On October 29, 2016, we’re helping to host a reunion at Rocky Mount Mills. Along with Capitol Broadcasting, we’d like to invite every former worker, their friends, families, and communities to Rocky Mount Mills. We’ll be having conversations about your experiences and memories, and sharing with you some digital exhibits that we’re building to help tell the story of Rocky Mount Mills.
We’ve called this event a reunion to recognize that this is a kind of homecoming for many people. Some families lived in the mill village and worked in the mill for generations. Others came when the mill integrated in the 1960s and commuted, sometimes from many miles away. We want to share the history we’re uncovering with everyone and hope you’ll share your stories and memories with us too.
On October 29, we’ll be recording conversations for a series we’re calling “Closing Stories.” These oral histories will focus on the last years of Rocky Mount Mills. We particularly want to hear about your experiences working at Rocky Mount Mills. If you, or a family member, or a friend worked at the mill in the 1970s, 80s, or 90s we’d love to talk to you! You can email or call Elijah Gaddis: elijah@unc.edu, 704-701-4813. There’s also more information at our website: communityhistories.org/rmm If you weren’t working at the mill then but have experience there or in the village, we’d love to talk to you as well. Send an email or visit our site and we’ll set up a time for a conversation.
Once we’ve recorded these conversations and interviews, we’ll use them in a variety of ways. Most will get archived at Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount or the libraries at UNC Chapel Hill. But they’ll also be available online on our website. We’ll provide full audio recordings and transcriptions (with your permission of course,) and will also use portions of interviews to make exhibits and tell bigger stories. Our aim is to help uncover the history of Rocky Mount Mills and we can do that best with the help of the workers and families that made this place last for so long.
-Elijah Gaddis
