Troy Jones and Jake Gray Interviews

Partial Transcript: TROY JONES:-- was married here in '25.

JUDITH HELFAND: You came down here in '25?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses how he came to Gastonia, went to work in the Loray Mill, and life on the mill village.

Keywords: eight hour workday; mill villages

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Textile workers; Wages

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Could you tell me a little bit about when Roosevelt came in?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Great Depression, and its impact on the mills in Gastonia.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Great Depression; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Could you tell me about the NRA?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses the impact of the New Deal on Gastonia, going to the eight hour shift,

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; eight hour workday

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now you worked at a very famous mill, the Loray Mill. In '29 there was a big strike at the Loray Mill.

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses the Loray Mill Strike that happened in 1929.

Keywords: Loray Mill strike

Subjects: Labor unions and communism; Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Later on after the eight hour day, after '33, there was another big strike in '34.

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934 at Loray Mills and the National Guard coming to the mill.

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Do you remember when they were organizing around the mill?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses union organzing leading up to the textile workers' strike of 1934 and the strike itself.

Keywords: picket lines; union organizing

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now did those people get their jobs back after the strike?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses the aftermath of the strike, later attempts at unionization, and how management reacted to the strike.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; mill managers

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Was there a company store in the Loray village?

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses going to work during the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: mill villages; paternalism

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

Partial Transcript: TROY JONES: You with some newspaper or something?

JUDITH HELFAND: No. I'm with a group of reseachers--

Segment Synopsis: Troy Jones discusses the Great Depression, his career, and why there was minimal organizing in the textile mills after 1934.

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Documentary films; Great Depression; Labor unions and communism; Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: -- house in Gastonia?

JAKE GRAY: Oh yes by (inaudible).

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses his family history and their involvement with the textile industry in Gastonia, N.C.

Keywords: Jake Gray; mill owners

Subjects: Gastonia (N.C.); Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JAKE GRAY: Now see in 1930, 1930, Mr. Meyers, who was a banker, by profession he decided, business was bad in 1930, ought to merge the mills.

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses the impact that the Great Depression had on his family financially.

Subjects: Great Depression

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What did you study at Duke University?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses going to Duke University and the intricacies of mill ownership.

Keywords: mill owners; mill villages

Subjects: Education, Higher; Textile industry; Wages

Partial Transcript: JUDITH: So 19-- let's go back to the mill village, you were telling me about what you furnished--

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses the mill villages, how they recruited workers from the mountains, and the financial issues of running mills.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Textile workers; Working class

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: What were the-- the hours changed over the years. Right earlier, in the early years, in the teens, it was a twelve hour day?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses what happened when the wage and hours law came in, paying employees in scrip

Keywords: eight hour workday

Subjects: Wages

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So it sounds liked you started, even though your daddy was owner and president--

JAKE GRAY: Yeah.

HELFAND: -- you started working on the floor.

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses his career in textiles, how he started at the bottom in spite of family connections and the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: stretch-out

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

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: So by '33 your family didn't have any mills of there own?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses how his family lost everything, the textile workers' strike of 1934, the stretch-out system, and the Loray Mill strike of 1929,.

Keywords: Loray Mill strike; stretch-out

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

Partial Transcript: JAKE GRAY: We had-- Mr. George A. Gray had three boys and five girls.

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses how his grandfather supported the family for better or worse.

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: Now um, did any of the people in your mill try and walk out in '34?

Segment Synopsis: Jake Gray discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934 in his mill.

Keywords: flying squadrons

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