Crystal Lee Sutton (née Pulley; December 31, 1940 – September 11, 2009) was an American union organizer and advocate who gained fame in 1979 when the film Norma Rae was released, based on events related to her being fired from her job at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on May 30, 1973, for "insubordination" after she copied an anti-union letter posted on the company bulletin board.
"I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly turned it around.
[citation needed] Thanks to a coalition of black and white women employees of the mill, Sutton's national speaking tour, and local organizing on behalf of workers among religious groups, J.P. Stevens and ACTWU agreed to a settlement in 1980.
[11] Sutton became a paid organizer for the ACTWU and went on a national speaking tour as "the real Norma Rae.
[citation needed] Sutton was critical of the ACTWU for not supporting her after her arrest, relaying that union leaders "...acted like they were ashamed to have ever had anything to do with Crystal Lee."
[13] The 1979 film Norma Rae, starring Sally Field, is based on Sutton's early union work.
[8] The movie is based on the 1975 book about her by New York Times reporter Henry "Hank" Leifermann Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance.
[10] Crystal Lee Sutton died of inoperable brain cancer at Hospice Home in Burlington, North Carolina on September 11, 2009.