Lonnie Morris Interview

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: ... they'd, they'd beat him up when he fell in the bottom of the ditch. And we went down there, to see where he jump across. And that's about all I remember about it.

Segment Synopsis: Discussion of the strikers who were arrested and imprisoned at Fort McPherson.

Keywords: Fort McPherson

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Labor unions; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Was this, this was a prohibition town?

Lonnie Morris: Yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discuss the mill company stance on alchol, how housing was assigned in the mill village and evictions from mill housing.

Keywords: Prohibition; eviction from mill village houses; loom fixer; mill villages

Subjects: Prohibition; Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: Judith Helfand: Okay, could you just tell us your name and your address, when you were born?

Lonnie Morris: My name is Lonnie Morris, I was born in 1915, in Cleburne county Alabama and we moved to Georgia the first day of July in '29, and moved to East Newnan Cotton Mill.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses his childhood including his family's move from Alabama to Georgia and working in the mill as child laborer.

Keywords: East Newnan Cotton Mill; child-labor; wages

Subjects: Child labor; Newnan (Ga.)

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Now you were saying something about people not like to talk about that.

Lonnie Morris: Well, one thing I think why they don't like to talk about it, its, its really embarrassing to them in a way.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses why people are reluctant to talk about the General Textile Strike of 1934 and about the nature of work in the textile mills, as well as the impact of the Roosevelt Administration's labor laws.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; doffer; doffing; eight hour workday; minimum wage; stretch-out

Subjects: New Deal (1933-1939); Textile workers; United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Now, uh back in 30, 33-34, you know when the code came in, and the speed up...

Lonnie Morris: Yeah.

George Stoney: And so forth. It was a lot of disruption here, could you talk about that?

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses strikes at the East Newnan Mills, mass firings, the newsreels shot at the East Newnan mills, and the 1934 strike.

Keywords: Calloway Mills; East Newnan Cotton Mill; Textile Worker's Strike; newsreels; picket lines

Subjects: Labor unions and mass media; Newnan (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: When I told them, when they, when trying to get this start up, you going to get everybody in this country fired, and they did. They took a lot of them to the Federal Pen, in Atlanta and lock 'em up.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses the arrest of strikers at the East Newnan Mill and the interment of the strikers at Fort McPherson, and how the lack of organization in the union led to the failure of the strike.

Keywords: East Newnan Cotton Mill; Fort McPhearson; National Guard; Textile Worker's Strike; conflicts between mill workers and management

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); Newnan (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: Well I worked fourteen years there one time and then left. Stayed gone about three years, and went back and worked about four more years.

Segment Synopsis: Lonnie Morris talks about his career in textiles, why he retired, and the importance of teaching the history of strike to future generations.

Keywords: East Newnan Cotton Mill; General Textile Strike of 1934; Geogria State University; Opal McMichael; aftermath of the strike; education; insurance

Subjects: Education; Newnan (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: You didn't, you didn't have no freedom, with the companies. Say if you wanted to drink, you'd go off in another state, and if they got word, you was fired,

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses how mill companies controlled workers lives through the 1930s, and how the labor codes began to make a change.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; Prohibition; conflicts between mill workers and management; eight hour workday; mill villages; rent

Subjects: New Deal (1933-1939); Prohibition; United States. National Recovery Administration; Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Do you remember when you first got your first radio?

Lonnie Morris: Well my daddy had uh, had a battery radio when we moved there.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses his family having a radio in the late 1920s, why they moved from their family farm to the mill village, and the difference in Roosevelt and Hoover's polices towards the working class.

Keywords: Franklin Roosevelt; Herbert Hoover; agriculture; boll weevils; cotton agriculture; fireside chats; mill villages; news; radio

Subjects: Agriculture; Radio broadcasting; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: How you doing?

Judith Helfand: Well fine execpt one of the connectors is so tight on the television I can't undo it.

Segment Synopsis: Judith Helfand sets up Lonnie Morris's television in order to show a video of the General Textile Strike of 1934.

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: (inaudible) made some of the prettiest cloth you ever laid your eyes on.

Judith Helfand: That's when they put the weave shop in?

Segment Synopsis: Lonnie explians the process of making cloth and thread to Judith Helfand and George Stoney. Morris also explains the role of African Americans in the mill.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; brown lung; card room; lintheads; spinning; spooling; winders

Subjects: African Americans--Employment; African Americans--Social conditions; Textile workers--Health and hygiene; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: Judith Helfand: What were the relationships like in bet- between young men and young women in the mills?

Lonnie Morris: Well, (laughter) you didn't have time to talk much.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses the nature of relationships between male and female mill workers. He also discuss more about nature of work at the mill.

Keywords: doffing; eviction from mill village houses; spinners; spinning; weavers; weaving; women mill workers

Subjects: Women textile workers

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: Uh some people have been talking to us about short time. They'd get called in and they'd only get two hours or four hours.

Lonnie Morris: Yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Morris discusses short time, what he would do when his hours were cut due to short time, the NRA and labor complaints due to violations of the labor code, child labor in the mills and the importance of teaching labor history to future generations.

Keywords: Blue Eagle; East Newnan Cotton Mill; Franklin Roosevelt; National Recovery Administration; New Deal; child labor; conflicts between mill workers and management; education; eight hour workday; elementary school; farming; labor law violations; short time; wages; writing to politicians

Subjects: Child labor; New Deal (1933-1939); Newnan (Ga.); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: Lonnie Morris: Back then....

Judith Helfand: How many brothers and sisters...

Lonnie Morris: Yeah all of our brothers and sisters uh, when they got through the grammar school and they had to leave home to go to high school the older people wouldn't let them go.

Segment Synopsis: Morris talks about how he and his siblings had to leave school at the end of elementary school. He talks about how he regrets that he was forced to leave school.

Keywords: auto industry; child labor; education; high school; insurance; retirement

Subjects: Child labor; Education; Retirement

Partial Transcript: George Stoney: ... the high school here were very eager to get this and that's a big change, cause a few years back they would have been afraid to.

Lonnie Morris: Yeah, yeah.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney and Lonnie Morris discuss why the strike is now being taught in the schools.

Keywords: General Textile Strike of 1934; aftermath of the strike; education; high school

Subjects: High schools; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)