A big deal, as Wilson is in eastern NC once the hotbed of peckerwoods


Wilson County plans to add four new historical markers this year to commemorate African-American heroes, including a 1946 effort to organize tobacco workers.

Wilson County plans to add four new historical markers this year to commemorate African-American heroes, including a 1946 effort to organize tobacco workers.

Called Operation Dixie, the unionization effort was led by black women demanding better working conditions in the tobacco industry.

“They led a walk-out, and this was particularly significant because they were minority women leading this walkout, and it really started a movement,” B. Perry Morrison, Jr., representing the Wilson County Historical Association, told members of the Wilson tourism board.

The state unveiled a historical marker in Rocky Mount in 2011. The local chapter of the Tobacco Workers International Union formed in Wilson in 1946.


https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...r-black-heroes