Samuel Alexander Interview

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did you smoke a lot?

SAMUEL ALEXANDER: Yeah I was smoking 3 packs a day when I quit.

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses what it was like to work in the textile mill before the reforms of President Roosevelt, what wages were, living on the mill village

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Child labor; Textile workers; Wages; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What can you tell me about Roosevelt coming in?

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses the impact of Roosevelt's policies on the working people, and the importance of being able to organize.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration

Subjects: Collective bargaining--Textile industry; New Deal (1933-1939); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Did you personally get invovled in, in that first union effort?

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses the organzing of the union in 1933 and again in 1941, and the impact of Roosvelt on the education of his children.

Keywords: Blue Eagle; union organizing

Subjects: Collective bargaining--Textile industry; Minimum wage; Textile workers--Labor unions; United Textile Workers of America; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Why was it that this town was able to get organized and other towns they weren't?

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses the difficulties faced by workers trying to organize, the imprisonment of strikers, and the importance of public opinion.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; imprisonment of strikers; union organizing

Subjects: Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now do you remember how the strike-- how, what, how the public and how the mill management responded to that strike, that general strike in 1934?

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses the textile workers's strike of 1934.

Keywords: United Textile Workers of America convention, August 1934

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

Partial Transcript: SAMUEL ALEXANDER: Well like I said yesterday they run, back a long time they run, pickers opener, card.

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses the role of African Americans in the textile mill.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; National Recovery Administration; eight hour day

Subjects: Textile workers; Wages; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now, what was-- do you remeber what your job was in 1933-34? Were you working in the opening room then?

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses some of the reasons behind the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; stretch-out; union organizing

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

Partial Transcript: SAMUEL ALEXANDER: Now I know a fellow that organized us in '41 (inaudible) White, Horace White. He was in the '34 strike

Segment Synopsis: Samuel Alexander discusses Horace White, a union organizer and the violence that he faced, the perception of the NRA by both the textile workers and the mill ownership,

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; eight hour workday; mill owners; union organizing; violence during the strike

Subjects: Blacklisting, Labor; Minimum wage; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)