Record Details

Catalog Search

Search The Catalog


Back To Results
Showing Item 1 of 1
Oral history interview with Lacy Wright, March 10, 1975 interview E-0017, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007). Cover Image E-book

Oral history interview with Lacy Wright, March 10, 1975 interview E-0017, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Interview with Lacy Wright, March 10, 1975 (portion title)
Interview E-0017, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) (other title)
Wright, Lacy 1904-1985 (interviewee). Finger, William R. (interviewer). Hughes, Chip (interviewer). Wright, Lacy Mrs (interviewee). 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: Lacy Wright was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the age of twelve, Wright left school in order to start working to help support his family. Wright's father worked for Cone Mills in Greensboro and arranged for Wright to work at the White Oak plant where he worked. Wright explains that it was a common practice for children to work at the same plant as their parents. Wright explains how company paternalism in the mills and in the mill villages helped to facilitate family ties in the workplace: children compromised approximately one-fourth of the labor force in the Cone textile plants during this time. Except of a brief stint with the post office in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Wright worked only for Cone Mills from the late 1910s into the mid-1960s, when he retired. All but two of those years were spent in the White Oak plant. During these years, Wright also lived in Cone Mill villages. Throughout the interview he discusses what it was like to live in company housing, stressing the paternal role of Cone Mills in the lives of their workers. Aside from some efforts at organization and one short-lived strike during the late 1910s and early 1920s, Cone Mill workers largely stayed out of the labor movement until the 1950s. Decent wages and a low layoff rate kept them out of the 1934 general strike, say Wright. Nevertheless, Cone Mill workers were increasingly drawn into the labor movement during the 1950s when organizers from the United Textile Workers/American Federation of Labor and the Textile Workers of America/Congress for Industrial Organization competed for support amongst Cone Mills plants. Wright describes this process and explains his own growing involvement in the labor movement during his last years as a worker for Cone Mills. In addition, he describes his general support of unionization and outlines what he perceives as unique challenges of labor organization in the South.

Electronic resources

Click for online content.

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: 01:34:44.
Interview participants: Lacy Wright, interviewee; Mrs. Wright, interviewee; William Finger, interviewer; Chip Hughes, interviewer.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Title from menu page (viewed on May 23, 2008).
Type of Computer File or Data Note:
Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 194.3 kilobytes, 173 megabytes.
Original Version Note:
Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series E, Labor, interview E-0017, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Patricia Crowley. Original transcript: 46 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:
Wright, Lacy 1904-1985 Interviews
Wright, Lacy Mrs Interviews
American Federation of Labor.
Cone Mills Corporation.
Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)
Textile Workers Union of America.
Child labor North Carolina Greensboro
Collective bargaining North Carolina Greensboro
Company towns North Carolina Greensboro
Labor union members North Carolina Greensboro Interviews
Strikes and lockouts North Carolina Greensboro
Textile workers Labor unions Organizing North Carolina
Textile workers North Carolina Greensboro Interviews
Textile workers North Carolina Greensboro Attitudes
Textile workers North Carolina Greensboro Social conditions
Genre:
Oral histories.
Back To Results
Showing Item 1 of 1