 |
| A smiling
Crystal Lee Sutton at the opening of the Crystal Sutton
Collection. June 2007 |
| "We
admire her courage, we admire her convictions, and we
admire her spirit. She is a champion not only of the
working class but also of all who inspire to improve
the lives of others." –
Dr. Martin H. Nadelman, President of Alamance Community
College. |
The words describe Crystal Lee Sutton, the woman on whom
the Oscar-winning
movie Norma Rae starring Sally Field was based. She
died on Sept. 11 following a long illness.
Dr. Nadelman made the comments about Sutton in June 2007
when she chose Alamance Community College as the repository
for her historic unionization papers. Following the incidents
depicted in the movie Norman Rae, Sutton became a nationally-recognized
union organizer and public speaker.
Dr. Sam Powell, an ACC trustee who now serves on the state
board of the N.C. Community College System, said in 2007:
"That collection will provide scholars the ability
to research an important perspective in the modern history
of the textile industry and workers’ rights. For ACC,
the collection and what it represents will inspire current
and future students, many who themselves have had direct
or indirect connections to the textile industry."
On Friday, Dr. Nadelman remembered Sutton this way: "Crystal
Lee Sutton understood the value of education, and it was
her desire that her very important work be housed in a facility
where the ‘common man’ could view her papers.
Her courage to stand up for what was right, even though
the stance could have cost her a job, shows she was concerned
for others. Through her relentless efforts to secure a safe
work environment, she helped bring to the forefront a voice
of reason for many who previously were mute."
Sutton, who matriculated through ACC’s Nursing Assistant
program in 1988, said she chose the College as the repository
of her papers because of its record in providing education
for all people. "Thank God for ACC," she said,
"where even the working poor can come, get financial
assistance, and get a new start in life."
She explained she had been collecting material since she
began her crusade for unionization in 1973 and wanted to
ensure it was preserved for future historians and students.
In the early 1970s, Crystal Lee was 33 and working at the
J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where she was
making $2.65 an hour folding towels. The poor working conditions
she and her fellow employees suffered compelled her to join
forces with Eli Zivkovich, a union organizer, and attempt
to unionize the J.P. Stevens employees.
"Management and others treated me as if I had leprosy,"
Sutton said in 2007. She received threats and was finally
fired from her job. But before she left, she took one final
stand, filmed verbatim in the 1979 film Norma Rae.
"I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION
on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly
turned it around. The workers started cutting their machines
off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the
plant was very quiet…" |
