September 9 Anti-Union Vigilantes Erupt into Violence

On this day in labor history, the year was 1929.

That was the day a mistrial was declared in the case of sixteen textile mill unionists in North Carolina. 

The mistrial sparked five days of anti-union vigilante violence. 

Textile workers at Gastonia’s Loray Mill had been on strike since April 1.

They demanded higher wages and shorter work hours, union recognition and an end to the hated stretch out system. 

Soon, textile workers at Bessemer City’s American Mill walked off the job in solidarity and joined the National Textile Workers Union. 

Ella Mae Wiggins was one of the strike leaders at American Mill. 

She was known for her militancy but also for organizing black workers into the union. 

As the strike wore on, mill owners evicted dozens of families from company housing. 

Wiggins helped set up a tent city. 

On June 7, sheriff’s deputies attacked strikers who marched to Loray Mill to call out remaining workers. 

The police arrived at the tent colony later that evening to disarm them and Gastonia’s police chief wound up dead. 

Immediately more than seventy textile union members and leaders were rounded up and arrested. 

Sixteen stood trial for the murder of Chief Aderholt. 

The anti-union Committee of One Hundred smashed up NTWU headquarters in Gastonia and Bessemer City.

They kidnapped, beat and threatened to kill several union members. 

The rampage continued as scab forces moved onto Charlotte to raid the offices of the International Labor Defense, who had handled the strikers’ case. 

Five days into the terror, Wiggins was killed on her way to a union solidarity rally. 

Outrage over her murder forced mill owners to improve conditions and wages. 

But the fight to organize would continue for years.