The Loray Mill strike of 1929 in Gastonia,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, was a notable

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 ...

in the

labor history of the United States The labor history of the United States describes the history of organized labor, US labor law, and more general history of working people, in the United States. Beginning in the 1930s, unions became important allies of the Democratic Party. T ...

. Though largely unsuccessful in attaining its goals of better working conditions and wages, the strike was considered successful in a lasting way; it caused an immense controversy which gave the

labor movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

momentum in the South.

Background

Located in the south-western

piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

of North Carolina,

Gaston County Gaston County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 227,943. The county seat is Gastonia. Dallas served as the original county seat from 1846 until 1911. Gaston County is included in the C ...

had the ideal resources for

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

. Because of the large potential workforce of former

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

and failed farmers, many northern industrialists moved south in search of a reduced cost of labor.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

brought great prosperity to the southern cotton mills, "fueled largely by government defense orders for uniforms, tents, and war material. Thousands of new jobs opened in the mills, and wages soared to all time highs." This boom was to be short-lived, however, and the prosperity that the workers enjoyed soon disappeared. The luxury items they had purchased on credit were now stretching their budgets so much that they could hardly afford to put food on the table. Managers introduced the "stretch-out" system in which spinners and weavers not only doubled their work, but also reduced their wages. "I used to tend forty-eight looms," complained a South Carolina weaver in 1929, "while under the stretch-out I have to tend ninety looms and I couldn't do it. Three years ago I was makin' over $19 a week. Now I make $17.70." "By the late 1920s some mill workers' wages sank as low as $5 a week." The owners of the mills insisted on keeping prices down, which caused mill work to become extremely dangerous and dirty. Often the workdays were so long that the women, who made up a considerable percentage of the workers, were rarely home to raise their children. Upon hearing about the conditions in the Loray Mill,

Fred Erwin 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 ...

of the

National Textile Workers Union National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

(NTWU), a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

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 ( ...

, as well as a member of the

Trade Union Unity League The Trade Union Unity League (TUUL) was an industrial union umbrella organization under the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) between 1929 and 1935. The group was an American affiliate of the Red International of Labor Unions. The fo ...

, began focusing his attention on the small town of Gastonia.

Strike

On Saturday, March 30, 1929, the union held its first public meeting in Gastonia.

Ellen Dawson Ellen "Nellie" Dawson Kanki (14 December 1900 - 17 April 1967), best known as Ellen Dawson, was a Scottish-American political activist and trade union organizer in the textile industry. Dawson is best remembered as an active participant in three ...

, co-director of the strike and vice president of the NTWU, urged workers to stand resolute. The "seemingly frail" woman was in fact a "tough, experienced organizer and superb stump speaker." At 3 pm, Beal took a vote and the workers voted unanimously to strike. On April 1, 1929 1,800 mill workers from the Loray Mill walked off their jobs to protest intolerable working conditions. The strikers demanded a forty-hour workweek, a minimum $20 weekly wage, union recognition, and the abolition of the stretch-out system. In response, management evicted families from mill-owned homes. In an effort to retain order, Mayor Rankin asked Governor

O. Max Gardner Oliver Max Gardner (March 22, 1882February 6, 1947) was an American politician who served as the List of Governors of North Carolina, 57th Governor of North Carolina, governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1929 to 1933. A member of the ...

for assistance. He immediately sent 250

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

troops who arrived on April 3. The strike escalated throughout the month. Nearly 100 masked men destroyed the NTWU's headquarters on April 18, As a result, the NTWU started a

tent city A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures. State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable ten ...

on the outskirts of town that was protected by armed strikers at all times. The situation continued throughout the next few months as the workers continued to strike despite the return to production at the Loray Mill, making their situation appear hopeless. On June 7, 150 workers marched to the mill to call out the night shift. They were attacked and dispersed by sheriff's deputies. Later that night, four officers including Police Chief Aderholt arrived at the tent city and demanded that the guards hand over their weapons. An altercation ensued and Chief Aderholt was killed. Two of his officers and several strikers were wounded.

Trial

In the aftermath, 71 strikers were arrested. Eight strikers and another eight members of the NTWU, including Beal and Clarence Miller, were indicted for the murder of Sheriff Alderholt. During the trial, a juror went

insane Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

after seeing some disturbing evidence. As a result, the judge was forced to declare a mistrial. When news of the mistrial was released, a general wave of terror ran through the countryside, with the anti-strike "Committee of One Hundred" prominent in the vigilante activity.Chuck McShane
"The Loray Mill Strike in Gastonia: Demands for Higher Pay and a 40-hour Workweek Ignite a Furor in Gastonia in 1929,"
OurState.com The defense team included:

Arthur Garfield Hays Arthur Garfield Hays (December 12, 1881 – December 14, 1954) was an American lawyer and champion of civil liberties issues, best known as a co-founder and general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union and for participating in notable ca ...

, who had worked briefly in the

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

case, Dr. John Randolph Neal of the Scopes Trial defense, and Leon Josephson of

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was activ ...

, the legal arm of the

Communist Party of the USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

. The prosecutor was

Clyde R. Hoey Clyde Roark Hoey (December 11, 1877May 12, 1954) was an American Democratic politician from North Carolina. He served in both houses of the state legislature and served briefly in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1919 to 1921. He was Nor ...

, a brother-in-law of Governor Gardner. During the early part of September, mobs of men gathered up strikers and ran them out of the county. These actions came to a head when, on September 14, a truck containing 22 strikers was chased down and fired upon. One female striker, Ella Mae Wiggins, was killed. In a retrial in the Alderholt case, seven men were charged with his murder, six of whom were Loray Mill employees. All were found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment by Judge M.V. Barnhill."Gastonia Strikers Get Long Terms,"
''Salem Statesman-Journal,'' Nov. 5, 1929, pg. 3.

Aftermath

Beal and Miller were released on bail and fled to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

to avoid their prison sentences. (On their ship were American Communist writer

Myra Page Dorothy Markey (born Dorothy Page Gary, 1897–1993), known by the pen name Myra Page, was a 20th-century American communist writer, journalist, union activist, and teacher. Background Page was born Dorothy Page Gary on October 1, 1897, ...

and her husband John Markey.) Disillusioned by his life in the USSR, Beal subsequently returned to the United States and surrendered to the authorities in North Carolina. He was later pardoned.

Ella May Wiggins

Ella May Wiggins (also known as Ella ''Mae'' Wiggins) was a single mother of nine, four of whom died of

whooping cough Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or ...

due to inadequate medical care. Rather than renting a mill-owned house in the mill town, she chose to live in a wooden shack in an African-American hamlet called "Stump Town" where her children were cared for by a local African-American woman. Seeing the union as the best hope for her children, Wiggins became a key leader of the strike, and was very successful in rallying the workers through her songs. Some of her better known works are "Mill Mother's Lament", 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 ...

, "Chief Aderholt", and "The Big Fat Boss and the Workers". Woody Guthrie referred to her as "the pioneer of the protest ballad". Wiggins went to Washington D.C. and spoke with senators in the hallways, trying to impress upon them the dire the working conditions of the Southern mills. On September 14, 1929, following her return to North Carolina, a pregnant Ella May Wiggins was shot in the chest as she rode in the back of a pick-up truck with her brother, Wes, and 2 other men — all headed to a union meeting in Gastonia. Two car loads of armed men pulled the truck over on the bridge leaving Bessemer City for Gastonia. The strike collapsed shortly after her murder.

Impact

Overall the strike was not a success, but during the same time period there was a series of other textile strikes throughout the South. The main objective of these strikes was the abolition of the stretch-out, and some met with a measure of success. The success was difficult to come by, though, as strikers were branded by the press as "radicals," and labor organizers as "foreign agitators." "Wherever a strike broke out, state troops were immediately sent and to this show of force were added police, deputy sheriffs, and . . .

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

s." Over time, this spontaneous uprising of textile workers in the South allowed for the formation of the United Textile Workers, the "first significant breach in southern anti-unionism."

Gastonia novels

Because of the violent and dramatic events surrounding the mill strikes in Gastonia, North Carolina, the labor struggle became a symbol of "the strength, courage, and tenacity" of workers in America. The recognizable incidents taken from actual strikes during the period led to the publishing of no less than six strike novels within four years. These are commonly referred to as the Gastonia novels: * Anderson, Sherwood: ''Beyond Desire'' * Dargan, Olive Tilford: ''Call Home the Heart'' * Lumpkin, Grace: '' To Make My Bread'' *

: ''Gathering Storm'' *Rollins Jr., William: ''The Shadow Before'' * Vorse, Mary Heaton: ''Strike!'' "In each of the novels, Gastonia is given as the focus of the universal

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

, as a set of real events operating within the context of

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

ideology. . . . The novels take a singular, actual event and offer literary and ideological interpretations which can, in turn, be applied to the reader's own experiences and beliefs." Marxist critics responded favorably to the novels, seeing the strike novel as a way to "deal in one way or another with the literary and philosophical problem of the individual against the collective." Sherwood Anderson received great acclaim for ''Beyond Desire'' and the characters' exploitation and suffocation by capitalism. "Grace Lumpkin's ''To Make My Bread'' . . . was so well thought of in Party circles that it was awarded the 1932 Gorky prize, while at the same time it received a favorable review in ''The New York Times''."Salmond, 188 Most critics, however, agree that Olive Tilford Dargan's ''Call Home the Heart'' is "by far the best of those ookson Gastonia. . . . of all the Gastonia novels it most successfully transcends issues of ideology and class to deal with problems of a universal nature." The Gastonia Novels, while well received in their time, were not widely read. In more recent years several of them have gained a new popularity for their feminist subtexts and treatment of race and social class. "The strike novels emphasize that no lost strike is ever a complete defeat, just as no strike is ever a complete victory."Blake, 176

Footnotes

External links

''Charlotte Observer'' newspaper images
at UNC University Libraries {{Authority control 1929 in the United States 1929 labor disputes and strikes Gaston County, North Carolina Textile and clothing labor disputes in the United States 1929 in North Carolina Labor disputes in North Carolina Riots and civil disorder in North Carolina