Oral History Interview with Eula McGill, September 5, 1976. Interview G-0040-2. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
This is the second interview in a series of two conducted with labor activist Eula McGill. In this interview, McGill focuses on her continuing work in the southern labor movement from the 1930s to the 1970s. McGill begins by explaining her views on workers' education and labor leadership. According to McGill, teaching workers about the history of the labor movement was especially important. In the 1940s, McGill was an active participant in Operation Dixie; she describes in detail labor campaigns in La Follette, Tennessee, (1943) and in Dickson and Bruceton, Tennessee (1947). During this time McGill also continued to work actively with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union throughout the South. McGill briefly remarried, but for the most part she dedicated her life to the labor movement. Here, she speaks in more detail about what it was like to be a single woman working within the predominantly male labor movement. She emphasizes the transient lifestyle and some of the challenges she faced as a woman trying to organize both men and women.
Excerpts
Labor activist explains her philosophy of worker's education
Run-in between labor activists and community officials
Women participate in a conflict between unions in La Follette, Tennessee, in 1943
Reaction of churches to unionization in rural southern communities
Impact of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 on southern unionization
The "race issue" and its impact on labor organization in the South
Southern female leadership in the labor movement
Role of gender in organization and leadership in the southern labor movement
Learn More
Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
Subjects
Women in trade-unions
Women's rights
Women in the textile industry
The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on
Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove
transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts
held by the Southern Historical Collection.
Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.