The Economics of The Civil Rights Movement

 

Olivet Thaxton and Mary Payne lost their jobs for being civil rights activists. During an interview on January 15, 2002, Owen Cardwell and Lynda Woodruff discussed the economic implications of being “a bucket carrier:”


There were originally thirty-two applicants [requesting transfers from Dunbar to Glass],” Owen recalled. “And then it went down because economic pressures were applied.”


“For all the parents, right,” Lynda commented. “They were scared of their jobs. Naturally! In Lynchburg, Virginia, if you lost your job, where would you get another one? In 1961? 1962?”


 “The economics of it was true for all four of us,” said Owen. “Dr. Jackson [a dentist], of course, solely dependent on the Black community for his livelihood, so was my father who was assistant manager of the [Virginia Mutual Benefit Life] insurance company, then.”


“My dad was a federal government employee,” noted Lynda. “During that era, a federal employee could have been fired for campaigning, politicizing. The rule is there. They choose not to use until they want someone fired. Then they bring it out, dust it off. . . Whether we were overt or covert, there was the threat of economics for my parents.”