Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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COMMUNITY NEWS New Exhibit Opens at Museum of the Cape Fear There were no state inspectors or consistent federal labor laws covering each state. The Photography of Lewis Hine: Exposing Child Labor in North Carolina When mill officials denied Hine entry, he simply snapped photos of youngsters In the early 1900s, most child workers in North Carolina textile mills labored 10 to 12 hours, six days a week. They toiled in hot, humid, lint-filled air that triggered respiratory coming to and from work. On a notepad he kept hidden in his jacket, he carefully documented each image with his subjects' age and how long they had diseases. They endured the deafening roar of textile machinery. They worked in the mill. risked serious injury from dangerous, exposed gears and belts. These revealing notes accompany each image in The Photography of They forfeited a childhood. Lewis Hine. For example, a 1908 description includes quotes from an In 1908. the National Child Labor Committee hired photographer Lewis Hine to document the horrendous working conditions of young impoverished boy: "Been in mill 6 or 7 years. 12 years old. Haint grown workers across the United States. That same year, he began visiting North none for 5 years." Hine added to the description: "His sister (14 years old) Carolina's textile mills, where about a quarter of all workers were under has been spinning for 6 years. Makes 50 cents a day." age 16. Some were as young as 6. Referring to a 1908 photo in a Cherryville Mill, Hine points out one of Forty of his images appear in The Photography of Lewis Hine: Exposing the smallest workers, a barefoot boy who is a doffer. Why the bare feet? Child Labor in North Carolina, 1908-1918, an exhibit at the Museum They made it easier for young doffers to climb onto the moving spinning of the Cape Fear Historical Complex in Fayetteville. Peering from across machines to replace bobbins. a century, many of the children look much older than their actual years. Hine visited Fayetteville in November 1914, and took photographs at Lewis Hine Hine captured the harsh realities of their mill village lives in Cabarrus, Cape Fear Cotton Mills, Victory Manufacturing Company and Tolar, Hart Gaston, Lincoln, Rowan and other Tar Heel counties. His compelling and Holt Mills. These images will be in a notebook for visitors to examine photographs range from girls running warping machines in Gastonia to boys covered as part of this exhibit. in lint after long hours as doffers and sweepers in a Hickory mill. The exhibit will be on Hine took a personal interest in the campaign against child labor. The exhibit view from Aug. 31, 2013 through Jan. 5, 2014, and admission is free. highlights his tireless efforts to expose people to the truth about what he had witnessed "The National Child Labor Committee advocated for drastic changes to protect around the country. The photographer traveled nationwide to present lectures illustrated minors, and when Hine's photographs began appearing in newspapers, they drew with his images. attention to the exploitation of children," says B.J. Davis, N.C. Museum of History The Photography of Lewis Hine concludes with a look at child labor today. It Education section chief and the exhibit's project manager. "His images were so remains an issue in North Carolina and around the world. Whether it is migrant hauntingly memorable that they helped build support for stronger child labor laws." The farmworkers in our state or millions of children laboring in cotton fields in Asia or effect of photography, then a new medium for newspapers, proved more powerful than tobacco and cocoa plantations in Africa, the struggle continues. words to convey such conditions. For more information about the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex, call North Carolina's labor laws that were meant to protect younger children were rarely 910-486-1330 or go to http://museumofthecapefear.ncdcr.gov. enforced. Hine's photographs proved that many mill owners often ignored these laws. ATTENTION: Military Service Members Inquire about possible academic credit for prior military training and experience. FTCC offers associate degree programs based on military occupational specialty (MOS). Learn more by visiting our website www.faytechcc.edu or call the Fort Bragg Center at 910.678.1050 Offering over 189 programs leading to the award of associate degree, certiļ¬cate or diploma. A military friendly school! www.faytechcc.edu 8 AUGUST 21-27, 2013 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM