Tripwire, Episode 1: We Sang While We Worked

Welcome to the town of Woodbine, Georgia. It's the end of the 1960s.

A small town in Camden County, Woodbine was selected to house the Thiokol Chemical Corporation plant, which provided ample employment opportunities to Black women in the area, who previously could only find domestic work, line work at the shrimp factory in Brunswick or field work picking rice, lettuce, etc. The jobs were well-paid at the time and allowed the women to provide for their families. On Feb. 3, 1971, the town was rocked by a chemical explosion at the plant, which ended up killing 30 people and injuring several others.

Follow along with our visual episode companion at SavannahNow.com.

Other media in this episode, including songs, newscasts and speeches were used for educational purposes.

Executive producers: Anne and Pat Longstreth, Nancy Guan, Zach Dennis

Host: Nancy Guan

Music: Andrew Sovine

Special thanks to Jannie Everette with the Thiokol Memorial Project