The Labor Movement in the U.S. South: General Resources
Published Resources
Reconsidering Southern Labor History by ISBN: 9780813056975Publication Date: 2018-07-30The American Dream of reaching success through sheer sweat and determination rings false for countless members of today's working class. This volume shows that many of the difficulties facing modern laborers have deep roots in the history of worker exploitation in the South. Contributors make the case that the problems that have long beset southern labor, including the legacy of slavery, low wages, lack of collective bargaining rights, and repression of organized unions, have become the problems of workers across the United States.
Fighting Against the Odds by ISBN: 0813029791Publication Date: 2006-02-28This is a concise yet wide-ranging and accessible synthesis of the experience of southern workers between World War II and the present, and it links its discussion to important debates in the field of southern history today. Timothy Minchin brings the story of southern labor up to date and places the workers' own experiences in the forefront of his account. He considers the central question of whether the modern South is still distinctive, arguing that the region's lower wages, lower rates of unionization, and legacy of racial segregation continue to set it apart.
Fight Like Hell by ISBN: 9781982171056Publication Date: 2022-04-26A revelatory and inclusive history of the American labor movement, from independent journalist and Teen Vogue labor columnist Kim Kelly. Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America's civil rights movement. These are only some of the working-class heroes who propelled American labor's relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law. The names and faces of countless silenced, misrepresented, or forgotten leaders have been erased by time as a privileged few decide which stories get cut from the final copy: those of women, people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, sex workers, prisoners, and the poor. In this assiduously researched work of journalism, Teen Vogue columnist and independent labor reporter Kim Kelly excavates that history and shows how the rights the American worker has today--the forty-hour workweek, workplace-safety standards, restrictions on child labor, protection from harassment and discrimination on the job--were earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears.
Photographs
The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives (NCCPA) includes many photographs related to the labor movement in North Carolina. Researchers are encouraged to search on the NCCPA's digital collections to locate images related to specific topics, people, or events. Here is an example, results from a search of the keyword "strike."
Newspapers and Periodicals
Historical newspapers and other periodicals are an important resource for researching the history of the Southern labor movement. Wilson Special Collections Library has a large collection of historical newspapers that can be accessed online and in the library's readings rooms. The majority of newspapers housed in Wilson Library can be accessed on microfilm. There are several additional ways to locate relevant newspaper articles.
Newspapers.com: This is a subscription service available to users affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill and to patrons in the library buildings. The site contains digitized North Carolina newspapers and is full-text searchable. Most of the digitized newspaper issues date from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. Later issues can be accessed on microfilm.
America's News: This is a subscription service available to users affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill and to patrons in the library buildings. Of particular note, this database provides access to historical and current newspaper content from The News and Observer, The Greensboro News & Record, and The Charlotte Observer.
DigitalNC: This site contains a wealth of useful resources from across North Carolina including tens of thousands of pages of digitized North Carolina newspapers.
North Carolina People, Places, and Things Citation Search: This tool allows researchers to search citations for newspaper articles gathered by North Carolina Collection staff members. Bound volumes of clippings can be found in the North Carolina Collection Reading Room and are a great resource for finding information on people, places, and things from the state. Relevant clipping collections include North Carolina Biographical Clippings, North Carolina Subject Clippings, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Clippings, and Negroes in North Carolina Clippings. There are also smaller clippings collections that related to certain events and individuals at UNC- Chapel Hill.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
In the UNC Libraries online catalog, many materials on Southern labor history are listed under the following subject headings:
Labor -- Southern States -- History.
Labor movement -- Southern States.
Labor –- North Carolina -– History.
Industrial relations -- North Carolina.
Industrial relations -- Southern States.
There are additional, more specific subject headings that may also be useful in locating relevant resources. Researchers are encouraged to try different combinations of topical, geographical, and chronological subject headings to narrow their search. For example, changing "Southern States" to "South Carolina" in the examples given above will give a different, more scoped, set of results.
External Links
