Title: Oral History Interview with Mattie Shoemaker and Mildred Shoemaker Edmonds, March 23, 1979. Interview H-0046.
Identifier: H-0046
Interviewer: Murphy, Mary
Interviewee: Edmonds, Mildred Shoemaker
Subjects: Textile workers--North Carolina    Women in the textile industry    Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry    Textile workers--Health and hygiene    Textile workers--North Carolina--Health and hygiene    
Extent: 01:39:10
Abstract:  Sisters Mattie Shoemaker and Mildred Shoemaker Edmonds discuss their experiences at a textile mill in Burlington, North Carolina. This interview includes discussion of their work routines, striking, the impact of the Great Depression, and the integration of the mill. The sisters' recollections are particularly interesting when they discuss the place of African Americans in their community—they were unbothered by integration and fail to understand the persistence of racism there—or when they share a few words on party politics. This interview will be useful for researchers interested in mill life in the early twentieth century, but is more a portrait of two personalities than a history of an era.