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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Julius Fry, August 19, 1974. Interview E-0004. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

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:
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:
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.