Oral history interview with L. Worth Harris, June 11, 1980
Subtitle: interview H-0164, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Tullos, Allen, 1950- interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Trucking; Employees; Businesspeople; Management; Transportation; Commerce
Other titles: Interview H-0164, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with L. Worth Harris, June 11, 1980; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: L. Worth Harris grew up near Charlotte, North Carolina, a city that became a hub of the freight business in the early and middle of the 20th century. Harris contributed to this development, starting his own trucking company in the early 1930s shortly after graduating from business school. In this interview he describes navigating the powerful unions; shipping textiles to New York City; and ultimately selling his business rather than merging with another one in the mid-1960s. He also seeks to explain why trucks replaced trains as the region's principal transportation vehicle, and why Charlotte became the center of the freight business. This interview offers a look at the growth of an important southern business.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 26, 2008).

Interview participants: L. Worth Harris, interviewee; Allen Tullos, interviewer.

Duration: 00:55:11.

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.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 104 kilobytes, 101 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, interview H-0164, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 23 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.