Factory work Deep South 1950s

kelliewallace

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I'm researching for a new book and I need some help with what type of factory work there was in the Deep South during the 1950s? I know there were plantations and I dont want to go down that road unless I have to. Being Post War America, I'm assuming women still played a large role in the work force.

Rough idea of book is: 1950s, Louisiana or Alabama, rich girl MC, rich father owns a factory, poor boy MC working in factory. General gist of book but Googling has done nothing. Any ideas for factory work or maybe someone's relative worked something similar. Any ideas appreciated and of course, location or time period will probably change :)
 

King Neptune

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Alabama still has steel, and, as was mentioned, during the 1950's the textile industry was moving South to get away from unions.
 

Eluveitie

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If you want to have it take place in Appalachia, coal mining was pretty common in that region.
 

frimble3

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Paper mills? Or related processing, ie corrugated cardboard, cardboard boxes, paper bags, etc. The 1950's was still the era of paper garbage bags, paper lunch bags, paper shopping bags.
My dad worked in the industry in Canada starting in the mid-50s. So did my mother, pre-marriage. She worked on the 'finishing line' - there were still pockets of hand-work - machine sends a bundle of paper towelling sheets (for public washroom towel dispensers) and some woman wrapped the paper band around them. The tech to do it by machine either hadn't been perfected, or it was cheaper to hire people to do it. It also provided 'light' work for women or injured guys.
 

blacbird

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You might try researching the history of major southern cities, like Birmingham, or Atlanta. Get a little more specific. The "Deep South" is a pretty big place. And even today, pretty deep.

caw
 

CWatts

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You might try researching the history of major southern cities, like Birmingham, or Atlanta. Get a little more specific. The "Deep South" is a pretty big place. And even today, pretty deep.

caw

Smaller cities could be useful too. While it's not the Deep South, several of my in-laws are from Roanoke Rapids, NC which was and still is a mill town, formerly dominated by cotton mills and now by paper. In searching up links for you I found this gem, there was a lot of change going on in places like this in the 1950s which may help you: http://www.livingplaces.com/NC/Hali...ds_City/Roanoke_Rapids_Historic_District.html

Whatever industry you pick, it would be helpful to you to visit a place where it still exists. For example, the Roanoke Rapids paper mill has a distinct odor that is immediately apparent to me when I visit, but the residents are nose-blind to it. It's a sharp, sour chemical smell, think wet newspapers, sour towels and a high school chemistry lab all mixed together. There's a saying among the locals that it "smells like money."
 
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patskywriter

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I grew up in Chicago and am now living in North Carolina (which is probably more Mid South than Deep South, I’m not sure). Durham no longer has factories, but it used to be quite the tobacco manufacturing town. There was a smaller factory that made the little bags that tobacco was stuffed into for retail sale. We also had a denim factory (once the biggest in the country). A black entrepreneur owned a brick-making factory (foundry?) near Duke University, and I remember hearing about a chicken factory a few blocks away from my home. Nearby cities had factories for furniture-making and textiles (clothing, towels, etc).

I went to college in Alabama, and I remember the largest employer (other than the school) was the cotton mill, which made wonderful winter socks, etc, that were sent up North. There were cotton mills of all sizes, and I remember a nearby town that was centered around a paper-bag factory. (They suffered greatly when stores switched to plastic bags.)
 

Dave Williams

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The first US ballistic missiles came from Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Lots of the early space industry was based in Alabama. von Braun's Peenemunde team was mostly relocated there.

There was a lot more in 1950s Alabama than cotton and lumber.
 

patskywriter

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The first US ballistic missiles came from Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. Lots of the early space industry was based in Alabama. von Braun's Peenemunde team was mostly relocated there.

There was a lot more in 1950s Alabama than cotton and lumber.

Oh yeah, Space Camp is in Huntsville for a reason! (I never traveled anywhere close to northern Alabama. My loss—I’m a huge fan of the space program. My college was closer to the center of the state, near Birmingham.)