match that broke out between union leaders, which ultimately resulted in William Deberry being charged with assaulting a white woman. This caused problems for the FTA because the public had predicted that FTA’s principles of "race mixing" would lead to violence and violation. Operation Dixie Beginning in 1946, in an effort to organize the largely unorganized south, CIO officials began what is called Operation Dixie. This was done for multiple reasons, the first being it sought to organize the Southern textile industry in order to close the wage gap that existed between the North and South stopping the potential flight risk from the North due to the cheap, organized labor that was available in the South. Second, this effort was also an assault on the Bourbons who until then had been the ruling southern power. To start CIO flooded the streets with 200 organizes in what was called the "Holy Crusade" of organizing. This movement quickly inspired the AFL to engage in the same organizing efforts beginning a competition between the two groups. Out of fear that it could potentially lose some of its less radical unions the FTA joined the organizing efforts. The FTA was a vital part of Operation Dixie and its effects can be seen by what it accomplished in North Carolina where they won 25 elections against the AFL. This was despite the fact that this organizing was done in the midst of a Jim Crow south. In the end, it was the Jim Crow laws and the resulting racial strife that contributed to the defeat of this campaign. References Congress of Industrial Organizations United Food and Commercial Workers Trade unions established in 1944 Food processing trade unions