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Oral history interview with Mary Robertson, August 13, 1979 interview H-0288, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Mary Robertson, August 13, 1979 interview H-0288, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview with Mary Robertson, August 13, 1979 (portion title)
Interview H-0288, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Robertson, Mary 1923-2007 (interviewee). Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd (interviewer). Southern Oral History Program. (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) (Added Author). University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. (Added Author).

Summary: Mary Robertson entered the union movement as part of a colonization scheme: the Food and Tobacco Workers Union enlisted her to find work at a tobacco company in Asheville, NC, and convince workers there to join the organization. A career in organization followed, with Robertson weathering blacklisting and a subpoena from the House Un-American Activities Committee to secure a position of power within the Central Labor Union, a centralized network of unions in western North Carolina. In this interview, Robertson offers a history of unionization in the region, drawing connections between regional character and union membership; revealing union strategies for recruiting members; and the role of women in organized labor and southern society. She concludes the interview by describing some of the strategies union leaders are using in the region to create conditions for increased organization. This interview will prove a rich resource for researchers interested in the role of unions in western North Carolina.

Electronic resources

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Record details

  • Physical Description: electronic resource
    remote
    1 online resource.
  • Edition: Electronic edition
  • Publisher: [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, 2007.

Content descriptions

General Note:
Duration: 01:35:09.
Interview participants: Mary Robertson, interviewee; Jacquelyn Hall, interviewer.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Title from menu page (viewed Dec. 4, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 148 kilobytes, 174 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, interview H-0288, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 38 p.
Funding Information Note:
Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.
System Details Note:
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
System requirements: Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.

Search for related items by subject

Subject:
Robertson, Mary 1923-2007 Interviews
Central Labor Union (Asheville, N. C.)
African American labor union members Southern States
African Americans Employment North Carolina Asheville
Central labor councils Political activity North Carolina
Labor movement North Carolina
Labor unions North Carolina Asheville Officials and employees Interviews
Tobacco workers Labor unions Organizing Southern States
Women labor union members North Carolina Asheville Interviews
Appalachian Region, Southern Race relations
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