JUDITH HELFAND: So show me your books.
NANNY LEAH WASHBURN: Well, I'd like to show you all of 'em but you ain't
got time. But this is Rosenberg's --JAMIE STONEY: Can we do it again?
WASHBURN: -- and I got Dr. Martin Luther King --
JAMIE STONEY: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) OK.
GEORGE STONEY: OK, we have to start again, we had some --
WASHBURN: Come here, I want to show you my books.
HELFAND: OK.
WASHBURN: A lot of books here but that ain't all of 'em.
HELFAND: Where are the rest of 'em?
WASHBURN: Oh, they hid away.
HELFAND: Oh.
WASHBURN: In first one place and another. Well, what would you like to read?
HELFAND: I'll tell you, I should read a lot of these books and I haven't.
I'm embarrassed to say.WASHBURN: Don't you have more than I do?
HELFAND: I might have some -- no, I don't have more than you do, no. But my
00:01:00books they're not -- they're not exactly like this.WASHBURN: Well, you see, I can't claim these books is all mine because two
more people that's gone, done gone, you know, in the ground, they donepassed away.
HELFAND: Who's that?
WASHBURN: That's my first -- my husband --
HELFAND: Yeah.
WASHBURN: -- my second husband and his wife. Some of these books was theirs
but not all of 'em.HELFAND: Who's was this one? It says The Judgment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
WASHBURN: Oh, that's mine.
HELFAND: Yeah?
WASHBURN: This here is a book that broke my heart and all of our family. My
mother was livin' then and we all liked to find it and cry our eyes out when they electrocuted 'em. It was pitiful. Yeah, electrocuted Ethel and Julius, 00:02:00wasn't that a -- wasn't that a disgrace under this cruel society system. It broke my heart and I worked out on the streets and got arrested and put in jail for that, for getting petitions signed to save her -- their live.HELFAND: Where were you doing that?
WASHBURN: Huh?
HELFAND: Where were you doing -- where were you getting people to sign petitions?
WASHBURN: Signing petitions all over -- all over this -- this south side, this
-- I was livin' then with my mother on Rawson Street --HELFAND: Here in Atlanta?
WASHBURN: -- and all up and down every street. Here I been -- I been sad over
this -- that's just --JAMIE STONEY: (inaudible)
WASHBURN: -- society of -- it will take you.
HELFAND: Henry George, Progress and Poverty, tell me about this one? Where did
00:03:00you get that one from? That's Progress and Poverty by Henry George.WASHBURN: Henry George.
HELFAND: Henry George.
WASHBURN: Isn't it a shame that I don't have good eyes. That's what the
good Lord's done to me -- won't help me. I guess it's cause I'm a CP, don't you?HELFAND: I don't think that's it. I can't believe that's the reason why --
WASHBURN: No.
HELFAND: -- you can't see right now. Here I'll help you out a little bit.
WASHBURN: I can't see for (inaudible).
HELFAND: Well, where did you learn how to read, Nanny?
WASHBURN: Huh?
HELFAND: Tell me about where you learned how to read?
WASHBURN: Where'd I learn?
HELFAND: Where did you learn how to read?
WASHBURN: I learned how to read in -- in College Park. We was livin' in
College Park then and I got a letter from a young man that we used to work together, and his sister and I we were really chums, you know, she was a 00:04:00musician, could play anything in the world. We worked in the Aqueduct Cotton Mill and, uh, anyhow, I thought -- thought so much of her but later my brother and her got in love and they got married but she died with pneumonia. But she is the -- my cotton mill, you know, chum --HELFAND: And she taught you how to read? How old were you then?
WASHBURN: Huh?
HELFAND: She taught you how to read?
WASHBURN: I was about uh -- I guess I was about 12 years old and --
HELFAND: So you didn't learn how to read in school?
WASHBURN: No, no, that didn't pay me no attention when I was going to school.
I was a sharecropper's daughter and the sharecroppers, the teachers boarded 00:05:00with the share-- with the ones that owned the farm and so what happened is she paid all of her attention, the teacher, to the sharecropper's children.HELFAND: And how long did you go to school?
WASHBURN: I went to school about three months in my life.
HELFAND: Just three months.
WASHBURN: 'Bout three months.
HELFAND: Why did you have to leave school?
WASHBURN: Beg your pardon?
HELFAND: Why did you -- why could you only go to school for three months?
WASHBURN: Just go three months?
HELFAND: Yeah.
WASHBURN: Well, we -- my parents moved away from there.
HELFAND: I see.
WASHBURN: And as time then I was looking for a job.
HELFAND: How old were you then?
WASHBURN: Well, let's see. In uh -- I was uh, I was about uh eight or nine
00:06:00years old.HELFAND: And you were looking for a job.
WASHBURN: Not hardly that old.
HELFAND: OK, this is the Outline of the History of the World Trade Union
Movement by William Z. Foster.WASHBURN: Yeah, that's a good book.
HELFAND: Yeah.
WASHBURN: I knew him well.
HELFAND: How did you know him?
WASHBURN: 'Cause I went to New York and seen 'em. That's the years after
I growed up. Yeah, Foster. Well, uh, I got a lot of good books back there.HELFAND: I see The Grapes of Wrath. Did you read this one, The Grapes of Wrath?
WASHBURN: I skipped -- I skipped over 'em. Do you like it?
HELFAND: I did, very, very much.
WASHBURN: Uh-huh.
HELFAND: I did like The Grapes of Wrath. I learned a lot.
WASHBURN: When I had good eyes and lived out in Douglas County after my husband
passed away, that's all I done is read at night, stayed up until three or four 00:07:00o'clock in the morning. Surely was -- I was just trying to get a little education.HELFAND: These books, I guess, were your education. See, (inaudible).
GEORGE STONEY: Lead her into the next (inaudible).
HELFAND: Pages from a Worker's Life. This is by William Z. Foster also.
WASHBURN: This Foster, is this Foster's book?
HELFAND: It is, it is.
WASHBURN: Uh-huh.
HELFAND: Can you tell me about that one? Pages from a Worker's Life.
WASHBURN: Well, I haven't read this much but I was familiar with Foster and
these other books and so on.HELFAND: And Foster came out of what -- what movement? I don't know much
about Foster.WASHBURN: You don't?
HELFAND: No.
WASHBURN: Well, you can go to get your book at the library and find out.
00:08:00HELFAND: I could do that.
GEORGE STONEY: Lead her out.
HELFAND: Yeah, OK. Why don't we go sit in the other room and we'll talk a little.
WASHBURN: Go in the other room?
HELFAND: Yeah.
WASHBURN: Uh-hum.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
JAMIE STONEY: (inaudible) lights, stay like that, unless you want me to go slow.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah.
HELFAND: Nanny, why don't we sit in here? Why don't we sit in here?
GEORGE STONEY: I want to get a close up on the books.
JAMIE STONEY: Yeah.
HELFAND: Nanny.
JAMIE STONEY: Tapes rolling. Anytime.
WASHBURN: You're calling me back?
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, OK, OK. Here we go, OK.
WASHBURN: Do the same thing?
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah. Oh, goodness, look at all these books. Where'd you get
'em all?WASHBURN: Bought 'em.
GEORGE STONEY: You bought 'em.
WASHBURN: Yeah, what -- some of 'em was my husband's, not my first husband
00:09:00but Washburn.GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, I see Grapes of Wrath here. That's one of my favorites.
WASHBURN: Yeah, that's -- it's a good book and I've had a lot of books --
GEORGE STONEY: Here's one I haven't read, uh, Julian and --
WASHBURN: Ethel Rosenberg.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, tell me about that.
WASHBURN: Well, I think that's the biggest disgrace I've ever heard of in
my life under this society. I think this would murder her -- I mean murder her husband and murder her and leave little infant children. I think Uncle Sam ought to be done away with.GEORGE STONEY: And were you involved in this case?
WASHBURN: I certainly was. I walked the streets down here on Rochester Street,
00:10:00that's where my sister owned a house there in -- I had to live there then, and we worked, my sisters worked petition tried to save their life, and that was the saddest room, my mother and all of us, you could hear us a cryin' for half a mile.GEORGE STONEY: Was your mother a member of the Communist Party too?
WASHBURN: Yeah.
GEORGE STONEY: When did you join the party?
WASHBURN: I joined it when (laughs) -- when Angelo Herndon come her and woke me up.
GEORGE STONEY: When was that do you think?
WASHBURN: That was back in '34.
GEORGE STONEY: Thirty-four, I see. I'll tell ya, let's go in and -- I want
to ask you something about the 1934 textile strike.WASHBURN: Uh-huh.
GEORGE STONEY: So let's go in and sit down and talk.
WASHBURN: Well, that -- that I'll try to do.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
00:11:00WASHBURN: No. (walking away)
GEORGE STONEY: OK, now we'll -- just sit down --
JAMIE STONEY: Let's see, yeah, it's fine.
MALE 1: Rolling.
JAMIE STONEY: It's fine.
WASHBURN: You see --
GEORGE STONEY: OK, listen. Come and show me -- show me your books.
WASHBURN: Oh, just come over here. I'll show 'em to you.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
WASHBURN: Anytime you want to.
GEORGE STONEY: I see Grapes of Wrath there.
WASHBURN: Yeah, that's a -- that's a good book.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, that's one of my favorites.
WASHBURN: It is a good book.
GEORGE STONEY: And, uh, I see The Trade in Union Movement, The World Trade Union Movement.
WASHBURN: Yes.
GEORGE STONEY: Does that belong to you or your husband?
WASHBURN: My husband.
JAMIE STONEY: (inaudible)
WASHBURN: He was an electrical worker and, you know, he had --
JAMIE STONEY: Move back just a bit.
WASHBURN: -- to keep up with things.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah. And I see the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, I don't
remember that book.WASHBURN: You don't?
00:12:00GEORGE STONEY: No.
WASHBURN: Well, that was some sad day in our family. The whole room was full
of people and when they electrocuted both Ethel and Julius both, then I think it was a terrible capitalist mistake.GEORGE STONEY: Well, what connection did you have with the case?
WASHBURN: Well, I got literature -- used to get literature from the Daily
Worker out in Douglas County and things, and I'd read, you know, some of Foster's way back when he is writing books.GEORGE STONEY: When did you join the Communist Party?
WASHBURN: Uh, I joined in 1900, I believe it was 34.
00:13:00GEORGE STONEY: And why?
WASHBURN: Why?
GEORGE STONEY: Uh-huh.
WASHBURN: Because I didn't want to be living in starvation and -- and
millions of people with worlds of money. I couldn't even get support from my children's father because I was accused of being a communist.GEORGE STONEY: Were you a communist?
WASHBURN: I surely was and I'll be 'til I die.
GEORGE STONEY: OK. Well, let's go ahead and talk about the --
WASHBURN: But some things I might not agree with nowadays but when --
JAMIE STONEY: Can we move her a little bit this way?
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah, because you keep running into a blocking --
WASHBURN: When Foster and all of 'em --
GEORGE STONEY: Just hold it. I'm going to ask you that question again. Were
you a communist?WASHBURN: Yes. I'm not ashamed of believing in communism.
00:14:00GEORGE STONEY: And what made you a communist?
WASHBURN: I want the highest part they are.
GEORGE STONEY: (laughs) What do you mean?
WASHBURN: Well, I've -- I don't -- I hope I'm not wrong. I've been to
China and the sweetest people on earth I've ever met. I never been to Russia but I've dealt and associated with a lot of people from Russia.GEORGE STONEY: Well, who introduced you to communism?
WASHBURN: Uh, uh, who introduced me was Mr. -- was Angelo Herndon and Mr. Otto Hall.
GEORGE STONEY: I see.
WASHBURN: I was arrested so many times for givin' out literature and working
in the -- in the colleges and places. 00:15:00GEORGE STONEY: Well, I know that you got arrested during the 1934 textile
strike. Let's go in here and sit down and talk about that.WASHBURN: Sure enough.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
WASHBURN: Well, we can do that.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
JAMIE STONEY: OK, search slow pan?
GEORGE STONEY: Uh-huh, very slow pan. (pause)
GEORGE STONEY: Not saying much. Start right here. Start about here and pan across.
00:16:00JAMIE STONEY: Backwards or forwards?
GEORGE STONEY: Uh, just the way you're going. Yeah, that's fine. That's
fine. You can start -- you can -- no you don't have to go that far.JAMIE STONEY: OK, (inaudible) roll down there.
[SILENCE]
00:17:00GEORGE STONEY: OK, good.
WASHBURN: A lot of work it is.
GEORGE STONEY: Yes, it is.
JAMIE STONEY: OK.
GEORGE STONEY: OK?
JAMIE STONEY: Yep.
GEORGE STONEY: OK, we want to go this way. Let's start again, back up.
WASHBURN: Oh, maybe I --
GEORGE STONEY: Ready?
WASHBURN: Bad eyes. Yeah, I'm ready.
GEORGE STONEY: You want to go to your right. OK, here we go. I want you to sit
right over here.WASHBURN: Where you goin' to sit, on the trunk?
GEORGE STONEY: I'm going to sit right here.
WASHBURN: Oh, that's good.
GEORGE STONEY: And I want you to tell me about your life in the cotton mill.
How old were you when you first went into the cotton mill? 00:18:00WASHBURN: Well, I was about eight years old in Rome, Georgia. I wanted -- I
was an industrialist kid and I wanted to do somethin' and my mother told me I could go and get me a job (laughs) so I went to the office in Rome, Georgia to the superintendent's office, one does the hirin', and I told him who I was, and I wanted a job. And he says, "Well, you look mighty little." I said, "Well, that don't make no difference. I sure do know how to learn." And so he said, "Well, I'll since I'll tell you. You can go ahead and go to 00:19:00work but you mighty little." And I says, "How much you goin' to give me an hour?" And he says, "A penny an hour." Well, you know, a penny was a big thing to me then, and I went to the spinning room, you know, the next morning and went to work in the cotton mill.GEORGE STONEY: Let's -- let's move now.
WASHBURN: I don't want everybody to know how old I am. (laughs) I'm going
to live a long time.GEORGE STONEY: How old are you?
WASHBURN: Oh, I will tell you if you'll not tell nobody. I am 90 years old
and a few days over. My birthday is the third day of May, 1900. Can you guess that? 00:20:00GEORGE STONEY: Well, tell me when you first started working in the cotton mill.
WASHBURN: Well, I started in Rome, Georgia. That was my first experience in a
cotton mill. I started in Rome, Georgia. I was about eight years old and did finally get the superintendant to give me a job, and I went to spinning. And from that I used -- run machines all over the cotton mill that -- that women runs.GEORGE STONEY: Was your family in the cotton mill?
WASHBURN: Yes, that's where they's livin', in the village, you know, the
-- the company owned the houses and they was a workin', what was it home there.GEORGE STONEY: How many people in your family worked in the mill?
00:21:00WASHBURN: Well, from my mother -- my mother worked but not like we did long
years. And they was about 10 in the cotton mill.GEORGE STONEY: And what was conditions like in the mill?
WASHBURN: Well, uh, from what I -- what I understand, even then, you know when
they's a makin' blue denim and then they dye it, we'd have -- we'd have to breath that odor of that, you know, dye, and I didn't think it was good and it certainly didn't smell good then. And you supposed to speed up when 00:22:00you's operating machines.GEORGE STONEY: When did they start the stretch out?
WASHBURN: They started the stretch out when I was a young girl, about 13.
GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell me about how it worked?
WASHBURN: Well, we -- we'll skip Rome, Georgia, can we? I was working in the
Gate City Cotton Mill and we had a man there and his name was Bishop, and he married a preacher's daughter, Preacher McElroy, and he was making noise all the time and disturbing, you know, it's -- the machines that make the noise he 00:23:00did and we didn't know what he was doin'. I thought he was fixing -- always belts, belts, belts but come to the -- make it short. He was making, you know, belts to whip people for the Ku Klux Klans and it was a miserable -- his name was Bishop. And that's -- that's what kept me worried all the time, hearing him a knocking on that steel at the end of the spoolers, spinning, wherever you's workin'.JAMIE STONEY: That's the old three inch -- the big wide drive belts, right?
GEORGE STONEY: How long did you work in the cotton mills there?
00:24:00WASHBURN: There?
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah.
WASHBURN: I worked there a good many years and my mother moved to -- to between
East Point -- between East Point in Hapeville to the Martel -- they didn't call it Martel then. It's Elizabeth Cotton Mill and I got a job there. Of course, I worked in all -- Gate City in Piedmont, Exposition in Rome, and many more, in Porterdale. But the job cut me a work as to unhealthy I would figure from with the experience I have in reading and breathing dust, lint -- you'll 00:25:00have to ask me some questions.GEORGE STONEY: Now, when -- now, when did you first get the idea to join the union?
WASHBURN: Well, I had a brother but I'll go -- I'll start this. You know,
during the WPA days --GEORGE STONEY: Uh-huh. But were you ever in a union before the WPA days?
WASHBURN: No, I never was in no union. I didn't know nothin' about one.
We -- I'll say I did. I joined the union, the Workers Alliance, and I was 00:26:00working and making shirts up on Pride Street with WPA, and I lost my -- I just couldn't imagine how to do what I was going to do and, you know, work so hard like a seamstress has to do. Well, we got word that Roosevelt was goin' cut off the WPA and we'd all be out of work. So I began to work up and my children did too, young, you know, they wasn't too little. They built me a ballot box and pretty ballot box, and I was goin' to work and get petitions signed everywhere I could, and so I carried that to my job where I was making 00:27:00shirts for the WPA here in town. So what happened -- what happened, I asked 'em in the supervisor -- not the supervisor but she is their boss, you know, could I go down in the basement where we had to eat at, carry our lunch, and -- and make a little talk. And she said, "I don't know 'til I call Ms. Shepardson." Shepardson was livin' in Atlanta and she is the administrator then of the WPA. And so that's the way it went. She come back, she said, "You can't speak down there in the basement." I said, "Well, thank you." And then, I got -- that was -- that was on a Friday and Ms. Shepardson 00:28:00give her -- sent a layoff slip for me to fire me, you know, 'cause I wanted to make a little talk. So I notified the union, the Workers Alliance, was the union, you know, for the WPA workers and that's what I -- that's what I did. So after Shepardson had me fired then our union had me back to work -- that was on a Friday and Monday I come back to work. They'd like to fell over. They'd like to fell over.GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell us about getting arrested in 1934, you and your sister?
WASHBURN: Well, yes, I can tell you that very plainly. I had to get my
00:29:00children to go over to my mother's. My oldest daughter carried the youngest ones. You know, I had five children and I didn't have no food. I didn't have not one bite in the house to eat of nothin', and I went down to the welfare that day, that evening. As I was making my way to go to Exposition strike, and when I did, I went in and talked with the, you know, the welfare worker, and what she did, she offered me 50 cents, and I says, "Lady, you 00:30:00know, 50 cents won't buy my children, five children no food," and I ain't got a ounce of -- spec of no -- no coffee, no nothin'. I drank coffee then. And so she said, "Well, that's all I can give ya." I said, "Well, you keep that here." I says, "Keep it." And I went on then and caught me a trolley and went to picketing. See, I was tied up. The reason I wasn't already there with the children, no food, and having to send them to my mother's over on Capital Avenue, so that's --