by Bryant Simon
37.Interviews with Burnell McGirt by Glenn Sumpter, July 21, 2009, Walter Bell by David Adeimy, August 20, 2009, Jimmy Stricklin by David Adeimy, July 20, 2009, Hamlet Depot Museum Oral History Project, Hamlet, NC. Author interview with Josh Newton. For a survey of union locals in Hamlet and information about the town’s Central Labor Union, see Carey Haigler to William F. Schnitzler, July 12, 1962, Box 10, Folder, Hamlet, North Carolina, AFL-CIO Records, Department of Organization, RG-28-006, Special Collections, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.
38.Thomas Holt, The Problem of Race in the 21st Century (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2002), 104.
39.Greg Trevor, “Work-Safety Advocates Buck Anti-Union Sentiment,” Charlotte Observer, October 27, 1991; and Courtney Smith (Program Coordinator of the NC Workplace Reform Mission, a program of the NC Council of Churches) to Susan Collins, August 30, 1993, Box 33, Folder, Fundraising, NCOSHP, SCH, UNC. See also, “North Carolina Highly Attractive for Manufacturers, National Study Shows,” Chapel Hill News, February 14, 1982; and A Study of Manufacturing Business Climates of the Forty-Eight Contiguous States of America, 1980 (Chicago: Alexander Grant and Company, 1981).
40.Richard Lacayo, “Price of Neglect,” Time, September 28, 1992.
41.On Goodman’s background, see Rob Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 188–89; Cox, Deadly Greed, 9–12; Rick Nichols, “Richmond Political Tension Matches the Heat,” Raleigh News and Observer, April 25, 1976. And the probably very best published piece on Goodman is David Perlmutt, “Richmond County’s Goodman: The Last of the Old Style Sheriffs,” Charlotte Observer, May 26, 1991.
42.Godfather quote from Hamlet Meeting, November 18, 1991, Box 35, Folder, Hamlet Organizing Contacts, NCOSHP, SHC, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC; and Annie Brayboy of Rockingham to Hunt, December 1, 1977, Box 81, Folder, Richmond, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh. On holiday turkeys and governing, see author interviews with Frankie Moree and Gus Bellamy; and Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, 188–89.
43.For more on Goodman, see author interviews with Joseph Arnold, Harold Miller, Ron Niland, Frankie Moree, and Annette Zimmerman.
44.On the rumors about Goodman’s illicit activities, see Mixed Blessings, 139; interview with Wingate Williamson by Glenn Sumpter, July 22, 2009, Hamlet Depot Museum Oral History Project, Hamlet, NC.
45.Author interviews with Martin Quick and Mike Quick.
46.“Ground Broken for New Clark Plant,” Richmond County Daily Journal, September 23, 1974; Clark Cox, “Clark to Phase Out Rockingham Plant,” Richmond County Daily Journal, March 4, 1985.
47.“Union Loses Vote,” Richmond County Daily Journal, July 16, 1979. See also Jay Hensley, “State, Plant Officials Say Unions Not Needed,” Asheville Citizen, June 23, 1978.
48.Author interviews with Martin Quick and Mike Quick.
49.Ruffin, “Dreams of Better Days.”
50.Author interview with Bob Hall.
51.Author interview with Abbie Covington.
2: Silence
1.Quotes and information on Emmett Roe’s background in this paragraph come from author interview with Bill Sawyer; and C.E. Yandle and Jim Barnett, “The Road to Ruin,” Raleigh News and Observer, December 10, 1991.
2.Biographic details in the above account come from Paige Williams, “Seven Years of Silence,” Charlotte Observer, October 25, 1998; and “Hamlet Fire Latest in a Long List of Imperial Setbacks,” Richmond County Daily Journal, September 16, 1991.
3.Author interview with John Joseph Shanley.
4.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
5.“Hamlet Fire Latest in a Long List of Imperial Setbacks.”
6.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
7.“Why You Need the Amalgamated,” in a brochure in a packet called “Your Union Welcomes You,” circa 1975, Box 5, Folder, Our Union Welcomes You, circa 1975, UFCW Papers, SHSW, Madison, WI.
8.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
9.Erik Loomis, Out of Sight: The Long and Disturbing Story of Corporations Outsourcing Catastrophe (New York: The New Press, 2015), 58.
10.“Hamlet Fire Latest in a Long List of Imperial Setbacks,” and author interview with Sawyer.
11.On the Roe family and its businesses, Paul Hendrickson, “Reverberations of a Town’s Tragedy,” Washington Post, October 22, 1991; “Hamlet Fire Latest in a Long List of Imperial Setbacks,” Richmond County Daily Journal, September 16, 1991; “Imperial Officials Released on Bond,” Richmond County Daily Journal, March 13, 1992. See also author interview with Bill Sawyer.
12.Neil Cadieu to author, email, August 11, 2011.
13.Author interview with Abbie Covington. See also Richmond County Historical Society, Mixed Blessings: Richmond County History, 1900–2000 (Rockingham, NC: Richmond County Historical Society, 2010), 78–79; Jane Ruffin, “Dreams of Better Days,” Raleigh News and Observer, December 9, 1991; and interview with Burnell McGirt by Glenn Sumpter, July 21, 2009, Hamlet Depot Museum Oral History Project, Hamlet, NC.
14.Jane Ruffin, “Dreams of Better Days.” See also author interviews with Abbie Covington, Jane Mercer, and Wayne Goodwin.
15.Ruffin, “Dreams of Better Days.”
16.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
17.Tony Horwitz, “Nine to Nowhere,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 1994; Doug Stark, “The South’s Poultry Plants Thrive,” Baltimore Sun, September, 8, 1991. On the emergence and timing of the southern chicken industry, see Kathleen C. Schwartzman, The Chicken Trail: Following Workers, Migrants, and Corporation Across the Americas (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2013); and Steve Striffler, Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 93–96.
18.On the crucial relationship between labor costs and “capital moves,” see Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves: RCA’s 70-Year Quest for Cheap Labor (New York: The New Press, 2001).
19.Paul Gaston, The New South Creed: A Study of Southern Myth Making (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976).
20.James C. Cobb, The Selling of the South: The Southern Crusade for Industrial Development, 1936–1990 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), 229–30.
21.For more on the idea of the South as a forerunner to globalization, really to neo-liberalism, see Mary E. Frederickson, Looking South: Race, Gender, and the Transformation of Labor from Reconstruction to Globalization (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2011). On the globalization of the South, see Leon Fink, The Maya of Morganton: Work and Community in the Nuevo New South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
22.On Hunt and his role in North Carolina politics, see Tom Eamon, The Making of a Southern Democracy: North Carolina Politics from Kerr Scott to Pat McCrory (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 168; Rob Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events That Shaped Modern North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 140–50; Paul Luebke, Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), 74–76. See also Gary Pearce, Jim Hunt: A Biography (Winston-Salem, NC: James F. Blair Publishers, 2010). On the ideas and importance of business progressives to southern history, see George B. Tindall, The Emergence of the New South, 1913–1945 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1967); Cobb, The Selling of the South, 3–4; and Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, 10. See also Judy Aulette and Raymond Michalowski, “Fire in Hamlet: A Case Study of State-Corporate Crime,” (early draft of article), p. 11, Box 35, Folder, Judy Aulette Paper, NCOSHP, SHC, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC.
23.LaGuana Gray, We Just Keep Running the Line: Black Southern Women and the Poultry Processing Industry (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2014), 14–15; and author interview with Larry Lee.
24.Luebke, Tar Heel Politics, 29.
25.Cobb, The Selling of the South, 5–34.
26.Tom Wicker, “A Governor’s Dilemma,” New York Times, December 8, 1991.
27.“The Candidates: Governor, James B. Hunt, Jr,” We the People of North Carolina (April 1980): 34. See also, Hunt to E.G. Matheson, plant manager, Rheem Manufacturing Comp (Apex), August 23, 1977, Box 38, Folder, Labor, Department of, K–Z, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.
28.“Interview with Larry D. Cohick: The State’s New Economic Development Chief,” We the People of North Carolina (November 1978): 42.
29.Arnold Brackett, Asheboro, to Hunt, October 3, 1977, Box 37, Folder, Labor, Department of, A–J,; George A. G. Browder, Rockingham, to Hunt, May 29, 1978, Box 174, Folder, Port Strike, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.
30.“Address to North Carolina Citizens Association, Raleigh, March 24, 1977,” Memory F. Mitchell, ed., Address and Public Papers of James Baxter Hunt Jr. Vol I, 1977–1981 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1982), 83.
31.On right-to-work laws, see Hunt to E.G. Matheson, plant manager, Rheem Manufacturing Comp (Apex), August 23, 1977, Box 38, Folder, Labor, Department of, K–Z, James B. Hunt Papers, NC State Archives, Raleigh, NC; and Proposal For NC Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1992–93, February 27, 1992, Box 33, Folder, Legislative Proposals, NCOSHP, SHC, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC.
32.For this data and an impressive examination of the state’s economy, see Edward Martin, “The Great Divide: Haves and Have-Nots in North Carolina,” Business North Carolina (February 2001), 18–19.
33.Luebke, Tar Heel Politics, 71–73.
34.John Herbers, The New Heartland: America’s Flight Beyond the Suburbs and How It Is Changing Our Future (New York: Times Books, 1986), 28–29. See also Tyler Greene’s terrific dissertation, “Accessible Isolation: Highway Building and the Geography of Industrialization in North Carolina, 1934–1984” (Temple University, 2017).
35.Luebke, Tar Heel Politics, 85–87; and Courtney Smith to Susan Collins, August 30, 1993, Box 33, Folder, Fundraising, NCOSHP, SHC, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC.
36.News Release from the Governor’s Office, “Hunt Announces German Plant to Locate in Richmond County,” April 5, 1978, Box 148, Folder, B, Industrial Development, Division of Industrial Commission, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC; and Memory F. Mitchell, ed., Addresses and Public Papers of James Baxter Hunt Jr. Vol I, 1977–1981 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1982), 820. See also Janet Guyon, “Hamlet to Get German Plant,” Raleigh News and Observer, April 6, 1978.
37.Lester Suss (President of BeA Fasteners) to Hunt, November, 13, 1978, Box 174, Folder, B, Industrial Development, Division of Industrial Commission, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. For more on the company and its past, see the website, www.beafastenersusa.com/company/.
38.“Governor’s Remarks,” Box 279, Folder, Remarks, Ribbon Cutting—BeA Fasteners Company, September 22, 1978, James B. Hunt Papers, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC.
39.John Hechinger and John Drescher, “Does N.C. Send the Wrong Message,” Charlotte Observer, October 7, 1991.
40.“Greetings from Progressive Hamlet at the Crossroads of the Carolinas,” pamphlet from the Hamlet Depot Museum, Hamlet, NC.
41.Cobb, The Selling of the South, 108.
42.Jane Ruffin, “A World Apart: Economic Growth of North Carolina’s Rural Areas,” Business North Carolina (April 1992): 92.
43.“Unemployment Here Declines,” Richmond County Daily Journal, November 1, 1983; Jennifer French Parker, “Poultry Industry’s Boom in N.C. Has A Price Tag,” Charlotte Observer, September 9, 1991.
44.Martha Quillin, “Grief Runs Deep,” Raleigh News and Observer, September 2, 2001.
45.Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2001), 161–62.
46.Richard Lonsdale, “Unlike the Northeast: NC an ‘Industrial State, But Not Industrialized,’” Raleigh News and Observer, January, 28, 1968.
47.Author interview with Abbie Covington.
48.Author interview with Mark Schultz.
49.Ruffin, “A World Apart.”
50.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
51.Author interview with Niland.
52.“Imperial Food Products Had a Dozen Violations,” Richmond County Daily Journal, November 15, 1991.
53.On the lack of permits, see U.S. Department of Labor Worksheet, Inspection Number 18479204, December 30, 1991, in author’s possession. On building violations, see “Imperial Food Products Had a Dozen Violations,” and author interview with Tom MacCallum.
54.James Greiff, “Imperial Foods Fined in 80s Over Fire Doors,” Charlotte Observer, September 17, 1991.
55.Hamlet Fire Department, Run Report(s), November 1, 1980, May 27, 1983, Box, Imperial Fire, Hamlet City Hall, Hamlet, NC. See also Steve Riley, “A Betrayal of Trust,” Raleigh News and Observer, December 11, 1991.
56.The first Thompson quote comes from Paige Williams and John Drescher, “County Officials Had Authority But Didn’t Inspect Hamlet Plant,” Charlotte Observer, September 10, 1991. The second Thompson quote is from Paul Taylor, “Ashes and Accusations,” Washington Post, September 5, 1991. See also, “County Inspectors Missed Chance to Upgrade Imperial’s Safety Procedures,” Richmond County Daily Journal, September 22, 1991. In the fire department’s official report on the 1983 fire at the Imperial plant, the building was valued at $150,000. Hamlet Fire Department, Run Report, May 27, 1983, Box, Imperial Fire, Hamlet City Hall, Hamlet, NC. See also, John Drescher, “In Hamlet Fire, Government Safety Nets Gave Way,” Charlotte Observer, September 22, 1991.
57.On the wells, see author interview with Ron Niland and Department of Labor Investigation, in author’s possession. James D. Monroe, a water treatment plant consultant, told Mayor Abbie Covington in a letter that he found what he called three “unauthorized wells” in the plant after the fire. See Monroe to Covington, October 25, 1991, Box, Imperial Fire, Folder, Imperial Fire File, Hamlet City Hall, Hamlet, NC.
58.Author interview with Ron Niland.
59.Greiff, “Imperial Foods Fined in 80s”; Steve Riley, “Imperial Pa. plant was cited—Serious violations found twice in ’80s,” Raleigh News and Observer, September 14, 1991.
60.Yandle and Barnett, “The Road to Ruin.”
61.The information in this paragraph was drawn from Pennsylvania OSHA Report obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, in author’s possession. See also Greiff, “Imperial Foods Fined in 80s.” For a general description of how an OSHA investigation works, see “After the Fire: A Review of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Program,” October 15, 1991, Box 7, Folder—Hamlet, NC, Imperial Foods, UFCW Local 204, GSU, Atlanta, GA.
62.Steve Riley, “A Betrayal of Trust,” Raleigh News and Observer, December 11, 1991.
63.“Imperial Never Licensed to Operate in N.C.,” Richmond County Daily Journal, October 3, 1991. See also author interview with John Brooks.
64.“Hamlet Fire Latest in a Long List of Imperial Setbacks,” Richmond County Daily Journal, September 16, 1991.
65.“Imperial Food Products Had a Dozen Violations,” Richmond County Daily Journal, November 15, 1991.
66.Hamlet Fire Department, Run Reports, November 1, 1980, May 27, 1983, Box, Imperial Fire, Hamlet City Hall, Hamlet, NC.
67.Author interview with confidential source.
68.On the back-and-forth over this issue, see Ron Niland to Brad Roe, June 22, June 27, July 24, September 19, October 1, October 15, November 29, 1990, May 1, 1991, Box, Imperial Fire, Hamlet City Hall; and Hamlet City Council Regular Meeting, January 5, March 12, 1991, Hamlet City Hall, Hamlet, NC. See also John Hechinger, “Chicken Processing Under Attack,” Charlotte Observer, September 4, 1991.
69.Author interview with Ron Niland; and
Hechinger, “Chicken Processing.”
70.Author interview with Ron Niland.
71.Quote from Brooks can be found in Randy Diamond, “Plant Never Had Safety Inspection,” Raleigh News and Observer, September 4, 1991. On the USDA men’s daily routine, see Department of Labor Investigation, Interview with USDA Inspector, pp. 5, 7, 16, in author’s possession.
72.These quotes are from the USDA’s inspection reports. Each time the inspector noted a problem, it was listed in a report that was called, “Process Deficiency Record.” I obtained copies of these reports from Steve Riley, a reporter for the Raleigh News and Observer, and they are in my possession. For confirmation of this policy, see Riley’s excellent reporting, “US Agency Knew About Locked Door,” Raleigh News and Observer, November 12, 1991; and Department of Labor Investigation, interview #4, pp. 20, 22, in author’s possession. The final quote is from U.S. Department of Labor, “Imperial Food Products, Inc.: Accident Investigation Report,” p. 12, Inspection Number 18479204, December 30, 1991, in author’s possession. In another document from this inspection, a complaint filed by lawyer Woody Gunter on behalf of Mildred and Olin Moates charges that “Grady Hussey and Kenneth Booker . . . approved the locking and blocking of doors at the IFP plant . . . for ‘fly control.’” (Complaint in author’s possession.)
73.Author interview with Nellie Brown.
74.“Dateline NBC,” n.d., in Charles Becton Files, Private Collection, Durham, NC; Steve Riley, “US Agency Knew About Locked Door,” Raleigh News and Observer, November 13, 1991; John Hood, “Over-reaction to Hamlet Tragedy Will Only Create Additional Victims,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, September 3, 1992.
75.Author interview with Nellie Brown.
76.Author interview with William Morris. See also a description of the locking of the door from an unnamed Imperial maintenance man in Department of Labor Investigation, in author’s possession.
77.For information on theft at the plant and comments about it, see John Drescher and Ken Garfield, “Worker: Doors Kept Locked,” Charlotte Observer, September 5, 1991. Roe quoted by Paige Williams, “Seven Years of Silence,” Charlotte Observer, October 25, 1998. Department of Labor Investigation, Interview with Plant Manager, pp. 16, 22, in author’s possession. Author interviews with confidential source, William Morris, and Abbie Covington.