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Oral History Interview with Vickie Jacobs, December 11, 1993. Interview K-0100. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Vickie Jacobs left a dead-end job at a barbecue restaurant to take a position at the White Furniture Company in Hillsborough, North Carolina. In this interview, she describes her work there and at another White factory in Mebane, North Carolina, recalling the positions she held, explaining the routines on the factory floor, and describing the furniture production process. Jacobs enjoyed working in the rub-and-pack room of the factory, polishing furniture and preparing it for shipping, but her most vivid memory is of the Hillsborough factory's closing, a recollection that offers a tantalizing glimpse of a closely knit community of workers.
    Excerpts
  • Occupational hazards at a furniture factory
  • Rules at the White Furniture Factory
  • Some race and gender discrimination at a furniture factory
  • Concerns follow factory closing
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  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Furniture industry and trade--North Carolina
  • Furniture workers--North Carolina
  • White Furniture Company
  • North Carolina--Social conditions
  • Women--Employment--North Carolina--History--20th century
  • Jacobs, Vickie
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.