Worker Strike at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, 1947

African American workers picket the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on May 12, 1947. The strike divided the workforce—most of the black employees joined the strike, while most of the white workers continued at their jobs. At least one newspaper portrayed the local tobacco union as being infiltrated by communists, leading the House Un-American Activities Committee to investigate the extent of communist influence in the cigarette industry.