Communists' racial and religious beliefs hampered their success in organizing
Communists proved to be effective organizers, especially among mountaineers who were generally unconcerned with ideological affiliation. However, Communists' racial and religious views did antagonize mountain workers.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson, November 5, 1974. Interview G-0005. 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
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
-
I was just wondering if you thought the communists in that particular
strike, whether they were or weren't good organizers.
- ELEANOR COPENHAVER ANDERSON:
-
I think they were good organizers. And the dear old darling mountaineers
who were the members, they didn't mind them being a communist. I'm
pretty sure of that.
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
-
But they did have some problems, though, the communists because of their
position on race relations.
- ELEANOR COPENHAVER ANDERSON:
-
Certainly.
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
-
Which tended to antagonize the workers.
- ELEANOR COPENHAVER ANDERSON:
-
Of course Lois MacDonald has written on all of that. I have those books
in Virginia. No use of my looking for anything here. Let's see. Frank
Graham died, didn't he? He knew all of that. He wasn't scared of
communists.
- MARY FREDERICKSON:
-
How much of a factor was being afraid?
- ELEANOR COPENHAVER ANDERSON:
-
Oh, it was a great deal and it was religious, too. But if
you were a communist you were anti-Jesus. All of that was
in it.
