interested in southern industrial work from the perspective of an African American woman. |
Subject Topical |
Apex (N.C.)--Race relations. Women tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. African American women employees--North Carolina--Durham. Farm life--North Carolina--Apex. Women tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco industry--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco workers--North Carolina--Durham. Tobacco workers--Labor unions--North Carolina--Durham. Labor unions, Black--North Carolina--Durham. Shop stewards--North Carolina--Durham. |
Subject Name |
Miller, Dora Scott, 1906-1992. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. |
Citation | Interview with [interviewee name] by [interviewer name], [interview date] [interview number], in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Description
Interview no. | H-0211_Audio |