One effective leader within the labor movement
Fry talks about Miles Horton, who helped to organize and lead the initial unionization effort in Lumberton, North Carolina. According to Fry, workers were especially drawn to Horton and were eager to join with him because he was an effective "rabble-rouser" and orator. His comments demonstrate the important role of effective leadership within the labor movement.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Julius Fry, August 19, 1974. Interview E-0004. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
And
he was so well liked. He was another emancipator. Everybody looked on
him as an emancipator and some of the babies born down there during the
strike, the one that later occurred and during the campaign, were later
named "Miles."
- BILL FINGER:
-
Is that right?
- JULIUS FRY:
-
[laughter]
Yeah.
- BILL FINGER:
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Why did he have such a following?
- JULIUS FRY:
-
Well, he knew how to rabble-rouse, if you want to use that, I don't know
if that's the correct term, but he knew how to arouse people. And he
bitched that company, and it was the only way that it could be done,
frankly. They were so under the thumb of the company, that it took those
extreme methods, you know, to get people aroused.
- BILL FINGER:
-
What do you mean extreme methods?
- JULIUS FRY:
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Well, he knew how to use the right oratory and he critisized management
and that phrase that they used down there, "to bitch the
company", you know, and they needed it and it just happened to
be the right issue. Because there were so many ills in that plant.