Ella May Wiggins (ca. March 1900 – September 14, 1929) was a union organizer and balladeer who was killed during the

Loray Mill Strike The Loray Mill strike of 1929 in Gastonia, North Carolina, was a notable strike action in the labor history of the United States. Though largely unsuccessful in attaining its goals of better working conditions and wages, the strike was considered ...

Gastonia, North Carolina Gastonia is the largest city in and county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina, United States. It is the second-largest satellite city of the Charlotte area, behind Concord. The population was 80,411 at the 2020 census, up from 71,741 in 2010 ...

. According to ''Like a Family'', a 1987 account of "the making of a Southern cotton mill world," the Gastonia protest collapsed in the aftermath of Wiggins's death. Her union, the National Textile Workers Union, ultimately was "too weak to challenge the economic and political power of the cotton manufacturers and to organize the labor force."

Union organizing

A native of

Sevierville, Tennessee Sevierville ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 17,889 at the 2020 United States Census. History Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human ...

, Wiggins by 1926 settled in Gaston County, NC, living in an

African-American neighborhood African-American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Generally, an African American neighborhood is one where the majority of the people who live there are African American. ...

outside Bessemer City known as Stumptown. Her neighbors would look after her children as she worked as a spinner at American Mill No. 2. According to an article published online by the

North Carolina Museum of History The North Carolina Museum of History is a history museum located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The museum is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives ...

, "she worked twelve-hour days, six days a week, earning about nine dollars a week." She became a bookkeeper for the union, which was Communist run, and traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify about labor practices in the South. She also told her story: “I’m the mother of nine. Four died with the whooping cough, all at once. I was working nights, I asked the super to put me on days, so’s I could tend ‘em when they had their bad spells. But he wouldn’t. I don’t know why. ... So I had to quit, and then there wasn’t no money for medicine, and they just died.” She also sang her ballads, including her best-known song, “A Mill Mother’s Lament,” which has been recorded by

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 ...

, among others. Wiggins believed in organizing African-Americans along with whites, and in a close vote, her local NTWU branch voted to admit African-Americans to the union.

Death

On September 14, 1929, she and some other union members drove to a union meeting in Gastonia. They were met by an armed mob, and turned back. They had driven about five miles toward home when they were stopped by a car; armed men jumped out and began shooting. Wiggins was shot in the chest and killed. Her five children were sent to live in orphanages. Five Loray Mill employees were charged in Wiggins's murder but were acquitted after less than 30 minutes of deliberation in a trial in Charlotte in March 1930 despite the fact that the crime was committed in daylight and more than 50 people witnessed it. Meanwhile, her fellow NTWU organizer

Fred Beal Fred Erwin Beal (1896–1954) was an American labor-union organizer whose critical reflections on his work and travel in the Soviet Union divided left-wing and liberal opinion. In 1929 he had been a ''cause célèbre'' when, in Gastonia, North Car ...

and six other comrades were tried and convicted of conspiracy in the unsolved killing of a local police chief."Gastonia Strikers Get Long Terms,"
''Salem Statesman-Journal,'' Nov. 5, 1929, pg. 3. Wiggins was buried in the Bessemer City Cemetery on North 13th St. Hers is one of the biggest markers there, after being expanded by the A.F.L-C.I.O. in 1979 to include a marker inscribed, "She died carrying the torch of social justice." Her maiden name is misspelled on the marker at her gravesite. Three of her children were later buried near her.

Legacy

Wiggins's life and death inspired many works of fiction, including ''Strike!'', a 1930 work by

Mary Heaton Vorse Mary Heaton Vorse (October 11, 1874 – June 14, 1966) was an American journalist and novelist. She established her reputation as a journalist reporting the labor protests of a largely female and immigrant workforce in the east-coast textile indus ...

, where Wiggins is given the name Mamie Lewis, and ''The Last Ballad'' (2018) by North Carolina writer

Wiley Cash Wiley Cash (born September 7, 1977) is a ''New York Times'' best-selling novelist from North Carolina. He is the author of three novels, ''A Land More Kind Than Home'', ''This Dark Road to Mercy'', and ''The Last Ballad''. His work has won nu ...

, which won the

Southern Book Prize Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize (formerly the SEBA Book Award and SIBA Book Award) is an literary award given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999.Summer, Bob (1999). "SEBA presents first book award ...

for Literary Fiction. "Prosperity Mill", by the Swiss-American author Mary Anna Barbey, was originally written and published in French. It is now available in English. The plot follows closely the strike of 1929 in Gastonia and Ella May appears in her own name.

Union organizing

Death

Legacy

References

Further reading