Louisville's Black Laborers of the Campbell Tobacco Company, 1915-1930

Author/Creator

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2021-01-01

Department

History

Program

Historical Studies

Citation of Original Publication

Rights

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Abstract

This theses is a bottom-up narrative about the black tobacco workers of the Campbell Tobacco Company in Louisville Kentucky between 1915 and 1930. It focuses on the lived experiences and working conditions for these workers, specifically in the year 1920. This theses addresses the question: what happens when we explore tobacco labor through the eyes of the laborers rather than the company owners and management? This research found that Campbell workers often lived in segregated or lower quality housing close to the factory, working conditions were difficult, many of these workers were born in Kentucky, and they had minimal opportunity for upward mobility. Moreover, Campbell's black employees were prevented from unionization in the 1920s, putting their livelihood at the company largely in the hands of the company's management from the early 1900s to 1950, when unionization occurred. To combat difficult working conditions and institutionalized segregation, Louisville's black community created businesses, community services, healthcare, and educational resources. A digital map grounds the written theses to spatially show the destroyed Louisville landscape where some of those pieceworkers lived.