Editing Norma Rae (section)

== Production ==
''Norma Rae'' was filmed on location in [[Opelika, Alabama]]. The mill scenes were shot at the Opelika Manufacturing Corp., and the motel scenes were filmed at The Golden Cherry Motel.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thetuskegeenews.com/articles/2009/04/23/opinion/doc49ef76ed90cef476568380.txt |title=When Norma Rae came to town |last=Rhodes |first=Guy |date=April 23, 2009 |publisher=thetuskegeenews.com |access-date=June 2, 2013}}</ref>

=== Inspiration ===
The movie's plot is based on events from the life of textile worker and union organiser [[Crystal Lee Sutton]], who fought the [[WestPoint Home|J.P. Stevens Textiles]] mill in her hometown Roanoke Rapids, [[North Carolina]]. The scene where Norma Rae writes "UNION" on a sheet of cardboard and stands on a table until her co-workers shut off their machines is closely based on a protest by Lee Sutton in 1978.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1980/06/11/through-the-mill-with-crystal-lee-and-norma-rae/c0b62170-e8c1-4550-95a5-c7ebe31f7c3c/|title=Through the mill with Crystal Lee and Norma Rae|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref> Although Lee Sutton was fired from her job, the mill was unionized and she went to work as an organizer for the textile union.<ref>Eric Leif Davin, "Crystal Lee", ''In These Times'', March 5–18, 1980, pp. 16–17.</ref> In 2003 the Stevens textile mill closed,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goupstate.com/article/NC/20030427/news/605155566/SJ|title=WestPoint Stevens closing Norma Rae textile facility}}</ref> along with hundreds of other similar factories across the Carolinas, as US textile manufacturing moved offshore to countries like China and Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://account.thestate.com/paywall/subscriber-only?resume=56620593&intcid=ab_archive/|title=The rise and fall of textiles in South Carolina}}</ref>