Lucille Thornburgh Interview 13

Partial Transcript: LUCILLE THORNBURGH: --was out in the country.

JUDITH HELFAND: Ok sounds good.

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses why the labor movement was associated with communism and the implications of that for her in her union organizing.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Labor unions and communism

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Last night I asked you -- we asked you how you got invovled and what motivated you personally to take such an active role.

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses how she became involved with organizing the union, the reason she had for getting involved with the union, how she recruited union members and other topics.

Keywords: brown lung; union organizing

Subjects: United Textile Workers of America; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What did it feel like to see-- can you describe watching people start to change their feelings about themselves and take a stand?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses why textile workers engaged with the labor movement during the 1930s, and the impact that becoming involved with the labor movement had on women.

Subjects: Labor union locals; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Tell me a little about your family.

LUCILLE THORNBURGH: Well my mother and uh-- my mother and father both lived up in Jefferson County.

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses her family and her childhood.

Subjects: Working class women; Working class women--Family relationships; Working class--Books and reading; Working class--Dwellings; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: LUCILLE THORNBURGH: I was working at Cherokee, I got on the day shift so I could go to night school, and I did learn to type.

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses moving from country to the city, and union organizing in Knoxvillie.

Keywords: union organizing; winders

Subjects: Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; Knoxville (Tenn.); Rural-urban migration; Women textile workers; Women--Education

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What was it like on the picket lines as a woman?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: breaking the strike; picket lines; women mill workers

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So what did you do?

LUCILLE THORNBURGH: I was like a lot of them I was certainly out of money.

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses what she did after the strike, working at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and what happened to the other strikers.

Keywords: Cherokee Spinning Company; aftermath of the strike

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; New Deal (1933-1939)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: -- is by the amount of courage that it took for you to challenge this system.

LUCILLE THORNBURGH: Somebody had to do it!

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses what is was like to be a woman in the labor movement in the 1930s.

Keywords: eight hour workday; union organizing

Subjects: Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: By the end of that strike had you developed a politics that you hadn't had before?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses how she became politically aware and politically active, how the union helped with this, and her opinion of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; union songs

Subjects: Labor movement; Labor movement--Political activity; Poll tax; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Working class--Political activity

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did you, as a union organizer, did, did you all, did everybody know the risks that they were taking when they were organizing?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discusses how people tried to connect the labor union to the communist movement, the textile workers' strike of 1934, being blacklisted, keeping the union going after the strike, and the aftermath of the strike.

Keywords: Cherokee Spinning Company; aftermath of the strike; legacy of the strike; union organizing

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Labor unions and communism; Letters; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); United Textile Workers of America; Women in the labor movement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: And what positive for you came out of this whole situation?

LUCILLE THORNBURGH: Uh...

JUDITH HELFAND: Something?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille Thornburgh discuses the impact that the strike had on her, the relationship between the union and the media, organizing the picket line, the injunction on strikers by the mill owners, and other topics.

Keywords: legacy of the strike; lintheads; picket lines

Subjects: Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union; Labor movement; Labor unions and mass media; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers