| Click here to view the item | |
| Creator: | Baker, Oscar Dearmont |
| Creator: | Dilley, Patty |
| Title: | Oral history interview with Oscar Dearmont Baker, June 1977 |
| Date: | 1977 June |
| Description: | Oscar Dearmont Baker grew up in Conover, North Carolina. He left home at the age of eighteen and spent several years traveling as a railroad worker and as a groom on the horseshow circuit. By the mid-1930s, Baker returned to Conover, where he followed the family tradition of working in the furniture industry. From the mid-1930s into the 1940s, Baker worked for Conover Furniture. He describes how that company changed when ownership transferred from Walter Baker to Jim Broyhill. According to Baker, the change in ownership was largely beneficial for the workers, as evidenced by higher wages and better benefits. During those years, Baker also worked briefly for several hosiery mills. In the 1940s, Baker left factory work for a time to run a cafe with his wife. When her health declined, however, they sold their cafe, and Baker returned to work in the furniture industry, this time as a worker at the Trendline factory. Baker witnessed several failed efforts to unionize workers during his tenure there. He explains that he voted against unionization because he believed that Trendline had sufficient wages and substantial benefits, such as the pension system introduced during the early 1960s. Baker also offers his assessment on community changes in Conover. He argues that the community has undergone much growth and has seen conditions improve for African Americans. The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. |
| Types: | Transcripts | Sound recordings | Oral histories |
| Subjects: | Baker, Oscar Dearmont | Furniture workers--North Carolina--Conover | African American men--North Carolina--Conover | Furniture workers--Employment--North Carolina--Conover | African Americans--Employment--North Carolina--Conover | Conover (N.C.)--Social conditions | Conover (N.C.) | Catawba County (N.C.) |
| Collection: | Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement |
| Institution: | Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) |
| Contributors: | Southern Oral History Program | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project) | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library | Oral histories of the American South (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)) |
| Online Publisher: | [Chapel Hill, N.C.] : University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. | 2007 |
| Original Material: | Title from menu page (viewed on Dec. 5, 2008). Interview participants: Oscar Dearmont Baker, interviewee; Patty Dilley, interviewer. Duration: 02:04:22. This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South. Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. |
| Related Materials: | Forms part of Oral histories of the American South collection. |
| Persistent Link to Item: | http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/H-0110/menu.html |
