The Ella May Wiggins Memorial Committee is currently working with Bessemer City leaders to establish a mural of Wiggins in the city where she lived at the time of her murder.

Who was Ella May Wiggins

Wiggins, a mother of five surviving children at the time, was a labor union activist who lived in several textile-centered cities in North and South Carolina before putting down roots in Bessemer City.

Part of the National Textile Workers Union, Wiggins rallied workers around the 1929 Loray Mill Strike through her songs and ballads.

On Sept. 14, 1929, she and several others were travelling from Bessemer City to Gastonia for a union meeting when a mob intercepted them. She was shot through the heart and died within moments. The strike dissolved not long after.

The Committee

The memorial c

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