Oral history interview with Dora Scott Miller, June 6, 1979

Alternate Titles

• Interview H-0211, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
• Interview with Dora Scott Miller, June 6, 1979
• Oral histories of the American South.

Description

Dora Scott Miller grew up in Apex, NC, and finished high school before marrying and taking a job at the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company in Durham, where she spent nearly four decades. During her tenure there, Miller watched the company evolve into a racially integrated, unionized company. But much of this interview focuses on her experiences there before World War II, when a non-union workforce primarily consisting of black women worked long hours for little pay under white foremen. Miller and her coworkers kept their mouths shut to keep their jobs, but maintained enough strength to vote in a union when it arrived and to form a supportive community outside of the workplace. This interview should prove a rich source of information for researchers interested in southern industrial work from the perspective of an African American woman.

Subjects

Links

• Documenting the American South full text and audio access