labor strike Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the I ...

Cigar Factory The Cigar Factory is a building on the National Historical Register. Located at 701 East Bay Street, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, it was constructed in 1881 and opened in 1882 as the Cotton Mill of Charleston. In 1912, it was purchased by t ...

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

Cigar Factory The Cigar Factory is a building on the National Historical Register. Located at 701 East Bay Street, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, it was constructed in 1881 and opened in 1882 as the Cotton Mill of Charleston. In 1912, it was purchased by t ...

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

racially segregated Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

unionized A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America union (UCAPAWA) changed its name to Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) in 1944. History The FTA sought to further organize cannery units and realized the ...

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

Local Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

sitdown strike A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting do ...

walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.solidarity strikes with the Charleston workers, and the national union instituted a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

against ATC products. In addition to demands regarding pay and protections against racial discrimination, the strikers also pushed for the Cigar Factory to become a

closed shop A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fro ...

. While a majority of the people on strike were

black women Black women are women of sub-Saharan African and Afro-diasporic descent, as well as women of Australian Aboriginal and Melanesian descent. The term 'Black' is a racial classification of people, the definition of which has shifted over time and acr ...

, maintaining solidarity along different racial lines was seen as crucial to winning the strike, and the local union began to hold integrated meetings, something they had not previously done. Additionally, the strikers were able to garner support from a wide array of sources in Charleston, including among African American activists and white

progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...

. This support proved essential for continuing the strike into the winter months. Despite a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that mandated the company to issue backpay on November 8, the union decided to remain on strike until all of their demands were met. As a result, the strike continued until March of the following year when the company finally agreed to some concessions, including an 8 cent per hour raise and agreements to ease the racial barriers that barred many African Americans from higher-paying positions in the company. By this point, the number of strikers, which had been around 1,000 at the beginning of the strike, had diminished significantly, and the union quickly accepted the deal, with the strike ending on April 1. The strike is noted by historians as one of the few examples of a united biracial coalition in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

at the time, with the

Preservation Society of Charleston Founded in 1920, the Preservation Society of Charleston is the oldest community-based historic preservation organization in the United States. Susan Pringle Frost founded the organization, first known as the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwell ...

stating that "the Cigar Factory strike was revolutionary in its illustration of the power of a unified voice". However, this coalition would not be sustained in the following years, as

anticommunist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

and segregationist sentiments eroded support for Local 15 among many of the white workers, who organized their own local union. By the 1960s, due to changes in the tobacco industry, the plant experienced massive layoffs and was closed permanently in 1973. The strike is also notable as the place where the modern version of the gospel hymn and civil rights anthem "

We Shall Overcome "We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the American civil rights movement. The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day", a hymn by Charles Albert Ti ...

" was first performed.

Background

The Cigar Factory

During the late 1800s, influential business leaders and boosters in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

, sought to encourage increased industrial development in the city. At the time, Charleston was the economic center of the state, but was not developing as rapidly as some other major cities in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, and much of the state's

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

was based in

Upstate South Carolina The Upstate is the region in the westernmost part of South Carolina, United States, also known as the Upcountry, which is the historical term. Although loosely defined among locals, the general definition includes the 10 counties of the commerc ...

. In 1882, as part of this push for industry in South Carolina, the Charleston Manufacturing Company began operations at a newly built

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

in the city's Hampstead neighborhood, which would eventually become known as the Charleston Cotton Mills. This five-story building, which was constructed in the Victorian style, occupied an entire city block at the intersection of East Bay Street and Columbus Street, several blocks away from

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, ...

and overlooking the Cooper River. When it first opened, the plant only hired

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

in custodial positions, while textile jobs were performed by local

white Americans White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...

under the supervision of experienced workers from cotton mills in the

Northern United States The Northern United States, commonly referred to as the American North, the Northern States, or simply the North, is a geographical or historical region of the United States. History Early history Before the 19th century westward expansion, the "N ...

. However, in 1897, due to poor business, the plant began to accept African American workers to certain positions that had previously been off-limits. However, the plant closed shortly thereafter, and an effort to revive the plant two years later with a workforce that included

black women Black women are women of sub-Saharan African and Afro-diasporic descent, as well as women of Australian Aboriginal and Melanesian descent. The term 'Black' is a racial classification of people, the definition of which has shifted over time and acr ...

from the nearby

Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States. Numbering over 100, they are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Carolina, ...

also failed. The plant remained dormant for several years until the property was leased to the

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

(ATC), which converted the plant from a cotton mill to a

cigar A cigar is a rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco leaves made to be smoked. Cigars are produced in a variety of sizes and shapes. Since the 20th century, almost all cigars are made of three distinct components: the filler, the binder l ...

factory. By 1912, the company purchased the plant outright, and it would eventually become known locally simply as the

Cigar Factory The Cigar Factory is a building on the National Historical Register. Located at 701 East Bay Street, Charleston, South Carolina, USA, it was constructed in 1881 and opened in 1882 as the Cotton Mill of Charleston. In 1912, it was purchased by t ...

. Like the cotton mill before it, this plant hired both black and white people, with black workers performing separate tasks from the white workers, such as creating

cigar box A cigar box is a box container for cigar packaging. Traditionally cigar boxes have been made of wood, cardboard or paper. Spanish cedar has been described as the "best" kind of wood for cigar boxes because of its beautiful grain, fine textu ...

es or processing

tobacco leaves Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus ''Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the chie ...

. By the 1930s, the plant employed about 1,400 people, of whom 60 percent were women, and had an annual

payroll A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks pe ...

of approximately $1 million. At its peak of production, the plant was creating 1.5 million cigars per day. The plant attracted many African American workers as it offered some of the highest wages available to them in the city, though they had to contend with both the physically demanding nature of the work and constant

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

from management.

FTA-CIO Local 15

In the 1940s, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, workers at the plant organized under a

local union A local union (often shortened to local), in North America, or union branch (known as a lodge in some unions), in the United Kingdom and other countries, is a local branch (or chapter) of a usually national trade union. The terms used for sub-bran ...

of the

United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) was a labor union formed in 1937 and incorporated large numbers of Mexican, black, Asian, and Anglo food processing workers under its banner. The founders envisioned ...

(UCAPAWA), a

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

affiliated with the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...

(CIO). The UCAPAWA changed its name shortly after the Charleston workers organized with it, becoming the

Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America union (UCAPAWA) changed its name to Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers (FTA) in 1944. History The FTA sought to further organize cannery units and realized the ...

(FTA), with the local union at the Cigar Factory becoming FTA-CIO Local 15. On September 1, 1944, they voted to approve their first union contract, and leaders of Local 15 began to negotiate with ATC management. The union agreed to abide by a guideline set by the National War Labor Board (NWLB) that barred the union from engaging in any

strike action Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...

, and while the company did not institute immediate pay raises, they did agree to raise workers' pay after the war was over. Under the terms of the agreement, black workers would receive a pay raise from 25 cents per hour to 40 cents per hour, while white workers who were

machinist A machinist is a tradesperson or trained professional who not only operates machine tools, but also has the knowledge of tooling and materials required to create set ups on machine tools such as milling machines, grinders, lathes, and drilling ...

s and

supervisor A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...

s would be paid 65 cents per hour. During the war, despite an excess profits tax, the ATC experienced significant growth and record profits, with their workforce at the Cigar Factory expanding to almost 2,000 employees. Additionally, following the war's conclusion in 1945, the company received roughly $1.3 million in repayment from the excess profits tax that had been levied during the war. With World War II over, the Cigar Factory employed about 1,400 workers, of whom about 900 were black women, and roughly 1,000 were Local 15 members. On September 24, 1945, Local 15 members voted to approve a new contract that called for increased wages and backpay that had been guaranteed during the war. The following month, the NWLB also ordered ATC to pay their workers some wages that had been withheld by the company from December 1944 to October 1945. However, company executives ignored the order and Harold F. McGinnis, the manager of the Cigar Factory, also refused to honor the local union's contract. On October 1, McGinnis fired a black male employee after his white female supervisor accused him of "taking familiarities" with some of the female employees in the plant, a move that many Local 15 members saw as racially charged. With the firing and the failure to honor their contract, tensions increased dramatically between the company and the union, and on October 3, Local 15 president Reuel Stanfield organized a

sitdown strike A sit-down strike is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting do ...

. Over the next two days, about one hundred workers participated, remaining idle by their workstations to protest the company, and on October 4, about 900 African American employees performed a

walkout In labor disputes, a walkout is a labor strike, the act of employees collectively leaving the workplace and withholding labor as an act of protest. A walkout can also mean the act of leaving a place of work, school, a meeting, a company, or an ...

after the fired employee was not given his job back. In light of these events, on October 5, McGinnis met with Stanfield to discuss the workers' grievances. However, during the meeting, McGinnis offered no firm plans on how to handle their grievances, and following the meeting, the company's process for issuing backpay was slow. This was not an issue that was unique to the Cigar Factory, as workers at other ATC plants in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.solidarity strike at all three of these ATC plants, and on October 15, workers at the Philadelphia plant became the first to go on strike. Workers at the Charleston plant would go on strike as well one week later, on October 22.

Course of the strike

The October 22 strike action at the Cigar Factory involved a walkout of about 1,000 workers, a majority of whom were black women. The workers' demands included a 25 cent per hour raise, the issuance of backpay, and a

closed shop A pre-entry closed shop (or simply closed shop) is a form of union security agreement under which the employer agrees to hire union members only, and employees must remain members of the union at all times to remain employed. This is different fro ...

model for the plant that would have required new hires to join the union. Picket lines were established outside of the factory, with strikers carrying placards that stated their demands and singing

spirituals Spirituals (also known as Negro spirituals, African American spirituals, Black spirituals, or spiritual music) is a genre of Christian music that is associated with Black Americans, which merged sub-Saharan African cultural heritage with the e ...

. During these pickets, the strikers faced harassment from police officers and segregationists, and on several occasions there were physical confrontations between the strikers and

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

s that the company had brought in to keep the plant operating. Additionally, the union launched a

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

against ATC products. On October 25, several days after the Charleston workers went on strike, workers at the ATC plant in Trenton also joined the Philadelphia and Charleston workers in a solidarity strike. The following day, on October 26, Local 15 held its first integrated meeting at the Morris Street Baptist Church. Prior to this, the local had often held separate meetings for its black and white members, but strike leaders felt that maintaining solidarity among the union members was crucial to winning their demands. Virginia Durr-2 (1948)

Because of ATC's refusal to issue backpay in spite of orders from the federal government, the union filed a complaint with the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

(NLRB), who sent a representative of theirs to Charleston on November 8 to investigate the matter. That same day, Stanfield was attacked by four individuals while at the union's offices, and while the NLRB representative and others positively identified the four assailants to police officers who arrested them, the police declined to file charges against the men and released them. Ultimately, the NLRB ruled in favor of the union and ordered the company to pay workers at the Charleston plant $120,000 in backpay that was owed to them. Several days later, on November 15, a group of about 1,000 strikers gathered at the plant in a massive demonstration, following which ATC agreed to issue the backpay. Despite rumors that this would bring an end to the strike, the FTA decided to keep the strike ongoing at the three ATC plants until all of the workers' grievances were addressed. As a result, the strike continued past the fall and into winter, during which time Charleston experienced unusually extreme weather phenomena, including

freezing rain Freezing rain is rain maintained at temperatures below freezing by the ambient air mass that causes freezing on contact with surfaces. Unlike a mixture of rain and snow or ice pellets, freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets. The rain ...

and snow. However, the strike persisted thanks in large part to support from many local activists and organizations. Labor and civil rights activists Karl and Frances Rogers Korstad, who had had experience in organized labor in the tobacco industry, traveled to Charleston early on in the strike and used their connections to get the

Southern Conference for Human Welfare The Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) (1938-1948) was an organization that sought to promote New Deal-type reforms to the South in terms of social justice, civil rights, and electoral reform. It folded due to funding problems and alleg ...

(SCHW) to lend financial and vocal support for the strike. SCHW co-founders

Virginia Foster Durr Virginia Foster Durr (August 6, 1903 – February 24, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and lobbyist. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1903 to Dr. Sterling Foster, an Alabama Presbyterian minister, and Ann Patterson Foster. At ...

and Clark Foreman helped to establish the Emergency Committee to Aid Families of American Tobacco Company Strikers, and a permanent local chapter of the SCHW was founded in Charleston. Ultimately, these efforts were able to attract a large base of support for the strike among both black civil rights activists and white

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...

progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...

. For much of the strike, McGinnis and management at the Cigar Factory refused to meet with union leaders or negotiate, and as a result the strike continued for several months. However, by March 1946, the company was willing to negotiate an end to the labor dispute, as the strike and boycott had hurt the company's public image and there were concerns that the NLRB would become involved. As a result, in the last week of March, the company agreed to certain concessions that were readily accepted by the union. These concessions included a pay raise of 8 cents per hour and an agreement to ease racial barriers to certain skilled positions within the factory. By this point, there were few strikers left actively picketing the factory, and while the concessions fell short of the workers' initial demands, they returned to work on April 1, bringing an end to the strike.

Aftermath

Many historians note that the strike was significant in bringing together black and white individuals towards a common goal, a rarity in the southern United States at the time. In an article on the strike, the

Preservation Society of Charleston Founded in 1920, the Preservation Society of Charleston is the oldest community-based historic preservation organization in the United States. Susan Pringle Frost founded the organization, first known as the Society for the Preservation of Old Dwell ...

stated that, "In the 1940s south, the Cigar Factory strike was revolutionary in its illustration of the power of a unified voice". A 2016 book by historians Herb Frazier, Bernard Edward Powers Jr., and Marjory Wentworth echoes these same sentiments, stating that the strike was "far ahead of its time" for uniting black and white economic interests. Many of the individuals who were involved in the strike would later be active in the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

that would begin several years after the strike ended, and in Charleston during this time there was a surge in political activity among African Americans, such as with the formation of the Progressive Democratic Party. Other sources view the strike as part of a long history of organized labor activity among African Americans in Charleston, including activities among organized longshoremen and the 1969 Charleston hospital strike, the latter of which drawing inspiration from the Cigar Factory strike. However, the strike would prove to be one of the last major biracial movements in the city. According to Frazier, Powers, and Wentworth, "The divisions between working-class Southerners of both races increased under the pressures of

anticommunist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...

and anti-integration rhetoric that was soon to come". The passage of the

Taft–Hartley Act The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of Preside ...

in 1947 severely hurt the FTA, which had several ties to communist organizations and individuals, and as a result, Local 15 became associated instead with the Distributive, Processing, and Office Workers of America (DPO) of the CIO. Around this same time, many white workers at the factory abandoned DPO Local 15 and joined the white-only Tobacco Workers International Union (TWIU) Local 257, which competed with Local 15 for influence at the plant. By the mid-1950s, Local 257, which was considered a company union, had become a serious threat to Local 15's influence. Additionally, by the 1960s, the factory was experiencing the negative effects of changes in the tobacco industry related to increased competition from foreign companies and a requirement from the federal government to add

tobacco packaging warning messages Tobacco package warning messages are Warning label, warning messages that appear on the Cigarette pack, packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products concerning their Health effects of tobacco, health effects. They have been implemented in a ...

to their products. As a result, in 1966, the Cigar Factory fired 900 workers, and in 1973, the factory closed permanently, having operated continuously for about 70 years. In 1980,

Johnson & Wales University Johnson & Wales University (JWU) is a private university with its main campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded as a business school in 1914 by Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, JWU enrolled 7,357 students across its campuses in the fa ...

began using the facility as for classroom space, and that same year, the building was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. In 2013, a

historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

was added outside the building that gave information on the strike, and the following year, the property was purchased by a private company that converted it into a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

.

"We Shall Overcome"

The gospel song "

We Shall Overcome "We Shall Overcome" is a gospel song which became a protest song and a key anthem of the American civil rights movement. The song is most commonly attributed as being lyrically descended from "I'll Overcome Some Day", a hymn by Charles Albert Ti ...

" traces its origins back to the 1800s, when it was used as a work song sung by slaves in the United States, and in 1901 a version was published by the

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

minister Charles Albert Tindley titled "I'll Overcome Someday". During the Cigar Factory strike, Lucille Simmons, a striker and longtime employee of the factory, would sing a modified version of this gospel song, which became known as "We Will Overcome", to signify the end of picketing for the day. According to a 2016 article in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', Simmons's performances would be " e first widely acknowledged performance of the modern song". In 1947, two members of Local 15, Anna Lee Bonneau and Evelyn Risher, traveled to the

Highlander Folk School The Highlander Research and Education Center, formerly known as the Highlander Folk School, is a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in New Market, Tennessee. Founded in 1932 by activist Myles Horton, educator Don West (e ...

in

Monteagle, Tennessee Monteagle is a town in Franklin, Grundy, and Marion counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Cumberland Plateau region of the southeastern part of the state. The population was 1,238 at the 2000 census – 804 of the town's 1,238 resi ...

, to attend a workshop. There, they introduced the song to civil rights activist

Zilphia Horton Zilphia Horton (April 14, 1910 – April 11, 1956) was an American musician, community organizer, educator, Civil Rights activist, and folklorist. She is best known for her work with her husband Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School where s ...

, who sang it for activist and folk singer

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

later that year. Seeger is generally regarded as popularizing the song, with the name "We Shall Overcome", which became a major anthem in the civil rights movement. The 2013 historical marker at the Cigar Factory gives information regarding the singing of the song during the strike.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * *

External links

* {{Official website, 1=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=67363, name=Cigar Factory / “We Shall Overcome”, Historical Marker Database 1945 in South Carolina 1945 labor disputes and strikes 1946 in South Carolina 1946 labor disputes and strikes African-American history in Charleston, South Carolina American Tobacco Company Boycotts Cigar makers strikes Congress of Industrial Organizations History of Charleston, South Carolina Labor disputes in South Carolina Manufacturing industry labor disputes in the United States

Background

The Cigar Factory

FTA-CIO Local 15

Course of the strike

Aftermath

"We Shall Overcome"

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links