Black workers have more opportunities after a buyout
Jones recalls one positive result of the buyout: black workers had more opportunity. White's former owners did not hire blacks for positions of importance.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Ivey C. Jones, January 18, 1994. Interview K-0101. 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
One thing I can say when White's was bought out was that there
were more blacks put into positions than when White's own it.
When White's Furniture Company owned it there were not that
many blacks in supervisory positions at all. There were no blacks in
management. There were no blacks in secretarial, to my knowledge, during
the time I was at the plant. None whatsoever.
When Hickory bought White's out I don't think they
looked at things as a black and white issue. I think they looked at
things like, if this guy can do the job, let's get him to do
the job because we want production. We don't care about color
or the way things have been run a hundred years ago. We want to make the
green because that's what counts. If this guy can get it
done, I don't care what color he is; as long as he can make
us the green, that's the one we want on the job.
I don't feel like it was that way at White's. I
think they just basically had the ‘good ole boy’
attitude. That's the way they ran the company and
that's the way it was. I think during the time I was there
was only one black supervisor and he was in the stock room. He was a
stock clerk. Later on they had one black supervisor that was in
shipping. When Hickory bought out then they started having some black
supervisors, but before then that wasn't even thought
about.