In an unusually cold and wet winter for Charleston, striking Cigar Factory workers faced many challenges. Many of the women involved were the breadwinners of their families, and the lack of income was a burden. The machinists, all of who were white men, refused to provide any financial, physical, or moral show of support for the strikers, and in some cases they aggravated tensions. Activist Karl Korstad, a white war veteran who had been stationed in Charleston, recalled one example of such tensions in a union magazine article. As he describes, in January 1946, a white Cigar Factory mechanic spat on the leg of a black woman. As she wiped off her leg, she swore at him. The police arrested the striker for causing a disturbance. At her hearing, two white female picketers testified, “That scab spit on this sister’s leg, and she swore only once. If it had been me, I’d have done a whole lot more than just swear." The judge dismissed the woman’s case. While many workers were arrested for any perceived instance of “disorderly conduct,” this example of worker solidarity demonstrates how labor concerns could at times surpass racial divides during the strike.
Building support from whites outside of the Cigar Factory was also important to the strikers. Korstad, along with his wife Frances Rodgers Korstad, helped champion progressive causes throughout the U.S. South in the 1940s and 1950s. As members of pro-labor and civil rights organizations, they worked to draw attention to the Cigar Factory strike. In the early 1940s, the Korstads successfully helped to organize the Local 22 at the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and they brought their expertise to Charleston’s Local 15. The Korstads also used organizational ties to groups such as the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW) to enlist financial support for the striking workers. Founding SCHW members Virginia Durr and Clark Foreman also helped to establish the Emergency Committee to Aid Families of American Tobacco Company Strikers. Additionally, a permanent SCHW chapter was organized in Charleston with John Potts, the Avery Normal Institute’s principal, as the president, and Frances Korstad as secretary.
This middle-class collaboration with working-class Cigar Factory workers provided a context for attracting the support of southern white progressives. Charleston’s SCHW members proposed a "New South Lecture Series,” which included five monthly public talks given by white and black southern progressives on issues critical to the postwar U.S. South. Regularly held at the Morris Street Baptist Church in downtown Charleston, the lecture series ran from November 1945 to February 1946, and helped to raise funds for striking workers. Attendees purchased tickets to the series for one dollar, or they could pay fifty cents per lecture.
The series relied on the organizational support of local African American churches, schools, and political organizations in Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry region. Black ministers, Avery Institute teachers, and NAACP leaders sold tickets to the lectures. Other supportive organizations, such as the National Maritime Workers Union (NMWU) and the Citizens Political Action Committee (a middle-class, pro-union group), additionally agreed to sell tickets to the lectures. In the first talk of the series, Aubrey Williams, former director of the National Youth Administration, attracted over one thousand people to Morris Street Baptist Church. Over 250 whites attended, and nearly half of them had no affiliation with the Cigar Factory or Local 15.
Katika majira ya baridi kali na mvua isiyo ya kawaida kwa Charleston, wafanyakazi wa Kiwanda cha Cigar waliokimbia walikabili changamoto nyingi. Wanawake wengi waliohusika walikuwa wazalishaji wa chakula cha familia zao, na ukosefu wa mapato ulikuwa mzigo. Wafanyabiashara hao, ambao wote walikuwa wazungu, walikataa kutoa msaada wowote wa kifedha, kimwili, au kiadili kwa waandamanaji, na katika visa fulani walifanya hali iwe ngumu zaidi. Karl Korstad, aliyekuwa askari wa vita na aliyekuwa akifanya kazi katika kambi ya jeshi huko Charleston, alitoa mfano mmoja wa hali hiyo katika gazeti la chama cha wafanyakazi. "Mwanzoni mwa mwaka 1946, fundi mmoja mweupe wa kiwanda cha kutengeneza sigareti alimwaga mate mguu wa mwanamke mweusi.""" Alipokuwa akisafisha mguu wake, alimwambia maneno machafu. Polisi walimkamata mshambuliaji huyo kwa kusababisha msukosuko. Katika kusikilizwa kwake, wanawake wawili weupe wa picketers walitoa ushahidi, "Kikosi hicho kilitemea mate mguu wa dada huyu, na aliapa mara moja tu. Kama ningekuwa mimi, ningefanya mengi zaidi ya kulaani tu". Hakimu alikataa kesi ya mwanamke huyo. Wakati wafanyakazi wengi walikamatwa kwa sababu yoyote ya "mwenendo usio wa kawaida", mfano huu wa mshikamano wa wafanyakazi unaonyesha jinsi wasiwasi wa wafanyakazi wakati mwingine unaweza kuzidi mgawanyiko wa rangi wakati wa mgomo. Kujenga msaada kutoka kwa wazungu nje ya Kiwanda cha Cigar pia ilikuwa muhimu kwa wavamizi. Korstad na mkewe Frances Rodgers Korstad walifanya kazi katika jimbo la New York na katika maeneo mengine ya kusini mwa Marekani. Kama wanachama wa mashirika ya kuunga mkono kazi na haki za kiraia, walifanya kazi ili kuvutia tahadhari ya mgomo wa Kiwanda cha Cigar. Katika miaka ya 1940s, familia ya Korsted ilisaidia kuanzisha shirika la RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company huko Winston-Salem, North Carolina, na waliingiza utaalam wao katika shirika la Charleston. Korstad pia alitumia uhusiano wa shirika na vikundi kama vile Mkutano wa Kusini wa Ustawi wa Binadamu (SCHW) kupata msaada wa kifedha kwa wafanyakazi wa mgomo. Washiriki wa SCHW Virginia Durr na Clark Foreman pia walisaidia kuanzisha Kamati ya Dharura ya Kusaidia Familia za Wafyatuaji wa Kampuni ya Tumbaku ya Amerika. Kwa kuongezea, sura ya kudumu ya SCHW iliandaliwa huko Charleston na John Potts, mkuu wa Taasisi ya Avery Normal, kama rais, na Frances Korstad kama katibu. Ushirikiano huu wa tabaka la kati na wafanyakazi wa tabaka la wafanyakazi wa Cigar Factory ulitoa muktadha wa kuvutia msaada wa maendeleo ya wazungu wa kusini. "Wanachama wa SCHW wa Charleston walipendekeza ""New South Lecture Series"" ambayo ilijumuisha mazungumzo matano ya kila mwezi ya umma yaliyotolewa na wazungu na weusi wa kusini juu ya masuala muhimu kwa Kusini mwa Marekani baada ya vita." Mkutano huo ulifanyika katika kanisa la Morris Street Baptist Church, Charleston, Marekani, kuanzia Novemba 1945 hadi Februari 1946, na ulisaidia kukusanya fedha kwa ajili ya wafanyakazi waliofunga kazi. Wahudhuriaji walinunua tiketi za mfululizo huo kwa dola moja, au wangeweza kulipa senti hamsini kwa kila hotuba. Mfululizo huo ulitegemea msaada wa shirika wa makanisa ya ndani ya Kiafrika ya Amerika, shule, na mashirika ya kisiasa huko Charleston na eneo la Lowcountry linalozunguka. Wahudumu weusi, walimu wa Taasisi ya Avery, na viongozi wa NAACP waliuza tiketi za kuhudhuria hotuba hizo. Mashirika mengine ya kusaidia, kama vile National Maritime Workers Union (NMWU) na Citizens Political Action Committee (kikundi cha tabaka la kati, kinachounga mkono vyama vya wafanyakazi), pia yalikubali kuuza tiketi za mihadhara. Katika hotuba ya kwanza ya mfululizo huo, Aubrey Williams, mkurugenzi wa zamani wa Usimamizi wa Vijana wa Kitaifa, alivutia watu zaidi ya elfu moja kwenye Kanisa la Baptisti la Morris Street. Zaidi ya watu 250 wazungu walihudhuria, na karibu nusu yao hawakuwa na uhusiano wowote na Kiwanda cha Cigar au Chama cha 15.