Opal McMichael and Roy Calhoun Interviews

Partial Transcript: OPAL MCMICHAEL: We live not far from the main road in East Newnan and so we were listening here and hearing all of the commotion, you know they were hollering and carrying on and things like that.

Segment Synopsis: Opal McMichael discusses her memories of the end of the strike.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike

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

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Were you living in, in--

OPAL MCMICHAEL: I was living in East Newnan then.

Segment Synopsis: Opal McMichael discusses the East Newnan Cotton Mill village, and the history of the East Newnan Cotton Mill.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Pepperell Manufacturing Company; Textile manufacturers

Partial Transcript: OPAL MCMICHAEL: We left the farm in Carroll County. We-- he always was a farmer and he didn't ever like anything but the farm.

Segment Synopsis: Opal McMicheal discusses why her family came to East Newnan. George Stoney explains the background of the Uprising of '34.

Subjects: Documentary films; Rural-urban migration

Partial Transcript: OPAL MCMICHEAL: I went down to-- we have a barbecue once a year down at Moreland on 4th of July.

Segment Synopsis: Opal McMichael discusses Moreland Georgia and what they did with the closed down mill there

Subjects: Historic preservation; Textile factories

Partial Transcript: F1:-- and uh he had never seen any fire cause they had (inaudible). And I'd have to crack the eye on that little stove.

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun discusses how and why he came to East Newnan and how he came to work in the textile mill.

Subjects: Rural-urban migration; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Do you remember when the NRA came in?

ROY CALHOUN: Oh yeah.

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun discusses how going from an twelve hour day to an eight hour day impacted his work.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; eight hour workday

Subjects: United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: I was interested in why there was this great big strike when the people had been making not very much and working 60 hours, and then suddenly the WPA came along, and they were making a lot more money for shorter hours and yet there was big strike. Why was that?

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun discusses the textile workers' strike of 1934 when he was a watchman for the textile mill, and how he took care of his brothers.

Keywords: flying squadrons; imprisonment of strikers

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

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Well one thing we are interested in is the way employees got selected.

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun discusses how textile workers were promoted at the mills he worked at.

Keywords: mill managers

Subjects: Textile workers

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: One of the things I've been interested in is how people in the factory, in the, in the mills took the attitudes of people around, uou know people talk about lint heads and that kind of thing.

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun and an unidentified woman discuss perceptions of cotton mill workers and their educations.

Keywords: lintheads

Subjects: Textile workers; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Did you remember when they started putting in the efficiency stuff in the mills, the picker counters and all that kind of stuff?

Segment Synopsis: Roy Calhoun discusses the effect that bee-do men had on the mill, the mill village, the housing, and living with his brothers.

Keywords: mill villages

Subjects: Textile workers