Lexington Tobacco Warehouse Workers

A group of women at work in an unidentified Lexington tobacco warehouse.  Often African American women in the tobacco industry could expect to earn as little as $6.50 a week.  In the warehouses, women were perpetually sweeping up scraps of tobacco and taking them to other women to pick out the best of the scraps and throw out the dirty of ragged leaves.  The warehouses tended to be poorly lit and had little ventilation. 1939 December.


-John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald-Leader photographs

2013 Women's History Month exhibit by Deirdre Scaggs