“The Big Idea,” 1953

Issues of the Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News from 1935-1953 are now available in our North Carolina Newspapers collection thanks to our partner the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. According to the Library of Congress, the paper was published weekly as the “organ of the Charlotte Central Labor Union.”

The first issue we have online, from January 24, 1935, was published less than a year after the General Strike of 1934, when between 300,000 and 500,000 textile workers along the East Coast (most from North and South Carolina) protested working conditions. Despite the large turnout and national recognition, though, workers in the Southern states did not see their demands met, which made many members lose faith in their unions.

Portraits of the AFL Council from January 24, 1935

The issues that we have online roughly follow the trajectory of organized labor in the state overall; the last issue we have is from 1953, when Operation Dixie officially ended, ultimately failing to unite textile workers into a single large union. Part of that failure stemmed from opposition by the AFL, the union behind the Charlotte Labor Journal.

To see more materials from UNC Charlotte, visit their partner page or their library website. To see more digital content about labor unions in North Carolina, click here.

Thanks to our partner the Alleghany County Public Library, we’ve added several early issues of the Alleghany Times to our Newspapers of North Carolina collection. The issues range from 1933 to 1947 and include local news from Sparta, N.C., as well as some national stories.

One notable front page story is from the February 16, 1933 edition. Right in the center, a headline reads, “Bank of Sparta Robbed of $1,500; Yeggs Enter Through Door of Cellar.” (Apparently, a yegg is a “safecracker or robber.”)

The article goes on to describe how the crooks removed the hinges of the cellar door to enter the safe and used either code-cracking skills or prior knowledge of the safe’s combination to get to the gold.

Strangely, of equal newsworthiness (based on its placement on the front page) was the story of Marion Talley separating from her first husband, Michael Raucheisen (whose name doesn’t appear in the biography linked above because, apparently, the marriage was annulled after a few months). 

And, perhaps even more surprisingly, both of these articles appear above an article detailing an assassination attempt on then-President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The article describes Roosevelt arriving in Miami on a ship, fresh off a cruise through the Bahamas, when Guisseppi Zingara, a brick-maker, fires shots from a pistol at him. Although the President-elect wasn’t hurt, Anton Cermak, then-Mayor of Chicago, was “shot through the body.”

To see all materials from the Alleghany County Public Library (including more papers), you can visit their partner page or take a look at their website.

Thanks to our new partner Stanly Community College, we now have newspaper clippings about the school from the 1974-1975 academic year to 2021. Many of the articles describe the activities and accomplishments of the Stanly Community College chapter of Phi Beta Lambda (PBL), a professional organization for students studying business.

While several articles detail the impact that the SCC Phi Beta Lambda chapter had in the Albemarle community, a few connect the organization to a larger context. In 1981, for example, PBL students partnered with community leaders to hold a ceremony celebrating the safe return of United States citizens and diplomats after the Iran Hostage Crisis. The PBL president, vice president, historian, and treasurer were supported by Albemarle Mayor Carlton B. Holt and Tony Lowder, chairman of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, along with several church leaders.

Most of the newspaper clippings come from The Stanly News & Press, a local paper of Stanly County.

To learn more about Stanly Community College, please visit their website.

The full Stanly Community College collection can be found here. To see more newspapers from around North Carolina, please click here.