“Like a Family” or “A Committee of Half-Starved Human Beings”

This chapter offers an overview of interpretive techniques employed in museums to discuss southern labor activism. With Columbus, Georgia, as a case study, the benefits of utilizing multiple perspectives are examined in museum exhibitions that addressed textile strikes, child labor, rural migration to mill towns, and race relations. It argues for using photographs such as Lewis Wickes Hine's work and other labor-focused historical or contemporary artwork to present labor history through interdisciplinary interpretation. Finally, the chapter suggests ways to navigate the introduction of potentially controversial topics when institutional donors may be reluctant to do so because of family ties, political beliefs, or a desire to maintain the status quo.