Fred Erwin Beal Ellen Dawson Ella Mae Wiggins Sheriff Alderholt Mayor Rankin Gov.

Though largely unsuccessful in attaining its goals of better working conditions and wages, the strike was considered successful in a lasting way; it caused an immense controversy which gave the labor movement momentum in the South.

Because of the large potential workforce of former sharecroppers and failed farmers,[1] many northern industrialists moved south in search of a reduced cost of labor.

Ellen Dawson, co-director of the strike and vice president of the NTWU, urged workers to stand resolute.

The strikers demanded a forty-hour workweek, a minimum $20 weekly wage, union recognition, and the abolition of the stretch-out system.

Later that night, four officers including Police Chief Aderholt arrived at the tent city and demanded that the guards hand over their weapons.

Eight strikers and another eight members of the NTWU, including Beal and Clarence Miller, were indicted for the murder of Sheriff Alderholt.

When news of the mistrial was released, a general wave of terror ran through the countryside, with the anti-strike "Committee of One Hundred" prominent in the vigilante activity.

)[23] Disillusioned by his life in the USSR, Beal subsequently returned to the United States and surrendered to the authorities in North Carolina.

Seeing the union as the best hope for her children, Wiggins became a key leader of the strike, and was very successful in rallying the workers through her songs.

Some of her better known works are "Mill Mother's Lament", recorded by Pete Seeger, "Chief Aderholt", and "The Big Fat Boss and the Workers".

Wiggins went to Washington, D.C., and spoke with senators in the hallways, trying to impress upon them the dire the working conditions of the Southern mills.

On September 14, 1929, following her return to North Carolina, a pregnant Ella May Wiggins was shot in the chest as she rode in the back of a pick-up truck with her brother, Wes, and 2 other men—all headed to a union meeting in Gastonia.

Two car loads of armed men pulled the truck over on the bridge leaving Bessemer City for Gastonia.

"Wherever a strike broke out, state troops were immediately sent and to this show of force were added police, deputy sheriffs, and .

"[30] Because of the violent and dramatic events surrounding the mill strikes in Gastonia, North Carolina, the labor struggle became a symbol of "the strength, courage, and tenacity"[31] of workers in America.

The novels take a singular, actual event and offer literary and ideological interpretations which can, in turn, be applied to the reader's own experiences and beliefs.

"[37] North Carolina novelist Wiley Cash's 2017 book The Last Ballad is a fictionalized version of the Loray Mill strike.