Summary

Bob Spilman was proud of the reputation he had for being tough. He was known to stand by the elevator and greet workers who were a few minutes late for work with a sarcastic, “Good afternoon.” According to some, Bob was merely the titular leader of the company. It was Jane who, behind the scenes, called the shots.

In 1972, Frank Snyder was hired as the company’s first in-house attorney with the task of brining the company into EEOC compliance and settling a number of related lawsuits. Although the Civil Rights Act had been passed in 1964, most Bassett factories were still segregated. In 1972, race relations and the Vietnam War consumed most of the nation’s attention at the time Nixon visited Mao Tse-tung in the “week that changed the world.” Snyder toured all the plants to announce that Bassett henceforth required strict adherence...