Fox: Witnesses, Relative Recalls Chiquola Mill Shootings

For Mae Knox, 95, the memory of Sep. 6, 1934 is still clear as a bell. 

"It was a very frightening time," she said.

Knox was 15 years old at the time of the Chiquola Mill massacre, where Depression-era union workers were protesting low pay and poor working conditions at the mill near downtown Honea Path. She said deputized citizens showed up to the strike, armed with shotguns and pistols, and fired into the crowd of protestors, killing seven and wounding 30.

"I was standing at the foot of mama's bed when I heard the shots," recalled Knox. "Just 'pow pow pow' like that, and I knew what had happened. The folks that lived right above us though, they had two of their family to get killed ... they were in that strike. I knew all of them ... I knew all of them that got killed."

A memorial sits in Dogwood Park for the seven killed which says "They died defending the rights of theThe funeral for the workers in Honea Path. More than 10,000 people attended. working man."

Knox said people in Honea Path do not talk much about the events of that day. A local journalist claims his grandfather, who was superintendent of the mills, organized the deputization of local anti-union citizens, leading to the killings.

There are no commemorative events scheduled for Saturday on the 80th anniversary in Honea Path.

Eighty years ago—on September 6, 1934—seven workers were shot and killed and 30 others wounded at the Chiquola Mill in my hometown of Honea Path, South Carolina. It was an act that has shaped the town’s history and attitudes in ways that few could have imagined.

Yet, sadly, the old Chiquola Mill today stands in a seemingly unending state of demolition—now being torn down almost brick by brick. Not only have Honea Path’s founding fathers done little to preserve the town’s rich legacy, but it seems that some genuinely want to forget.

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