8 The Gastonia strike

Postcard view of Loray Cotton Mill in Gastonia, c. 1908. About the illustration

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.