Faculty note: Lowery publications

Prof. J. Vincent Lowery

The winter issue of the Journal of American History features an article by Vince Lowery (Humanistic Studies/History). The article, titled “‘Another Species of Race Discord’: Race, Desirability, and the North Carolina Immigration Movement,” explores the debate about North Carolina’s short-lived immigration program (1907-1909). Lowery argues that whites in eastern North Carolina, far from being immigration restrictionists, were more receptive to supposedly “undesirable” southern and eastern European immigrants capable of marginalizing or even replacing African American workers. Because of their appeals, the state legislature amended a bill granting these white immigration advocates greater latitude to recruit those foreign workers they deemed suitable.

Spinning off of this article, Lowery contributed “‘Rosy Cheeked Girl the Cause of It All’: The English Teenager who Nearly Toppled the Southern Immigration Movement” to the blog “Immigration in the U.S. South” (http://www.southeasternimmigration.org/medialinks/rosy-cheeked-girl-the-cause-of-it-all-the-english-teenager-who-nearly-toppled-the-southern-immigration-movement/). That post examines the federal investigation into the travels of an English teenager recruited to work in a mill in North Carolina’s Piedmont. The legal battle that followed resulted in a decision that favored industrialists’ labor needs over federal protections of American workers from foreign competition.