Flow Bowie Interview 4

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: Franklin, Georgia and they catered in the (inaudible) that we go to.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses her family and going to work in the textile mill.

Keywords: eight hour workday; women mill workers

Subjects: Rural-urban migration; Textile workers; Working class women; Working class women--Family relationships; Working mothers

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: They started this union and all that was just such a secret you know.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses her feelings about her husband joining the union, how they had to leave their home in the mill village when her husband lost his job, and how they moved from mill village to mill village as they worked in different textile mills.

Keywords: eviction from mill village houses; mill villages; union organizing; women mill workers

Subjects: Textile workers; Textile workers--Labor unions; Women textile workers

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now your husband, did he have anything to do with the union after he got fired?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses her husband's involvement with the union, and why his dislike of having a boss led him to move around.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: And he died at 55, my husband did.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses health issues within her husband's family and why her health is still good in spite of her age.

Subjects: Textile workers--Health and hygiene

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: My husband, when we met he flipped his lid again and quit.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses the work her husband did after he left the textile mill, how his first heart attack took him out of the labor force, and how she became the breadwinner in the family.

Subjects: Prisoners; Textile workers; Working class women

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: But do you remember any of the things that happened around the '34 when there was a big strike here?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934, and why her husband was a union sympathizer.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; flying squadrons

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: And somebody said he was drinking, and I want you to know they fired the whole caboodle, family and made them move.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses how textile workers could be fired for drinking or playing cards.

Keywords: mill villages; paternalism

Subjects: Prohibition; Working class--Recreation

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you remember when this union started, could you describe the organizing that might have gone on?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses her memories of union organizing leading up to the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Labor union meetings; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: I didn't have one thing to do with it. I'll tell you why, it wasn't that I was against the union, it was because I knew what it was gonna do.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses women involved with the union, company spies, the imprisonment of the strikers and how her husband lost his job due to his union activity.

Keywords: Etta Mae Zimmerman; Leona Zimmerman Parham; flying squadrons; imprisonment of strikers; union organizing; women mill workers

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Textile workers; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: And how soon after they fired him did you have to move?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses about having to move from her home in the mill village.

Keywords: eviction from mill village houses; mill villages; union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Um, so were you here when the people were brought to Fort McPherson or were you already in Montgomery?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses how difficult it was after he husband was fired from his work in the textile mill due to his union involvement.

Keywords: imprisonment of strikers

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: You gotta have roots somewhere, and when you get your child in high school, you gotta have roots somewhere.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses her daughter's education, and her education, and her independence.

Subjects: Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Well now you were obviously able to keep up with the machine.

FLOW BOWIE: Yeah!

STONEY: What happened to people who couldn't make quota?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses working the textile mill and the efficiency men that followed her.

Keywords: eight hour workday

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: its been very hard for us to find people that can talk about ever even thinking about joining a union.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934, and the impact that it had on her life.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: FLOW BOWIE: My husband had an uncle that lived between here and Grantville.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses what she and her family did after he husband was fired from the textile mill and her feelings about leaving the mill village.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Prohibition

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: I'm wondering were there people that you never saw again? That had to leave the mill because of the union?

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses the aftermath of the strike and how it changed the relationship between workers and the mill owners

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; mill owners; union organizing

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now I was under the impression that, that the people really-- that there were lists of people that might have been in the union or tried to be in the union and that they would never get to be able to be rehired.

Segment Synopsis: Flow Bowie discusses blacklisting after the strike and wraps up the interview.

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor