Ethelene Rogers Interview

Partial Transcript: M1:-- you born here at Pacolet Mills?

ETHELENE RODGERS: I was born down the country.

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses her childhood, farming for the mill company, working in the mill and the segregation faced by African Americans

Keywords: African-American mill workers

Subjects: African American women; African Americans--Segregation; Child labor; Racism; Working class African Americans; Working class women--Family relationships; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: ETHELENE RODGERS: And just like this, this house here, the way its built we never did get the chance to fix it right.

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the mill houses, how African American women worked as domestic workers, her work at a hotel in town.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; domestic workers; mill villages

Subjects: African American women; Working class African Americans; Working class women; Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So there were different classes of people right around here?

ETHELENE RODGERS: Mmm-hmm

JUDITH HELFAND: Could you describe that?

Segment Synopsis: Ethlene Rodgers discusses class divisions among the mill workers, the Great Depression and the impact that it had upon the African American community and the white community in Pacolet, S.C.

Subjects: Great Depression; Working class African Americans; Working class women; n

Partial Transcript: M1: When you moved here, were these houses here yet?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses her house, her education, her neighborhood, how her family survived the Great Depression, and her church

Keywords: African-American mill workers; mill villages

Subjects: Great Depression; Working class African Americans; Working class women--Family relationships; Working class--Dwellings

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So do you remember voting for President Roosevelt? Were the black people voting for President Roosevelt? Were they voting?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the death of her second husband from sickle cell animea, the death of one her children from sickle cell animea, and how she got by after her husband's death.

Subjects: African American women; Working class African Americans; Working class women; Working class women--Family relationships

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now, is that, that same thinking that same Christian thinking is that what got the white mill workers through it, you think?

Segment Synopsis: Ethlene discusses working as domestic worker in the white mill village, realtions between the white mill workers and African Americans

Keywords: domestic workers; mill villages

Subjects: Race relations; Working class African Americans; Working class women

Partial Transcript: M1: How important was the church, was the churches to the community?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the role of religion in the African American community of Pacolet, and life in the African American mill village.

Keywords: churches; mill villages

Subjects: Working class African Americans; Working class--Social life and customs

Partial Transcript: M1: Do you remember when they had the big strike down here?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934, the fact that the union was segregated, and the lack of relief for African Americans.

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

Partial Transcript: ETHELENE RODGERS: -- nothing like slaves or nothing (inaudible) like that, but they had laws and you had to go by.

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the relationship between people from the mill village, the company hired police force and the mill owner.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Law enforcement

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Was it hard to get to a job in the mill village, was it hard to get a house and work for the mill if you were black?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses being a domestic worker and her memories of the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; aftermath of the strike; breaking the strike; domestic workers; mill villages

Subjects: African American women; Segregation; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Working class African Americans; Working class women

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: That must be J.D.

ETHELENE RODGERS: Hey.

M2: Yeah that's him, JD.

Segment Synopsis: J.D., Ethelene Rodgers' son arrives.

Subjects: Working class women--Family relationships

Partial Transcript: ETHELENE RODGERS:-- if I buttered them biscuits and put them in the stove and feed those kids.

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the Kirby family, Lloyd Kirby, the Sinclar family, and how the strike impacted African American workers, and the aftermath of the strike.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; Lloyd Kirby; aftermath of the strike

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Wages; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: And did the textile mills, did they-- I mean what kind of power did they have around here?

Segment Synopsis: Ethelene Rodgers discusses the ways in which the mill company exerted control over its employees and the town.

Keywords: paternalism

Subjects: Police; Wages