GEORGE STONEY: Well, I-- I've got some kind of bad news for you. Have you
seen, uh, mis--JAMIE STONEY: We be rollin'.
GEORGE STONEY: OK, uh, Leona?
LEONA PARHAM: Hmm.
GEORGE STONEY: You wanna tell me about, uh, the times that you went out with
[Homer Welch?] and your father -- I mentioned [Homer Welch?] and your father and -- that you're going out on the trucks. OK?PARHAM: OK. Well I'm -- I don't remember, too many of the trips. Um, I do
remember goin' to [Newton?] one trip. A second trip, I -- I wasn't feeling well.GEORGE STONEY: I'm gonna stop you again because we don't know – (break in
video) OK, roll Jamie.JAMIE STONEY: Speed.
GEORGE STONEY: All right, tell me. Uh, about going out on the trucks, uh, to
-- on the flying squad -- it was mentioned, the flying squad and then the trucks and then tell me what you did and who was on there and how it felt. 00:01:00PARHAM: Well, I don't remember exactly how many trips I made with the flying
squad, but I do remember goin' to Newnan once. They went back again and I was not feeling well so I didn't go with them that time. We also went to Sargent on one -- on one of the flying squad trips. And, uh, I remember goin' some other place but I can't re-- remember the name of the town. I'm not sure if it was LaGrange or I believe it was Sargent, Georgia though.GEORGE STONEY: What was it like?
PARHAM: Well, at that time, I was young enough that I just thoroughly enjoyed
doing what I was doing. And I -- I believed in the union. And I -- I felt that 00:02:00it would be good for us to increase our wages, um, lessen the hours. And I -- I just thought a union was a good thing to have.GEORGE STONEY: But it must've taken a great deal of courage for a young woman
and other young women to get in those trucks and go off and, uh, be going to strange places and y-- calling out to people. Tell us how it felt.PARHAM: Well, as far as I was concerned, it was -- it was just something that I
believed it and I was willing to do it. And we -- we really didn't have any bad times on those flying trips.GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell us how they got organized?
00:03:00PARHAM: Well, I can't tell you exactly how they were organized because Mr.
Welch came and talked with us and my father had always believed in better pay for the working man, and we'd heard him talk a lot about the -- the miners -- coal miners. And, uh, he believed in it and I -- I believed in my father and I thought he knew what was best. So --GEORGE STONEY: Was it a -- was it thrilling? Was it exciting? Was it -- just
-- if it is, say that.PARHAM: Yes, it was. It was -- well, it was just fun trips. We all enjoyed
being together and, uh, there was really no -- no ha-- nothing like fighting or 00:04:00there was a few feelings might've gotten hurt along the way, but I don't think it was anything that was, uh, lasting. Unless --GEORGE STONEY: Now, uh, tell me more about Homer Welch.
PARHAM: Well, Homer was just a -- a good friend.
GEORGE STONEY: He's just a -- thank you. Homer Welch. Just --
PARHAM: Well,
Homer Welch was a good friend. I knew him. I had known him for years and I had al-- always known that he was al-- a good Christian man. His wife was a good Christian woman. And they had spent time with us and enough time to know the 00:05:00kind of man he was. And he was an honest man. He believed in what he was doing. And I think he did -- he did what any man would do for a friend if, uh -- if they got into trouble or something.GEORGE STONEY: Now what made him special? Where did his leadership quality
show? Obviously, he was a -- an extraordinary man. Talk about that.PARHAM: Well, I don't know exactly how to put that. Um, because as I said, he
-- he believed in what he was doing. And he was a -- a good man and he was a 00:06:00friend of the working man and that was, uh -- well, that was his job to organize.GEORGE STONEY: Now at first, he worked in the mills.
PARHAM: Yes.
GEORGE STONEY: Could you tell us about what he did in the mills and then when --
what happened to him and when then he became a full-time organizer?PARHAM: Well, I know he did work in the mills but I -- I'm not --
GEORGE STONEY: Th-- then just [name?] I know Homer Welch.
PARHAM: Well, I know Homer Welch did -- he worked in the mills. And, uh, he did
work inside the mill but I'm not sure what, uh, department he was in.GEORGE STONEY: Mm-hmm.
PARHAM: But he did run, oh, what we called a "dope wagon." He sold Coca
Colas and sandwiches, candies, and, oh, I think a little tobaccos -- something like that. Just thought a lot of notions, you know, things you'd might use on 00:07:00the job.GEORGE STONEY: Now, I imagine that made it easier for him to be an organizer
because he could move around all over the -- the factory. Uh, if that seems to be right, could you describe how he could move around and talk to different people?PARHAM: Well, I'm -- I don't know that the job helped him any --
GEORGE STONEY: Just a moment. Etta Mae?
PARHAM: They didn't organize one --
GEORGE STONEY: Could you be still for a few minutes? OK, now.
PARHAM: Oh. I -- I'm not sure that he did any organizing on the job. He did
that later. Um, but he, um -- everyone that knew Homer knew what kind of a man he was. And, uh, he -- he was just a -- a good, honest man and you had no 00:08:00trouble believing what he said and he believed in it.GEORGE STONEY: Now, this is a -- I'm gonna ask you a question that you may not
be able to answer, but I -- I -- maybe you would. Homer obviously was the kind of man who could've gone up in the mills. He could become a supervisor. He could've had a good future in the mills because he was very able and he was smart and he read well, and so forth. Why do you think he chose to be a union man rather than going into management? Just -- if you think that you might say that, and then tell me why.PARHAM: Well, I -- I believed that Homer just wanted to help his fellow man.
And, uh, I'm sure he could've had other jobs in the mill that would have paid more money. But I don't think the money was that important to him. I 00:09:00think what he was doing was more important than the money was, and I don't think he did any of this for the money, either. He did it because it was something he believed in and was -- wanted to help his fellow man.GEORGE STONEY: Did you ever go to LaGrange on one of these trips?
PARHAM: Um, (clears throat) I don't remember ever going to LaGrange on one of them.
GEORGE STONEY: Oh, OK. Now, do you remember, were there any organizational
meetings in your house or on your street?PARHAM: No. We did -- we did meet at my house a lot of times but, um, we've
always had people coming to our house. We've always enjoyed people and, uh, 00:10:00they always seem to enjoy coming to our house. They were just good friends. And I don't say that it never came up -- that there was no organizing done there. It was so -- it was just a time to get together and, uh, share food, or conversation, or whatever. And on a lot of nights, I'd go in the kitchen and cook supper at nine o'clock. We'd enjoy a midnight snack.GEORGE STONEY: Uh, did you ever know Mr. [Houlihan?] or George [Googe?] who came
here from Atlanta?PARHAM: I can't say that I ever met them. Um, I know of them, but I never met
them, uh, actually.GEORGE STONEY: You wanna just say that and use that -- your -- the names in your answer?
00:11:00PARHAM: To my knowledge, I never met Mr. Houlihan or Mr. Googe. I know they
were organizers, though. But I -- if I've ever met them, I didn't know it -- didn't -- don't remember it, really.GEORGE STONEY: Do you know where the trucks came from that you, uh, rode around in?
PARHAM: They were from LaGrange, but, uh, I'm not sure who owned the trucks.
But undoubtedly, it had to be somebody that believed in the union or they wouldn't have been hauling union members around.GEORGE STONEY: Yeah. Now after the strike, uh, how did you and your family feel
about, uh, Etta Mae's getting locked up? 00:12:00PARHAM: Well, we missed her and we were sorry that it happened but, uh, nobody
ever -- we never held it against her. We missed her while she was gone and I thought it was a pretty rotten thing to do in the first place.GEORGE STONEY: Let's try that again. You must've been terribly frightened
for her and your father.PARHAM: No, I -- I was not really frightened of --
GEORGE STONEY: Just say, "I wasn't really frightened for Etta Mae, my sister."
PARHAM: I wasn't really frightened for Etta Mae or my father, for that matter,
because, um, I felt that they would be taken care of and I didn't think they were going to be mistreated. Or, well I guess you might call it mistreating 00:13:00them in a -- in a sense, that since they put 'em in a [pasture?] to stay for a week. But I knew Etta Mae would get by. She's a -- she's just the type of person that -- she always comes through things.GEORGE STONEY: OK. Um, now (clears throat) I'm gonna go way back to -- we
have something we didn't get before. I wanna know something about your first days in the mills, and how you remember your first times in the mill -- how old you were, and why you went into the mills, and what it was like. 00:14:00PARHAM: Well, I was 14 years old in March. I went to work in the mill in April
after I was 14 in March. And usually if anybody went to work, they'd tell them they were 14 and a half because they had to be that old to g-- to get a job. But when the overseer asked me how old I was, I said I -- I'm 14 years old. I was 14 last month. So he said, "Well, we can use spinners so be in the next day." And I did. I went in and I learned to spin. I made $3.45 a week while learning. And it was hard work -- a lot -- much harder than I thought it would be. 00:15:00GEORGE STONEY: Describe what the atmosphere was like -- this noise, the -- all
of that.PARHAM: Well, I had been in the mill before. I knew the l-- noise was loud, but
I didn't realize that the humidity was so high then there. It was just like working in a hot box, really. And then, of course, when you came out, well, you had lint all in your hair, you know? Just a total mess. But I got used to it. I didn't mind doing it because I was doing it to help the family. We had -- uh, there were 11 children in our family. So it took a lot of food to feed us, and I was -- I couldn't wait to get old enough to go work and help out. But I 00:16:00had my other chores when I got home, too.GEORGE STONEY: How many hours did you work and tell us about that.
PARHAM: Well, they called it a 12-hour, uh, shift. We worked -- we did get 45
minutes off at 12:00 for lunch. We could go home and eat -- eat our lunch and go back and work till six -- we worked from six to six. And up at 4:30 every morning, ready to go by a quarter of 6:00. And, uh, it -- once you get used to it, it's OK, but it was kind of hard getting used to having to get up so early and go -- go down then and be tired when you got home.GEORGE STONEY: What was the hardest thing?
00:17:00PARHAM: Well, the hardest thing (laughs) really was having to go milk the cows
after I got off from work. And that's what -- the first day I worked, my mother said, "Leona, get your milk buckets." So I went to the barn, milked the cow, and started to think the milk had just about as many -- the bucket had about as many tears as it had milk at night 'cause I felt like I was being treated kind of bad.GEORGE STONEY: What was the happiest part of working in the mill?
PARHAM: Well, the work wasn't so hard in the mill at that time. After I
learned to work, uh, spin, uh, we had time on our hands. We could -- kids could 00:18:00kind of play around if you watch for the boss. Don't let him catch you wasting any time. But I'm the kind of person that usually gets caught up with the (inaudible) if I get into something, or if I got into something -- which I tried not to do. I d-- I was -- you can imagine a 14 year old child working for a big old 200-pound man and he liked to get on the children. So, I was kind of afraid of the boss at that time but I had Etta Mae around to take care of that.GEORGE STONEY: Good. (laughs) Oh, that's -- that's wonderful. OK, now did
your father ever work in the mill.PARHAM: Not --
00:19:00GEORGE STONEY: Just say, "My father..."
PARHAM: My father never worked in the mill, except, uh, he did run the dope
wagon. Here in Hogansville for -- for a while. But my father was not a lazy man. He -- he worked but he just liked to be his own boss. And, uh, he farmed and of course, my mother had to go to the fields and help him out. Then when we got old enough, we went to the field and helped him. But at one time, he decided he wanted to be a book agent so he sold books. He sold newspapers. And, uh, when I was -- I guess 12, 13 years old, he -- he had on a little ice house in Newnan -- in East Newnan and he sold ice all over town. He carried 00:20:00papers. And, uh, he always liked to have a garden -- and he had a garden as long as he lived. The last time he planted a garden, Etta Mae said well, she felt like people thought we were treating him bad because he'd get out in the hot -- in the garden and get on his knees and hoe -- hoe out the garden! But that was his choice. That's what he wanted to do. So he -- he did pretty much what he wanted to do.GEORGE STONEY: Now, we've talked to a lot of other people about your father.
He was obviously a really respected man here, and he seemed to be a quite a learned man. Could you talk about that and then lead into his writing these letters to Roosevelt and to Talmadge. 00:21:00PARHAM: Well, Papa was a -- I thought, well he -- he loved to argue politics.
And as I have already said, he believed in the union. And he -- he al-- he was always out talking for some politician. He liked political papers and he read a lot of political papers. In fact, he -- he read just about anything, uh, from -- well at least once, twice a year he read the American history book through. And he -- he always read the Bible through at least once a year. He was just -- 00:22:00he just liked to read. He liked to know what was going on in the world and, uh, he kept up current with things that were known.GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about his writing letters to Roosevelt and to Talmadge.
PARHAM: Well, we didn't -- we never knew what he wrote, but we did know that
he wrote -- wrote to both of them.GEORGE STONEY: I'm sorry, that he wrote to who?
PARHAM: To the President and --
GEORGE STONEY: Start -- start again and say --
PARHAM: (laughs) We knew that he wrote to the Governor --
GEORGE STONEY: I'm sorry. We know that -- we knew that my father wrote -- OK?
PARHAM: OK. I'll get it right, after all.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
PARHAM: We knew that our father wrote to Gene Talmadge after he had broken a
promise to my father. He told him that the very day that -- of the election -- 00:23:00he said he would not send out troops, and that's the first thing he did after he was elected. He called it -- some of the troops said that -- were called at 2:00 that morning. And, uh, my father had a -- a pretty fiery temper some of the time. So he decided, uh, he needed to write to Gene Talmadge and let him know what he thought of him and that's exactly what he did do. And --GEORGE STONEY: What a-- sorry.
PARHAM: And I said he couldn't think up enough words to call him, so he got
the dictionary and scanned through that, I think, to make out every bad name he could call him, I believe. And --GEORGE STONEY: What about the letters to Roosevelt?
00:24:00PARHAM: Well, I -- you know, I really di-- didn't know that he had written
Roosevelt letters. I believe you told me the first.GEORGE STONEY: So the --
PARHAM: But I was not surprised, though. He was that kind of a person. And
every man looked alike to my daddy. (laughs) There were no higher ups and -- and, uh, low -- you know, trashy people I guess you might call. But my father treated everybody alike -- at least, he tried to treat everybody alike.GEORGE STONEY: Now, this is a town where the divisions between the mill people
and the downtown people was fairly marked, I gather. It's fairly sharp. How did you feel about that? Where did you fit in and how did it affect your moving 00:25:00around the town?PARHAM: Well, some o-- some of the people were fair -- a little higher up than
the people on the mill --GEORGE STONEY: Just say some people in Hogansville, OK?
PARHAM: -- village. Well, some people in Hogansville, well did feel a little
superior to the people on the village. But for the most part, uh, I never had any problem with it. We all went to the same community building. It was the only theater we had in town at that time, and they ha-- they had, um, picture shows on Fridays and Saturday nights. And the people from uptown came just like everybody else did. And, uh, now some of the merchants up there -- merchants' wives, rather -- did feel a little superior, I think, but, uh, I believe that 00:26:00everybody's pretty much on the same level now. It's been a long time coming, though.GEORGE STONEY: That's -- wasn't a real factor here the way it is in -- in
some other places then, I gather.PARHAM: No. I don't think it was.
GEORGE STONEY: Yeah. Yeah, well that's interesting. We gotta get some places
that people just like this and other places -- we were in -- in Knoxville for the other -- for example and --PARHAM: Mm-hmm.
GEORGE STONEY: -- just -- it wasn't a factor there. But in many other places,
it has been.PARHAM: Well, now when my husband and I married, we -- we stayed with his people
for about six weeks. And there was a family that lived on the same street with 00:27:00them that thought her children were too good to play with the children on the village. And, uh, I had always thought she was, you know, a -- a real nice, caring person until I heard some of the things that my mother-in-law told me about. She just thought her children were too good to play with the cotton mill children. But our living was all coming from the same place. They run a grocery store and of course the people on the village bought groceries from 'em. That's where they got their living. So really, it was all coming from the same source.GEORGE STONEY: Now, I believe that there were a few, uh, black people working in
the mills at the time. We've talked to a couple of them.PARHAM: Mm-hmm.
GEORGE STONEY: Could you talk about that?
00:28:00PARHAM: Well, the only blacks that I know anything of, um, who l-- worked in the
mill were sweepers. But now after -- after I came out of the mill, and after -- well, before Etta Mae came out of the mill, they were black people, you know, running -- running the same jobs she did, really. But you know, it has always been said that they -- the black people would not take what the white people were taking, and it proved true. 'Cause they worked down there, they learn how to do the job, and then they qu-- uh, usually quit and gotten better jobs. So, you know, they're just -- could be smarter than we are.GEORGE STONEY: (laughs) OK.