Operation Dixie: The CIO Organizing Committee Papers on Microfilm, 1946-1953
Collection Number: 5747 mf
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY
Title:
Operation Dixie: The CIO Organizing Committee Papers on Microfilm, 1946-1953
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5747 mf
Abstract:
The papers include correspondence, addresses, minutes, memoranda, printed materials
and miscellaneous documents. The "Operation Dixie" collection includes the records
from four states-- North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Records
from the other states involved in the campaign are no longer in existence. In addition
to procedural matters delineating the business, personnel and financial policies of
the Organizing Committee, the CIO's objectives, priorities and approaches to organizing
and negotiating are apparent in correspondence, printed matter and publicity materials.
National, state and local political issues, jurisdictional questions, including relations
between the AFL and the CIO, improved labor and living conditions and relations with
other departments of the CIO, as well as with a variety of social reform and friends
of labor groups are documented. Legal materials include NLRB documents concerning
unfair labor practices, elections, etc. Organizers reports and membership records
are among the other types of materials found in the records.
Creator:
Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.)
CIO Organizing Committee
Quanitities:
8.33 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English
Lucy Mason, a social reformer, was concerned with such matters as civil rights, labor
legislation, working hours for women, minimum wages, social security and rights of
workers.
She served as southern public relations representative for the CIO for 16 years.
She was involved in the campaigns of the Operation Dixie organizing drive. Mason was
also General Secretary of the YWCA for a period of time and active in several other
social and civic organizations.
Operation Dixie was the name given to the CIO's program to bring unionism to the South.
Under the direction of Van A. Bittner, the vice-president of the United Steelworkers
of America, the CIO's Southern Organizing Committee was established in May 1946. Supported
by contributions from some forty affiliated unions, the Committee established programs
in twelve states throughout the South. Operation Dixie attempted to organize workers
in diverse industries, concentrating on the textile, wood products, chemical, oil
and iron and steel industries and on the largest and most resistant employers in a
given area.
While its primary purpose was "organizing the unorganized," the Southern Organizing
Committee also cooperated with the CIO's Political Action Committees and State CIOs
or Industrial Union Councils which sought to attain the parent organizations goals
through state and national legislation and electoral reform.
Although by February 1947 324 new locals had been established, the Committee's work
was plagued with a variety of problems. Among these were charges of communist sympathies;
opposition by the Ku Klux Klan and others to the CIO policy of establishing racially
integrated locals; lack of financial support; and employer opposition which included
violence, intimidation and collusion with public authorities. In 1953, the Southern
drive was reorganized and most of the work of developing and servicing locals was
turned over to the affiliated unions at that time.
Consists in large part of the records of the CIO Organizing Committee campaigns to
organize workers in four southern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
and Virginia. Records from the other states involved in the campaign are no longer
in existence.
In addition to procedural matters delineating the business, personnel and financial
policies of the Organizing Committee, the CIO's objectives, priorities and approaches
to organizing and negotiating are apparent in correspondence, printed matter and publicity
materials. National, state and local political issues, jurisdictional questions, including
relations between the AFL and the CIO, improved labor and living conditions and relations
with other departments of the CIO, as well as with a variety of social reform and
friends of labor groups are documented. Legal materials include NLRB documents concerning
unfair labor practices, elections, etc. Organizers reports and membership records
are among the other types of materials found in the records.
The "Operation Dixie" papers consist in large part of the records of the C.I.O. Organizing
Committee campaigns in four southern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee
and Virginia. The papers are divided into eight series as follows:
Series I: C.I.O. Organizing Committee. North Carolina, 1932-1958.
Series II: C.I.O. Organizing Committee. South Carolina, 1941-1953.
Series III: C.I.O. Organizing Committee. Tennessee, 1938-1953.
Series IV: C.I.O. Organizing Committee. Virginia, 1937-1953.
Series V: C.I.O. Organizing Committee. Lucy Randolph Mason, 1912-1954.
Series VI: C.I.O. Political Action Committee. North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia,
1943-1954.
Series VII: C.I.O. Publicity Department. North Carolina, 1946-1953.
Series VIII: C.I.O. Industrial Union Councils. North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia,
1938-1954.
Papers of the Organizing Committees, Publicity Department, Political Action Committees
and Industrial Union Councils are arranged alphabetically by subject folder title.
The reel list provides the title of each folder with inclusive dates for the contents.
Many of the subject categories were established by the C.I.O. regional offices; others
were added by the staff of the Manuscript Department of the William R. Perkins Library
at Duke University in the process of integrating loose material. These records are
frequently arranged under name of correspondent, organization or affiliate union.
There are, however, some materials in each series that are collected under such general
headings as "Correspondence", "Printed Material" and "Miscellaneous". Incoming and
outgoing correspondence and related printed, typed and mimeographed items are interfiled
in each folder in chronological order. The term printed material is loosely used in
describing folder contents, and covers such varied items as collective bargaining
agreements, petitions, membership records, flyers, research reports and newsletters
produced and duplicated in a number of ways.
Oversize materials are arranged separately at the end of each series. Most of the
subject headings appearing in the oversize section duplicate those used in the alphabetical
reel list. Included among these materials are posters, flyers, newsletters, and a
few items of correspondence that accompanied printed items or unfilmed clippings.
The Lucy Randolph Mason papers are arranged in seven categories, each of which is
organized chronologically. These categories are correspondence, addresses, minutes,
memoranda, miscellany, printed materials and volumes.
The numbers in parentheses following names and folder titles in the series descriptions
refer to the frame numbers of the microfilm edition and to the location of the material
in the reel list.
A complete description of the collection is available in a printed guide edited by
Katherien F. Martin.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference
archivist for access to these materials.
This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and
Procedures for Document Use.
INFORMATION FOR USERS
Operation Dixie: The CIO Organizing Committee Papers on Microfilm #5747 mf. Kheel
Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.
Names:
Martin, Katherine F.
Mason, Lucy Randolph, 1882-1959.
C.I.O. Organizing Committee
North Carolina State Industrial Union Council
North Carolina State Industrial Union Council. Political Action Committee
North Carolina State Industrial Union Council. Publicity Dept
Tennessee State Industrial Union Council
Virginia State Industrial Union Council
Virginia State Industrial Union Council. Political Action Committee
Subjects:
Labor unions -- Southern States -- Political activity
Trade-unions. Iron and steel workers. Southern States.
Trade-unions. North Carolina. Organizing.
Trade-unions. Oil industry workers. Southern States.
Trade-unions. South Carolina. Organizing.
Trade-unions. Southern States. Organizing.
Trade- unions. Tennessee. Organizing.
Trade-unions. Textile workers. Southern States.
Trade-unions. Virginia. Organizing.
Trade-unions. Wood-pulp industry. Southern States.
CONTAINER LIST
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The container list for this collecion can be found in the ProQuest Research Collection
finding aid and is available HERE.
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