The Daily Record, May 28, 1959.

Senate Passes Minimum Wage Act, May 7, 1959.

Thanks to support from the North Caroliniana Society and to our partner, Harnett County Public Library, new issues of The Daily Record are now available on our website. This batch expands our current collection of the paper to include 1956 to 1962. Published Monday through Friday, The Daily Record suppled Dunn and Harnett County with local and global news stories. Today, the paper continues to be published in Dunn, North Carolina.

Major headlines in this batch include Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to America, Russia’s announcement to send apes to the moon, the aftermath of America sending monkeys to space, and the establishment of a minimum wage in North Carolina.

Starting in 1945, citizens of North Carolina fought for the establishment of a minimum wage in the state. The article to the right, “14-Year Fight Ends; Action First In South,” highlights the establishment of a minimum wage by North Carolina’s General Assembly in 1959–the first state south of Pennsylvania to do so. The bill guaranteed that all workers in the state would be paid a minimum of 75 cents an hour, equivalent to about $6.88 an hour today. 

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