Norma Rae (1979)

The History and Lessons behind Norma Rae 

In 1979, the film Norma Rae shared the story of how the titular woman rose up for her fellow workers. Based on a true story,  inspiring and relevant today, showing how films can teach something relevant about the world itself.  This article will begin by going over the historical events that inspired the film, the film's production, theories about the film, selected literature reviews, and my own personal thoughts about the film and true story behind it.

 Crystal Lee’s Origin

In the early 1970’s, there was a woman by the name of Crystal Lee.  She worked in the J.P. Stevens Cotton Mill in her hometown, Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, where she folded towels and prepared gift boxes.  She and the other workers would make about $2 an hour. She could be considered one of the lucky ones, since she was away from the weaving area of the factory, an incredibly hot, humid, loud, and dangerous environment (Toplin 217).  

The owners of the factory cared little for the well-being of their workers compared to production. The mistreatment of workers is further evidenced by the lack of windows in the factory, the company’s insistence on keeping the temperature of the factories at eighty degrees, and humidity at sixty-five percent, in order to achieve the best possible weaving despite the adverse health outcomes of the workers. Some workers even lost limbs to machines. The windowless environment resulted in psychological damage to the workers. Many workers experienced hearing loss, including Lee’s mother, and even death due to either heat stroke or brown lung disease caused by cotton particles in the air (Rein, 1979).

This factory was in dire need of the eventual workers’ union to show up and give these underpaid and suffering people a fighting chance.  

A lot of these over worked and underpaid workers gained a glimmer of hope in the form of Eli Zivkovich. He was visiting the small town in order to have the J.P. Stevens Cotton Mill join Zivkovich’s workers’ union. Zivkovich first started by trying to speak with the managers, looking to post on their bulletin board, neither of which the company made easy for him. Lee herself was uninterested in the union until the J.P. Stevens Company sent her a manipulative apology letter, hoping to persuade her that things would get better. They were attempting to dissuade her from joining the union, which backfired, since she did not trust the company. Lee sees the notice of a union meeting posted on the factory’s bulletin board, triggering memories of the union her ex-husband joined when he worked at the paper plant and all the benefits he received (Toplin, pp. 218). This is coupled with her bad experiences with unions during her school years and her father telling her that the only thing unions were good for was creating trouble. She ultimately attends Zivkovich’s meeting. 

“When she [Crystal Lee] arrived at the meeting, she discovered that there were only four or five [W]hite [people] present, along with about seventy [B]lack [people] (Toplin 218)." This is partly because the meeting was held in an African American Church. The church’s ministers supported the union cause, referring to the need for unions in their sermons. African Americans were angry about the privileges that the White workers had in the factory, such as being more likely to receive promotions or be hired in the first place. In contrast, only one third of the workers present in the mill were Black (Toplin 219). The union would pave the way for peace and equality between Blacks and Whites by giving them a common cause. These racial dynamics could only be touched upon briefly in the film in order for it to keep the focus on Norma Rae’s journey.  However, these events present in the true story of Crystal Lee demonstrate that the union can do more good than harm, contrary to her father's sentiments. The workers’ union even had the potential to help end some of the segregation present in the factory and, potentially, in the town.  

Beyond racial segregation, the town also had a problem of being segregated by class as well.  The upper class citizens didn’t need to work in the cotton mills, unlike the working class, limiting their empathy. This also resulted in the upper class citizens mocking them on a daily basis, such as calling them cotton heads (Toplin 220). The movie presents the union as a chance for the working class to raise their quality of life. This further motivates Crystal Lee to trust the union.  

During the meeting, Lee hears an inspiring speech given by Zivkovich, addressing workers’ concerns and why his union is a potential solution. “The day after the meeting, Crystal Lee appeared in the mill proudly wearing a union button (Toplin 219)", something her employers didn’t like.  After seeing this, the mill did everything it could in order to keep the union out of its business. One such method was even threatening to worsen work place segregation. They threatened to separate the White and Black mill workers, going so far as to manipulate the White employees into thinking that Black employees would "control" the working environment if the factory did integrate with the union. The implication being that they would definitely make the conditions worse for the White workers, but give themselves all the benefits, in retaliation for years of mistreatment. They spread these rumors in order to cause discord within the union, keep communication between the union members to a minimum, and to maintain White people as the dominant race within the town and factory (Toplin 220).

They tried promoting Lee in the plant in order to monitor her, further creating tension between her and the other union supporters. They promoted her, knowing that she was an inspirational figure to the union, and that this pressure and promotion would cause her to quit the union. Even with this new promotion, Lee stuck to her morals and continued her work in integrating the union. Lee even turned the tables on the company by reporting the company’s anti-union practices back to Zivkovich. This is where the climax of the film was inspired. Lee's managers catch her documenting the factory’s latest change concerning wages at her workstation, and fire her. They told her to leave, but she wouldn't. She instead stood up on one of the tables and held up a cardboard sign that read “UNION.” The other workers were so motivated by Lee’s actions, that they completely stopped what they were doing and turned off the machines, making the room silent for the first time in a long while. This is an iconic moment recreated for the film. Noise started up again when the city’s police chief arrived to arrest Lee. But she did not go quietly, “[s]he kicked, twisted, and screamed, and had to be stuffed into the squad car (Toplin, pp. 219)." This started a long fight for union recognition between the J.P. Stevens Company and their workers.

 The Making of Norma Rae

Despite the conflict between J.P. Stevens and the mill workers fully sparked thanks in part to Lee, the factory still wasn’t willing to join the union. However, also thanks to Lee, the workers had outside media help who were willing to do anything they could in order to spread and represent union practices all over the world. Two of the most prominent figures to represent the message found in Lee’s story were film producers, Tamara Asseyeu, and Alex Rose. They both read about Lee’s story in a New York Times article in 1973. They knew it had potential to make an inspirational film. Both producers had their own approach to the story: Asseyeu wanted it to be socially conscious, and Rose wanted to make a “character-driven” story about “American subcultures” and the “human condition.” However, what made them compromise was their shared desire to spread the knowledge of union practices and Lee’s story (Toplin 222).

They wanted the story to have a strong woman lead and they had many actresses in mind to play Lee. These actresses were known for playing strong feminist icons during this time period. These actresses included Meryl Streep, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Cicely Tyson, Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Sissy Spacek, Shirly McLane and Anne Bancroft. However, due to scheduling conflicts and others turning down the role, none of these actresses accepted the role. While Asseyeu and Rose were disappointed that they couldn’t get any of the actresses they had in mind, they settled for then-unknown actress, Sally Field, as the lead character. This film would turn her into a household name and even allow her to win an Oscar for best leading actress. Choosing her would ultimately pay off for all three of these women (Toplin 217). Asseyeu and Rose wanted the real-life Crystal Lee as a consultant for the film. They would eventually offer her the position and she accepted. However, she would later leave production, and refused to let the filmmakers use the names of the people in her story, including her own. The only reason given to her departure is “creative differences (Toplin 223)."

By now, readers will notice that the film and main character are named Norma Rae, even though the film tells the story of a woman named Crystal Lee. As stated before, when Lee left the film’s production, she denied the access of the names of the real life figures in her story, including her own. As a result, one of the changes that had to be made was the name of the characters. This was one of the inevitable changes to the script due to behind the scenes issues. Other changes, such as changing a father-daughter relationship to a more romantic relationship between the two leads is not only unnecessary, but at the same time baffling. The story could have worked with a father-daughter relationship and may have been a more interesting relationship. However, the producers must have believed that audiences would find a romance more interesting.