The online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies
Kerry Taylor
Kerry Taylor is a board member of the Institute for Southern Studies, the nonprofit that publishes Facing South, and directs the Charleston Oral History Program at the Citadel: The Military College of South Carolina.
November 28, 2022 -
The Union of Southern Service Workers is fusing labor and human rights organizing to secure livable wages, stronger safety protections, greater control over work schedules, and new respect for the African Americans and Latinos who make up the majority of its members.
June 17, 2022 -
Workers at state-subsidized Giti Tire, a Singapore-based company with operations in South Carolina, report exposure to toxic substances, forced overtime, and intimidation for pro-union views. Giti workers are in the midst of an organizing drive with the United Steelworkers, and a win could open the door to organizing in a state with the nation's largest tire manufacturing industry.
June 26, 2020 -
When South Carolina's largest city ordered the removal of the statue of former U.S. Vice President turned secessionist John C. Calhoun, there were few if any Black workers on the crew. That points to contradictions that define our political moment.
May 24, 2020 -
Durham, North Carolina-based peace, labor, civil rights, and human rights activist and organizer Raymond Lee "Bro Ray" Eurquhart died on March 30. In this excerpt of a 2002 oral history interview, he recounts his early political education and organizing while serving in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.
June 15, 2018 -
The workers said their arrests were meant to honor the "Charleston Five" — union members placed under house arrest nearly 20 years ago for taking part in protests to save union jobs at the Port of Charleston.
March 9, 2018 -
Jimmy Collier was an organizer-musician with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the first Poor People's Campaign. The songs he composed and recorded 50 years ago continue to inspire activists today.
July 19, 2017 -
The historic link between workers in the South Carolina city and the organizer training school in Tennessee was revitalized when a group of Raise Up for $15 activists from Charleston traveled there recently with others from around the South to strategize about what's next for the movement.
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