Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill StrikeOf the wave of labor strikes that swept through the South in 1929, the one at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina, is perhaps the best remembered. In Gastonia 1929 John Salmond provides the first detailed account of the complex events surrounding the strike at the largest textile mill in the Southeast. His compelling narrative unravels the confusing story of the shooting of the town's police chief, the trials of the alleged killers, the unsolved murder of striker Ella May Wiggins, and the strike leaders' conviction and subsequent flight to the Soviet Union. Describing the intensifying climate of violence in the region, Salmond presents the strike within the context of the southern vigilante tradition and as an important chapter in American economic and labor history in the years after World War I. He draws particular attention to the crucial role played by women as both supporters and leaders of the strike, and he highlights the importance of race and class issues in the unfolding of events. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Chapter 2 The Strike | 23 |
Chapter 3 The Shooting | 69 |
Chapter 4 Trial and Terror | 105 |
Chapter 5 The Verdicts | 138 |
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Aderholt April arrested August Battle Lewis Beal's Bessemer City Buch Bulwinkle Charlotte Observer Committee Cotton Mill courtroom Daily Worker defense team deputies events of 1929 Fred Beal Gardner Gaston County Gastonia Daily Gazette Gastonia Strike Greensboro Daily Hall Hendricks Ibid ILD's International Labor Defense interview by author issue jail Jimison July June jury Korstad Labor Defender leadership Leloudis Loray Mill Mary Heaton Vorse mass defense May's McGinnis mill owners mill village mill workers Miller Millhands and Preachers murder National night North Carolina NTWU October October 19 organizer Originally published Paul Crouch pickets police Proletarian Journey prosecution protest Radical reel 68 Roach Saylors September September 11 shooting shot Si Gerson simply South Southern Textile strike leaders strikers tent colony Textile Workers thought tion told tonia trial union University of North violence Vorse Papers wage Weisbord Wiggins Williams witnesses women wrote York