“That Desolate Section of Dixiecrats and Hookworms”: The Rise and Fall of the Cio in Sumter, South Carolina, 1927-1950

In March of 1942, the Williams Furniture Company of Sumter, South Carolina signed the first union contract in Sumter County history, the Congress of Industrial Organization’s (CIO) United Furniture Workers of America Local 273. This contract provided the CIO with one of their largest victories in all of South Carolina and helped create a sense of hope that the CIO could win organizing battles in South Carolina. Despite the optimism, unionization failed to spread across Sumter County during the postwar Operation Dixie organizing campaign. This thesis looks to answer why the Southern drive failed in Sumter. Local 273 did not face one singular obstacle, but a variety of issues. Mismanagement by the CIO, failures to elect labor politicians, and an inability to counter reactionary social and political beliefs were the primary culprits for the CIO’s failure, with these factors working in unison to suppress the Southern organizing drive in Sumter County, South Carolina.