- Collection:
- Oral Histories of the American South: The Civil Rights Movement
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Kong Phok, December 19, 2000
- Creator:
- Phok, Kong, 1976-
- Contributor to Resource:
- Lau, Barbara (Barbara A.)
Sambimb, Somsak, Phramaha
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 2000-12-19
- Subject:
- Cambodian Americans--North Carolina--Greensboro
Refugees--Cambodia
Cambodian Americans--Cultural assimilation--North Carolina--Greensboro - People:
- Phok, Kong, 1976-
- Location:
- Cambodia, 13.0, 105.0
United States, North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro, 36.07264, -79.79198 - Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Text
Sound - Format:
- text/html
text/xml
audio/mpeg - Description:
- Kong Phok fled the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia with his family when he was very young, eventually arriving in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the age of nine. In this interview, he recalls adjusting to his new life in the United States, describing some of the cultural differences he encountered. He describes his work at Guilford Mills before the plant's owners moved it to Mexico. He recounts his struggles with discrimination at the mill, which he soon overcame, eventually earning a promotion to production manager. Conscious of his own good fortune, he treated his workers fairly and with kindness. This interview offers an instructive, if brief, look at North Carolina's mill industry from a different perspective: that of a recent immigrant to the state. It also offers insights into a Cambodian-American's effort to find a balance between his loyalty to his birthplace and his devotion to his adopted homeland.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/K-0273/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Title from menu page (viewed on November 26, 2008).
Interview participants: Kong Phok, interviewee; Phramaha Somsak Sambimb, interviewee; Barbara Lau, interviewer.
Duration: 01:18:10.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers. - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project)
- Rights:
-
