page_title: Avondale Mills
section_title: The Great Depression
hierarchical_section_title: Avondale Mills / Mid-20th century / The Great Depression
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped version of media:One of the young doffers working in Pell City Cotton Mill. Supt. of Mill is also Mayor of Pell City. Pell City, Ala. - NARA - 523356.jpg
context_page_description: The Avondale Mills were a system of textile mills located predominantly in Alabama, but also in Georgia and South Carolina, with headquarters in Birmingham, and later in Sylacauga, Alabama. The Birmingham neighborhood of Avondale was chosen to be the site of the first mill, hence the naming of the company. Founded in 1897, the mills employed thousands of Alabamians throughout its 109-year history until they closed in 2006. Avondale Mills was founded in 1897 by a consortium of investors including the Trainer family of Chester, Pennsylvania, the future governor of Alabama, Braxton Bragg Comer, and a group of Birmingham civic leaders including Frederick Mitchell Jackson Sr.
  The mills refined the plentiful cotton from Alabama fields and, at its peak, devoured 20% of the entire state of Alabama's cotton production. The owners and operators of Avondale Mills were noted not only for progressive stances with regards to the overall well being of their workers, but also for conditions of child labor that, while common at the time, are today considered abusive.
context_section_description: Mirroring conditions throughout the United States, worker hours, production and pay rates all saw cuts during the Great Depression. In 1933, labour organizers in Birmingham began unionizing many industries in response to the downturn in conditions. Comer reiterated to Avondale employees the quality of life enjoyed at his mills. Textile workers throughout the state walked off the job 1934 to protest steep declines in wages. In the midst of this larger turmoil, however, only one shift, a night shift in July 1934, walked off the job at any of Comer's plants.
  Many labor activists considered the Comers, Donald in particular, to be "the one shining light" amongst Birmingham area business owners. Noted for the "very enlightened and benevolent" programs available to workers, Avondale Mills escaped much of the labor protests characteristic of textile mills in the 1930s. Many, however, resented the paternalistic nature of the amenities afforded by Avondale.
  
  During this time, Comer's views on child labor took on a distinctly more progressive tone. In the early 1930s, he began instituting regulations that prohibited night work for both women and children. In 1934, Comer backed an effort to institute a nationwide ban on child labor.
caption: Child Worker at Avondale Mills, Pell City, Alabama.
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