Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 07/Charles Humphrey

Overview
Charles Humphrey was interviewed for the Federal Writers' Project on February 15, 1939 by Henry C. McKee. He worked as different positions in cotton mills for the majority of his life, moving around Virginia and North Carolina for most of his life. He was forced to settle down in East Lumberton, NC with the remainder of his family that lived with him by the strains the Great Depression brought. When interviewed, he was married to his wife, Lottie, and had five children.

Early Life
Charles Humphrey was born on February 4, 1890 in the Salters Township located in Radford County, VA. One of five brothers, he was raised on a small farm owned by his father, spanning about 33 acres of land. When he was about ten years old, his father fell gravely ill and died. As such, his mother was forced to take him and three of his brothers away to Foleyville to find work and help from friends and family, while the eldest son stayed behind to tend to the farm. He quickly moved back two months later, in December of 1900, at the call of his older brother to help tend the farm. For seven years, he would attend schooling and tend to the farm alongside his eldest brother. During this time, he figured out that he was not suited for farm life, saying later on in life that the earnings of farm work were “all too uncertain.”.

At 17 years old, he joined the rest of his family in Foleyville, where he continued attending school and worked in the cotton mills during the summer. In 1909, he met Lottie Kivett, a thirteen-year-old girl from a neighboring village. He began courting her, and two years later in 1911, the young couple was married. They both worked in the mill for a short period of time, but the newlywed wife soon gave up the job for housekeeping and raising the children. Humphrey’s salary slowly increased and the couple was able to remain in Foleyville until 1923, allowing them to raise four of their children in the small town.

Later Life
In 1923, the mill where Humphrey was employed underwent a change in ownership, causing his hours to become too irregular for a family man needing to support a growing family. The couple and their children moved to Red Branch, where they stayed for three years. It was in Red Branch that Humphrey would make his peak salary— $42.00 a week as the overseer of the Southside Mill. They moved again in 1925 to Wadleigh, working different positions at the Sparks Mill. After only three months, they moved yet again to East Lumberton, where they were employed by the Lusford-Jasper company.

Most of the family was employed in millwork, but all of them uniquely avoided any ties with any union involved in their mill, especially the primary union for their fellow mill workers: the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (T.W.O.C.). In 1939, Humphrey was interviewed for the Federal Writer’s Project. At the time, he was 49 years old and worked as a harness repairman in the mill, earning $13.20 a week. His wife worked as well as a smash hand worker in the same mill. His children are mostly grown and work as well, with his two sons married and living separate from the family, while his three daughters remained unmarried as of the interview in 1939.

When the mill ran regularly, the family had enough money for weekly expenses, but troubles arose when Millie, one of his daughters, required expensive hospital care. Combined with the irregular working hours caused by the Great Depression, the family struggled for quite a bit. Still, the combined incomes of Humphrey, his wife, and his daughters allowed them to keep their lifestyle for the most part, despite some sacrifices, such as affording certain foods.

Humphrey was a proud and outspoken Democrat and like most working-class white men of the time, had full-fledged support for Roosevelt and his New Deal policies. Religiously, he identifies as a dedicated Baptist, attending church regularly and making sure to donate weekly, despite the financial struggles the family faced brought on by the Great Depression.

Not much is known about Humphrey or his family after the interview was conducted.

Rise of Labor Unions
For a long time, labor unions failed to effectively organize a large enough amount of workers invested enough in the cause to attract the attention of the major corporations and warrant any kind of real change within the industry. Even in 1933, the number of workers with union memberships was just under three million, with the majority of those still being only in skilled craft unions, which were inaccessible to most of the country’s population. But with the Great Depression lowering people’s expendable incomes, demand for these products as well, leading to less production and less need for so many workers. The mills, unable to keep up with payments to workers who were not as needed anymore. Workers were let go all over the country and working hours were reduced to the point workers were unable to support their families with the money they brought in.

Labor unions boomed in response to harsh working conditions, especially for mill workers in the South, where poor workers desperate for income would be subject to unsafe and unfair hours and conditions. This, along with the pro-union stance of the Roosevelt administration, brought the labor rights movement to an even larger platform, with more people participating than ever. Large-scale unions with multiple branches popped up in every region of the country, such as the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (T.W.O.C.) in the Southeast, which boasted over 100,000 members in its prime.

The working requirements for these unions were very unregulated and oftimes shady in the beginning of the movement. Misunderstandings between corporations and members of the unions were rampant, leading to high membership fees and stalemates where the mills’ managing teams were too afraid to do anything at all because of the unions’ threats. This led to the rise and fall of several labor organizations, as workers put their trust in new organizations, or in some cases, not at all. A growing number of dissatisfied workers rescinded their membership from several union bases.

Labor Supports Roosevelt
Much of the working class of the time backed Roosevelt due to his New Deal policies, which were publicly perceived to be directly helping pull the labor force out of the economic burdens placed on them by the Great Depression, as well as the lack of demand that resulted in a lack of scheduling hours— which ultimately led to fewer wages being brought in. Labor unions quickly became an instrumental part in securing his landslide victory, donating over $750,000 to the Roosevelt campaign and activities in 1936.

They believed that his willingness to listen to the labor rights movement and his administration’s pro-union stance would mean that the administration would take the necessary steps to address and remedy the financial hardships the working class faced as a result of the Great Depression. They were promised this with a series of New Deal policies, as well as other labor-related legislation affording greater protections, regulations, and rights to workers in the country.

With the passage of overarching legislation, such as overarching legislation, such as the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, which provided for collective bargaining, and especially the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, more commonly known as the Wagner Act, which required businesses to bargain properly with any union that was supported by a simple majority of their employees, even workers skeptical of the union lifestyle became supporters of Roosevelt’s campaign and work. The Wagner Act provided stimulus that would boost union membership to incredible and unseen levels than ever before. Strikes became popular tools for unions to force change at the hands of the corporations, particularly in worker-reliant lines of work, such as mills.