Two pieces of Alabama History for the price of one cache find...
1. CAMP SHERIDAN was a United States army camp located three and
one fourth miles north of the old Montgomery city limits on Lower
Wetumpka Road in what was once Vandiver Park. Today, it is well
within the city limits. Vandiver Park, which had once been the old
State Fair Grounds, had long been used by the national guard of
Alabama as a training camp.
2. J.P. STEVENS TEXTILE PLANT At it's height, the plant employed
over 900 workers on the floor doing everything from weighing bales
of cotton, to cleaning it to weaving it into fabric on large looms.
The plant opened in the early 1900's and operated until the mid
1980's. Its history was rife with labor, union, and civil rights
issues. This plant (and the company as a whole) had a reputation
for unfair labor practices and unsafe working conditions. Many
workers were injured using broken or mis-aligned equipment. Many
more had long-term health problems including "brown lung" from
breathing in the heavy levels of cotton fibers that were always in
the air.
In October of 1980 the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers
Union (ACTWU) won a major battle in its long campaign to organize
J.P. Stevens & Co., when the union and J.P. Stevens company
officers signed a collective bargaining agreement. At the time,
J.P. Stevens was the second largest textile firm in the U.S.
Today, the plant is a warehouse facility.
