The Gastonia Strike (Intro)

In 1928, the National Textile Workers Union sent organizers to Gastonia, North Carolina, to organize workers at the Loray Cotton Mill into a union. The following spring those workers went on strike. Mill owners refused to negotiate and threw striking workers out of their mill-owned housing. The strike turned violent, and Gastonia’s police chief was killed. In this chapter, we’ll explore the events and experiences of the strike through contemporary newspaper coverage.


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