It was called the summer of dynamite. In 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, the southern textile belt from the rayon mills of upper East Tennessee to the bleacheries and weave rooms of the Carolina piedmont exploded in a full-on civil war marked by political intrigue, kidnapping, attempted and outright murder, rioting, and the threat of armed insurrection against the state. Communists agitated in Gastonia, North Carolina; the American Federation of Labor led organizing efforts in nearby Marion; and the regional elite was forced to choose sides as its forces collided with those of the...
It was called the summer of dynamite. In 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, the southern textile belt from the rayon mills of upper East Tennes...
