The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Civil rights unionism

Repository: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Southern Oral History Program

Collection Description (Extant): SERIES E.5. CIVIL RIGHTS UNIONISM: These interviews were conducted by Robert Rodgers Korstad, Lisa Hazirjian, Karl Korstad, and Lane Windham between 1976 and 1998. For the most part, the interviewees are people who were employed by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) in Winston-Salem, N.C., in the first half of the 20th century, especially during the 1940s. Many of the RJR employees were organizers, leaders, or members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America (FTA) Local 22. Other interviewees are employees who were not involved in Local 22 and who may have opposed the union. Also interviewed are RJR officials and FTA organizers who were not RJR employees, but who worked with Local 22 during the 1940s. There is a special focus on the work stoppages and strikes of 1943 and 1947. The purpose of this series of interviews was to understand the organization and actions of Winston-Salem's FTA Local 22; the living conditions in the African American community in Winston-Salem in the early 1900s through the 1940s; and the role played by the Communist Party in local events during this time. Interviews conducted by Lane Windham focus on FTA Local 10 in Greenville, N.C. Local 22 leaders and organizers were heavily involved in the organization of Local 10.

Access Copy Note: Some interviews are restricted or closed as noted in the finding aid.
Interview transcripts are CLOSED while they are being digitized. Please contact the The Southern Historical Collection for more information.
If an interview has been transcribed, researchers should quote from the transcript. If no transcript is available, reference to material in the interview should be taken from the audio recording. Some interviews have restrictions imposed by the interviewees or interviewers; restricted interviews are clearly marked. Researchers may, for example, be required to obtain written permission from the interviewee or interviewer to quote from the interview.
Use of audiotapes or videotapes may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Collection URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/sohp/projects.html

Digital Status: Yes

Existing IDs: Collection Number: 04007 E.5

Extent: 80 items

Finding Aid URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Southern_Oral_History_Program_Collection.html

Language: English

Interviewees: Robert "Chick" Black, Wardell Boulware, Lucy Bowles, Mary Brice, Viola Brown, Joseph Califf, Nettie Mae Carter, Chester Davis, Leon Edwards, Elizabeth Eudy, Blanche Fishel, Mary Lou Ford, Bernard Friedland, Jack Frye, Frank Green, Willie Grier, Evelyn Hairston, Lankfell Hairston, D. Yates Heafner, Baxter Holman, Velma Hopkins, Ernest Timwood Isley, Jr., Alice Burke Jarvis, Hobart Johnson, Hazel Jones, Ruby D. Jones, Phillip Koritz, Karl Korstad, Annie Little, Ellen Marsh, Anne Mathews, Edwin McCrae, Beatrice McCrae, William McGirt, Jr., James McKensie, Evelyn Nesbitt, Lonnie Nesmith, Frank O'Neil, Theodosia Simpson Phelps, Inez Prevard, Luther Ranson, Sidney Royal, Lee Salmons, Junius Scales, Charles E. Scott, Jr., Cornelius Simmons, Louise Smith, Jack Speaks, Etta Stevenson, Jim Stine, Katherine Stine, Sylvia Thompson, Ernest Leylon Tilley, Charles Wade, Rebecca Williams, Warren Williams, Marie Winston, Diane Wright

Rights (Extant): When the copyright has not been assigned to the University of North Carolina, copyright is retained by the interviewers/interviewees, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Subjects:

African American labor union members
African Americans--North Carolina
Civil rights--Economic aspects
Communism
Discrimination in employment
Labor movement
Labor unions

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts