“Blood on the Cloth: Ella May Wiggins and the 1929 Gastonia Strike"--Dr. Roxanne Newton

Amid the strife and upheaval in the American South of the 1920s, the 1929 Loray Mill Strike in Gastonia serves as an emblem of the violent textile labor disputes of the time. During this period, textile worker Ella May Wiggins became a labor leader who rallied people to the union cause with her impassioned speeches and moving ballads. Dr. Roxanne Newton, Dean of the Humanities and Fine Arts Division at Mitchell Community College will share this story.