Hiring the Black Worker : The Racial Integration of the Southern Textile Industry, 1960-1980

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minchin, Timothy J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discrimination in employment--Southern States--History--20th century.

Discrimination in employment.

Textile workers--Southern States--History--20th century.

Textile workers.

Race discrimination--Southern States--History--20th century.

Race discrimination.

African American labor union members--Southern States--History--20th century.

African American labor union members.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Edition:

1st edition.

Place of Publication:

The University of North Carolina Press

Summary:

In the 1960s and 1970s, the textile industry's workforce underwent a dramatic transformation, as African Americans entered the South's largest industry in growing numbers. Only 3.3 percent of textile workers were black in 1960; by 1978, this number had risen to 25 percent. Using previously untapped legal records and oral history interviews, Timothy Minchin crafts a compelling account of the integration of the mills. Minchin argues that the role of a labor shortage in spurring black hiring has been overemphasized, pointing instead to the federal government's influence in pressing the textile industry to integrate. He also highlights the critical part played by African American activists. Encouraged by passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, black workers filed antidiscrimination lawsuits against nearly all of the major textile companies. Still, Minchin notes, even after the integration of the mills, African American workers encountered considerable resistance: black women faced continued hiring discrimination, while black men found themselves shunted into low-paying jobs with little hope of promotion. |Based on oral history interviews and never-before-used legal records, this book reveals how African American men and women fought to integrate the South's largest industry.

ISBN:

9780807882931

0807882933