THE MANY NORMA RAES: WORKING-CLASS WOMEN in the 1970S CAMPAIGN to ORGANIZE J.P

THE MANY NORMA RAES: WORKING-CLASS WOMEN IN THE 1970s CAMPAIGN TO ORGANIZE J.P. STEVENS Joey Ann Fink A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2015 Approved by: Jacquelyn Dowd Hall John Kasson Robert Korstad Nancy MacLean Zaragosa Vargas ©2015 Joey Ann Fink ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Joey Ann Fink: The Many Norma Raes: Working-Class Women in the 1970s Campaign to Organize J.P. Stevens (Under the direction of Jacquelyn Dowd Hall) In the 1970s, labor, civil rights activists, feminists, religious leaders, and mill workers united in a multi-faceted campaign to unionize J. P. Stevens’s textile mills in the Piedmont South. The campaign had support from celebrities, civic leaders, and professional athletes. In 1979, the Academy Award-winning movie, Norma Rae, dramatized the story of mill worker Crystal Lee Sutton, who was fired and arrested for her part in the organizing drive in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Sutton toured the country as the “real Norma Rae,” ratcheting up the public pressure on Stevens, the nation’s second largest textile manufacturer and “number one labor law violator.” This dissertation presents the Stevens campaign as part of a broad movement for workers’ rights in the 1970s that tapped into a groundswell of grassroots organizing in the South and nationwide around issues of economic injustice, occupational health and safety, civil rights, and feminism. The organizing drive in Roanoke Rapids in 1973-74 demonstrated that the mill workers could sustain interracial solidarity as they contended with Stevens’s harassment and intimidation, as well as internal conflicts over issues of sexuality and respectability. Stevens’s refusal to bargain in good faith in Roanoke Rapids prompted the recently-merged textile and clothing workers union, ACTWU, to implement a nationwide boycott and public shaming campaign to force the company to bargain in good faith. White and African American women emerged as local leaders and national spokeswomen. This dissertation contextualizes the mill women’s experiences and illuminates the crucial role they played in capturing attention, iii garnering support, and motivating action from allies. Their stories captured the public’s attention and offered intimate glimpses into the physical contours and emotional dimensions of their lives and labor. There were many Norma Raes in the Stevens campaign, While the decline of the textile industry has overshadowed their accomplishments, the working-class women who put themselves front and center to win union representation blazed a trail that has outlasted the mills they organized. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this project would not have been possible without the support and generosity of many institutions and individuals, and it is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to demonstrate my gratitude. Jacquelyn Hall has been a patient guide through every step of this project. I benefited from her wisdom even before I met her, and humbly offer my contribution to the literature on “disorderly women” in appreciation of the trail she has blazed. I am tremendously grateful for her careful attention to my work. When asked who was on my committee, I would often reply that I had the “dream committee.” Jacquelyn Hall, John Kasson, Bob Korstad, Nancy MacLean, and Zaragosa Vargas have inspired me with their scholarship and strengthened my work with their discerning comments and thoughtful recommendations. They deserve an enormous amount of credit for the strengths of this dissertation, while I retain responsibility for its flaws. I will be forever indebted to my committee for their support and generosity. A number of institutions and groups supported my research and provided opportunities to present my arguments and receive feedback. The History department and the American Studies department of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, funded my forays into the archives. The Center for the Study of the American South and the Southern Oral History Program consistently provided financial and moral support. The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the year of writing afforded to me by the Hugh McColl dissertation completion fellowship. I am also grateful for support from the Georgia State University History department and the Reed-Fink Labor History award. I appreciated the v opportunity to present my work in its early stages to a friendly and sage audience. My memory of that experience is all the more significant with the passing of Cliff Kuhn, who reassured me that “a fink can do southern labor history” and was a model of an engaged scholar and kind soul. Through the Southern Labor Studies Association, I have met many brilliant and kind scholars who have guided and inspired me. Participants in the D.C. Working Class History seminar evaluated a chapter of this dissertation and offered astute advice. While I owe a debt of gratitude to many archivists and librarians who assisted my research, I am especially grateful to the staff at Alamance Community College, where I made my first discoveries in the Crystal Lee Sutton archive, and to Traci Drummond at the Southern Labor Archives in Atlanta. There are more scholars, colleagues, and friends than I have room to individually thank. Judy Smith gave me my first introduction to women’s history and Crystal Feimster directed my attention to the “real Norma Rae” and suggested I explore Sutton’s archive. Mary Frederickson, Lisa Levenstein, Sarah Deutsch, and Robyn Muncy have been especially helpful with their recommendations and encouragement. Fellow graduate students in Chapel Hill, Duke, and beyond provided a community of support. The friendship of Shannon Eaves, Jennifer Donnally, Sarah McNamara, and many others sustained me. I doubt I would have gotten through it without Jessie Wilkerson, a co-conspirator and dear friend to me through all the research trips, field work, conferences, long hours, and late nights. I am so grateful for the time my interviewees have spent with me, sharing their stories and offering their reflections. My thanks and love to my friends, peers, and mentors who stood by me through the various stages of this project to help me see it to fruition. To my family, I owe more than I can ever repay. My sister, Jamie, has been my role model and protector for as long as I can remember; my brother, Jesse, and his family, who vi offered shelter during research trips and rejuvenating time with my beautiful nieces. My father, Jim, and stepmother, Sharon, for unfailing encouragement and more than a few dinners that restored me, mind, body, and spirit. My mother, Deborah, and stepfather, Wayne, who gave me my first lessons in unions and patiently waited for the stubbornness of a rebellious teen to transform into the stubbornness of a determined scholar. To my mother, a ‘Norma Rae’ in her own right, I hope this dissertation is a credit to all you’ve done for me. To Marc Paradis, who has kept me nourished and grounded almost from the beginning of this project, can I ever adequately express my gratitude? You read my work with a keen editor’s eye and offered sound advice. When I doubted myself, you steered me back on course. And always, just when I really needed it, you made me laugh ‘halfways off my heel.’ For the countless ways you helped me to untangle my thoughts and put words on pages, thank you. For those not mentioned but certainly deserving of appreciation, know that I am grateful for every act of kindness and support you have given along the way. To the past, present, and future Norma Raes, I offer this work with the hope that it does justice to your stories and inspires you in your struggles. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ………………..…………………………………………………………….. 1 CHAPTER 1: “Everything was Roanoke Rapids”: The 1973-1974 Organizing Drive ……….. 15 CHAPTER 2: In Good Faith: Building a Workers’ Rights Movement …………..…………… 72 CHAPTER 3: Testimony: Working Women Speak to Power………………………………... 110 CHAPTER 4: Norma Rae vs. J.P. Stevens…………………………………………………… 136 EPILOGUE: Winning a Contract, Creating a Legacy ……...……………………………….. 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………...… 185 viii INTRODUCTION Joyce Blackwell. Ai-jen Poo. Sarah Palin. Crystal Lee Sutton. Diane Wang. Sally Field. Francisca DeSousa. The women on this list are African American, white, and Asian American. Their dates of birth span from the 1940s to the 1980s. On the political spectrum, they range from right to left. What do these women share? Each one has been called “Norma Rae.” It is really more of a title than a name, bestowed on someone who ignores the rules and takes a stand, usually a woman and often (though not always) in the interest of workers. “Norma Rae” can be a compliment or an insult. In the case of Franscisca DeSousa, whose supervisor told her, “I’m going to get you, Norma Rae,” it was a threat. As title, idea, and image, “Norma Rae” has traveled through the last twenty years of the twentieth century and into the new millennium. The name has a story, and it has power.1 There was a real “Norma Rae.” Crystal Lee Sutton was a mill worker and union activist from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. On May 30, 1973, she was fired from the J.P. Stevens textile fabricating plant for copying an anti-union letter posted on the company bulletin board. To protest her firing, she climbed atop a table and raised a piece of cardboard with “UNION” 1Joyce Blackwell was a black worker in the Patterson plant in Roanoke Rapids. One of the organizers from the 1973-1974 organizing drive called her “my Norma Rae.” Ai-jen Poo is the director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

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