Artifacts - Leon May

Workers at May Hosiery Mills, 1910. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, Lewis Wickes Hines, Photographer.

Workers at May Hosiery Mills, 1910. The youngest boy is ten years old, and had been working nine months when the photo was taken. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, Lewis Wickes Hines, Photographer.

Mortimer May: Foot Soldier in Zion by Sam Shankman, published in 1963, tells the story of Leon’s father, Mortimer May, of Nashville.

The May Hosiery Mill provided jobs and documentation that allowed refugee Jews to enter the United States. Leon, his father and grandfather assisted 210 Jews out of Nazi Germany into Nashville, many of them working briefly or longer at the Mill.