This dissertation explores the development of the apparel industry in the southern United States from 1937 to 1980. The apparel industry has received scant attention from historians, especially when compared to the numerous influential works examining the southern textile industry. The history of the southern clothing industry and its workers merits individual attention, for it yields its own distinctive story By virtue of its size, its reliance upon female labor, and its broad geographic scope, the southern apparel industry provides an opportunity to connect the often disparate concerns of southern cultural history, labor history, and women's history. This study examines the essential features of the apparel industry in the South and the varied experiences of clothing workers during the industry's great expansion from the late 1930s until the demise of the southern branch of the industry in the 1980s. The scope of the inquiry is broad, encompassing the role of organized labor, the changing racial composition of the industry's work force, the creation of a feminine work culture and its As companies relocated their manufacturing facilities in the South, they capitulated to the system of racial segregation. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the whiteness of occupations within the apparel industry declined and the racial and ethnic diversity of the industry increased. African American and Latina women workers accounted for a large percentage of what was once a predominantly white industry. And as the ethnic and racial diversity of the southern clothing industry increased, organizing efforts were more successful. The influential union label and boycott strategies of the clothing industry provide an important perspective on the place of women workers in southern culture and the labor movement. The role of women as the primary consumers of the family placed them in a critical position to influence the success or failure of boycotts, union label programs and, ultimately, solidarity. But as the United States apparel industry collapse began in the 1960s, apparel unions chose to rely on 'Buy American' boycott campaigns that pitted them against the very workers they had hoped to organize / acase@tulane.edu
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TULANE/oai:http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/:tulane_23472 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Contributors | Haberland, Michelle (Author), Mohr, Clarence L (Thesis advisor) |
| Publisher | Tulane University |
| Source Sets | Tulane University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Access requires a license to the Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) database., Copyright is in accordance with U.S. Copyright law |
Page generated in 0.3107 seconds