Oral history interview with Vickie Jacobs, December 11, 1993
Subtitle: interview K-0100, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Blackwell-Johnson, Joyce, 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; Furniture workers; Women employees; Employment; Furniture industry and trade; Plant shutdowns; White Furniture Company; Hickory White Company
Other titles: Interview K-0100, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Vickie Jacobs, December 11, 1993; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Vickie Jacobs left a dead-end job at a barbecue restaurant to take a position at the White Furniture Company in Hillsborough, North Carolina. In this interview, she describes her work there and at another White factory in Mebane, North Carolina, recalling the positions she held, explaining the routines on the factory floor, and describing the furniture production process. Jacobs enjoyed working in the rub-and-pack room of the factory, polishing furniture and preparing it for shipping, but her most vivid memory is of the Hillsborough factory's closing, a recollection that offers a tantalizing glimpse of a closely knit community of workers.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 6, 2008).

Interview participants: Vickie Jacobs, interviewee; Joyce Blackwell-Johnson, interviewer.

Duration: 00:58:06.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH 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. 134.9 kilobytes, 106 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series K, Southern communities, interview K-0100, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jackie Gorman. Original transcript: 29 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.