JAMIE STONEY: We're rolling, Judy.
JUDITH HELFAND: OK. Irene, I wonder how it felt to have to leave the village
after the strike.IRENE BROOKS: We felt real sad about it because we had a lot of friends there.
Still have those friends after all these years, all of 'em that's still living.HELFAND: How did people feel about you and your family having to leave?
BROOKS: Well, they hated it of course, but -- as same as we did, but there
wasn't anything we could do about it because we had to move on where we could find a way to make a living.HELFAND: Were you -- now a lot of people that we've spoken to are ashamed of
00:01:00their activity in the union in 1934.BROOKS: Well I'm not ashamed of it, 'cause really we didn't know what we
was doing. I never been ashamed of it.HELFAND: Some people are afraid to speak about it, even to this day.
JAMIE STONEY: Say it again Judy (inaudible).
HELFAND: Some people -- we found -- we found some people to be afraid to speak
about this strike 57 years later.BROOKS: Well, I'm not. I don't see why they'd be afraid to speak about it.
HELFAND: Why aren't you afraid?
BROOKS: I got nerve. (laughs)
HELFAND: Now, did your papa, was he angry at all of you for joining the union?
Was he frightened? What was going on?BROOKS: No. My father didn't get frightened about it. He wanted warned us that
it might cause us to lose our jobs, but we didn't. 00:02:00GEORGE STONEY: You mentioned that you had a good time when you were marching
along and so forth. Could you talk about that and what you sang?BROOKS: As we marched along we sang gospel songs and told funny things that
happened to each one, and we enjoyed it. We laughed and talked a lot.GEORGE STONEY: Do you remember which songs you sang?
BROOKS: No, I don't remember which songs we sang.
GEORGE STONEY: Did you ever go to any -- did they use to have revivals in East Newnan?
BROOKS: Yes, they did.
GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about that.
BROOKS: A preacher -- I can't think of his name now. What was his name?
00:03:00Goosby. Pastor Goosby came there and put up a tent. Had tent meeting for two or three weeks right straight along and everybody went. They'd beg for money and they'd jump over seats and anything else to get money if anybody held any up, and it was real comical to see 'em, uh, talk and act like that because we weren't -- hadn't ever been to Easter church.HELFAND: Can you tell me again about your family coming again from the country
to East Newnan and why they wanted to hire your family?JAMIE STONEY: Ask that question again, please.
HELFAND: Irene, why was your family such a hireable kind of family?
BROOKS: Because there was a lot of us was old enough to work, and it was lots of
help to the mill company to have that many people in one family working 'cause they could work in different departments. 'Course most of us did work in the spinning room, but -- and Daddy swept the floor and my brother worked in the 00:04:00twisting room, and my mother never did work in the mills, thank the Lord.HELFAND: Thank the Lord. Why -- why are you glad she didn't work in the mills?
BROOKS: Because it was hard work. She had a hard enough time raisin' that many
children. Don't see how she lived through it, 'cause I didn't raise but one and it was a hard job.HELFAND: Tell me -- can you tell me one more time about -- about your father and
all of you leaving the country and coming to the mill?JAMIE STONEY: Restate that question more precisely.
HELFAND: OK. Why did your family leave the country to come work in a cotton mill?
BROOKS: Because my brother already worked there and he knew he was making money,
which we had never made in -- there goes a wasp. That door is letting the bugs all in.HELFAND: We'll get that wasp out.
00:05:00JAMIE STONEY: Maybe the wasp won't get you.
HELFAND: Yeah, maybe the --
(break in audio)
00:06:00GEORGE STONEY: Testing?
JAMIE STONEY: Yes, sir.
GEORGE STONEY: Alright. You were telling us the other day why you think this is
so important for us to do it. Could you tell these gentlemen why you think so?LONNIE MORRIS: The main thing I think is important for the young people, for the
elder people that's been through the troublesome days I'll say, to know and understand what we been through to where they can take advantage and not have to put up with those days. That is one of the main things that I think this is good for.JAMIE STONEY: Can you do that one more time, sir? Sir, look at George all the
time and tell George that, sir.MORRIS: Alright, sorry.
JAMIE STONEY: Just a moment for me also. I need to --
(break in audio)
GEORGE STONEY: OK, once again, uh, Lonnie, would you tell us in very strong
terms, the way you did it the other day, why do you think it's important that young people know about the things that happened in the 30s? 00:07:00MORRIS: The main thing that I think they should know is what the elder people
had to go through and the hard labor they had to go through for such a little amount of money. You could work yourself to death and still didn't make a decent living. And that's why I think they should know about this. And also, there was more or less like a -- just like a slave drive part of the time, and they should know about that, I think, and that's -- I'm glad to be able to tell the young people and the people about what we've been through with, 'cause nowadays --JAMIE STONEY: I'm sorry. We need to change a battery.
GEORGE STONEY: Oh dear.
HELFAND: Want me to get it? It's inside, right?
JAMIE STONEY: No, I've got one right here.
GEORGE STONEY: So we have to start over again?
JAMIE STONEY: I'm very sorry about that.
HELFAND: Couldn't find --
(break in audio)
JAMIE STONEY: George. Five, four, three, two, one.
00:08:00GEORGE STONEY: OK, Lonnie, tell me that again, strong.
MORRIS: The reason that I think that people should know what the elder people
has been through and the hard times and the hard struggle and the hard labor they've had, they should know about it, the history, 'cause most of the people you tell now, just one individual, they done -- they think it's never been days like that. And if people will come forward and tell what we've been through, they should know and understand that it is true.GEORGE STONEY: Well now, we've been running into a lot of people who are
ashamed to talk about what happened. Why do you think that's true?MORRIS: Well a lot of it is pride. Another thing --
GEORGE STONEY: Start off a second. If people are ashamed about it, it's
because of pride?MORRIS: That's right. I think most things it's pride the reason they don't
like to talk about it. And the second thing, they still feel the fear of 00:09:00thinking they might come back on them. That's my way of thinking now. I could be wrong, but I think that is two of the main things.GEORGE STONEY: How could it come back on them?
MORRIS: Well, afraid they might get sued or something like that. That's just
-- I can't really tell you, but I think that is most the thing right there.GEORGE STONEY: Well you came into the mills, uh, very early. Could you tell me
about your early times in the mill?MORRIS: Yeah, we went to work in the mills when -- back in twenty -- '29, and
back then, you worked 11 hours and 45 minutes a day. And the first ticket I 00:10:00drawed [sic] was $2.45. The next ticket I drawed was $2.75. I paid $1.25 a week board. And my first wife is deceased. She worked six weeks for a quarter, and when the six weeks come, she went down, got her hair cut. Her hair cut cost her a quarter. So that made her work six weeks for a quarter. Here's what people don't understand now. They don't think that there's ever been times that you had to work for a try out, asking for a job. They could work your six weeks for nothin' and they didn't have to give you a thing. And a lot of time, when the six weeks was up, if you made them good hand, they'd tell you they didn't need you. They'd get them a new crew to come. They'd get work for nothing, and I'm glad we had a president to come in and step in and stop all 00:11:00that. And as I said the other day, I think one of the greatest presidents we ever had or ever will have for the working man is President Roosevelt.GEORGE STONEY: Now, what did you do in the mill and what was it like to work there?
MORRIS: I did spinning, and that -- you didn't catch up. There wasn't no
catching up to it. And another thing that they didn't like, was didn't want you stopping, talking to nobody. If they caught you talking, they whistled at you. That meant stop. And uh, it was just -- it was hard labor. A lot of that depended on the overseers. If you happened to have a good overseer, he'd let you by with a lot of things like that, but most people in those days was digging for more money and more power, more power, and that's why that they were so tight like that, which there wasn't no need in it. A man's gonna do a 00:12:00day's work. He's gonna give you a day's work without somebody hollering and whistling at him and everything. And it's -- I'm glad that was stopped.GEORGE STONEY: Well now, what did you do to stop that?
MORRIS: Well, the individual workers didn't stop it. It's like -- I come
back to the President again. He is the main -- the main man that stopped it. I think he let the companies and the man in power know that they had power over them, and they seen that they had to be (inaudible), and then the strike come on and that had a little bit about to do with it, too.GEORGE STONEY: I'm sorry. We've got a big, loud car here.
JAMIE STONEY: Yeah.
GEORGE STONEY: I want you to start again, and instead of saying "the
President" I want you to say "Roosevelt."MORRIS: Alright.
GEORGE STONEY: Just a moment. Tell me when you're ready. OK now.
00:13:00MORRIS: Roosevelt, when he come in, he let the working man know that he was by
his side and with him, and he let them know that the company didn't have all the power, that he had power over the company. And that made a big difference right there, and that's -- that's where today, we ought to be proud of the man that come in and stood behind. And he also made jobs, created jobs, and uh, put money back to rolling, which, in the late 20s there wasn't no money in power and what people did have, they sat down on it, wouldn't spend it. And it just paralyzed the nation, really. I'm glad -- I'm glad to see that the big change come and come when it did.GEORGE STONEY: Now, you were about to talk about the union. Could you start
back, starting using the word "union."MORRIS: Well they tried to organize a union, which I think would have been
00:14:00pretty good if it would have -- if it would have been organized right, but they called it a wildcat union, wildcat strikes. They come in and begin to try to lock people out from their own companies and everything, which that wasn't lawful. That wasn't legal. And that just messed up everything right there. Really hurt the working man and helped him too. Seeing that the working man wasn't afraid to buck up again him, and it got a lot of people out of jobs, but they did work for public work anymore 'cause they was blackballed. If you were blackballed you didn't go to work nowhere else 'cause they'd call in and let them know, and well they'd throw you out.GEORGE STONEY: Now first I want you to go back and tell me, when you first got
in touch -- the union got first in touch with you and where this was and what happened. 00:15:00MORRIS: Well I was working down at the mill and they tried to get --
GEORGE STONEY: Why don't you tell which mill, OK?
MORRIS: East Newnan Mill.
GEORGE STONEY: Start, "I first worked in East Newnan Mill."
MORRIS: Yeah. From the --
GEORGE STONEY: No, start and say, "I first worked in Newnan -- East Newnan
Mill, is when the union came."MORRIS: I was working at East Newnan Mill when they tried to organize the union,
and there was a lot of people lost their jobs forever about it. They went at it, like I said, all together wrong. It wasn't -- wasn't legal, wasn't lawful the way they done it. They just -- they were plumb out of reason with it. So, that made a little change right there.GEORGE STONEY: But, see, what we're trying to get people to see is how it
happened. So could you just think back then and remember where you were working and who talked to you and what they said and what you did? 00:16:00MORRIS: Well, as I said, I was working at East Newnan Mill and Homer Welch, from
LaGrange, Georgia, and Mutt Jones, up here on Roscoe Road, they was the one that contacted me and tried to get me to join. And when they was talking about how they was gonna do, I told them, I says, that's not right. You ain't gonna get nowhere at that. Which they didn't. They didn't get nowhere with it. But it did let the all companies know that the people wasn't under the stage of fright like they was. I'll put it that way.GEORGE STONEY: We have to do that again 'cause you said the oil companies, and
I don't think you meant -- you meant the cotton mill companies, didn't you?MORRIS: I said all companies.
GEORGE STONEY: All companies.
MORRIS: All of 'em.
GEORGE STONEY: I interrupted you, so we have to do that all over again, and I
liked the way you named those two men 'cause then we can see them, you see.MORRIS: Mm-hm.
GEORGE STONEY: OK. Start, East Newnan Mills again, OK?
00:17:00MORRIS: Alright. I was working East Newnan Mill and they tried to get this union
organized. So Mutt Jones and Homer Welch, they tried to get everybody to join, tried to get me to join, and tried to get every -- all the hands to join that would join, and a lot of them -- a lot of them joined. I'd say over half of them joined. Well they come in and locked all the gates, wouldn't let even the owners in. Well, when they got the law and the National Guard to come down and cut the locks and chains, well that let the people come in. Well the company put a man out there, which was the overseer and the superintendent, and as hands come in, he would tell them, turn -- let them in, turn them back. They turned all the union back and let the non-union go in and go to work. And I thought 00:18:00back to the President right there, now. He wanted a union, a worker's union, organized, but that's where the -- as I said, the people went overboard with it and used the wrong management all together about it. There wasn't no management to it.GEORGE STONEY: Now, where were you doing [sic] all this time?
MORRIS: What was I doing? While that was going on there wasn't nothing to do.
Just had to wait and see what happened. And there wasn't nothing to do, just pick up jobs around anywhere you could. However, they had peach orchards in Coweta County then. During that time I went out and helped them peach orchards. Just, anything to make a little money, you know, 'cause you had to have a little income from somewhere in some way.GEORGE STONEY: Now, what happened to the fellas who did go out on strike?
00:19:00MORRIS: Well, most of them I think --
GEORGE STONEY: Just most of the fellas went out on strike.
MORRIS: Most of 'em had to go back to farms (inaudible).
GEORGE STONEY: Start again and say, "Most of the fellas who went out on
strike," OK?MORRIS: Most of the fellas who went out on strike, they had to go back to the
farm 'cause they were through with public works, especially textile work, 'cause they was blackballed in it, and when you blackball -- see, you got a black book and a white book, and your name go down in that black book, one company notifies another. A lot of people don't understand that, but that's the way it works and that's the way it did work. And there was -- there was a lot of people that really suffered on account of that. I mean, they suffered, 'cause it -- they had to go back to just picking up anything they could get, anywhere and any way.GEORGE STONEY: Now, what about -- were there members of your family who got
00:20:00caught like this?MORRIS: Not in my immediate family, no, 'cause we all knowed it was wrong. We
all knowed it wasn't -- it wasn't gonna hold up the way it was going. It looked like common sense would have teached anybody that, and we -- we all stayed out of it. (coughs) Excuse me.GEORGE STONEY: Yeah.
MORRIS: You'd take back then, if people had jobs they tried every way they
could to hold them, 'cause they knowed if they got out a job, there wasn't nowhere else to go, 'cause there just wasn't that many jobs for the people, and when you got one -- they used to have a saying in the mill. That, if you don't want to do the job and can't do the job, if they's talking to a man, they'd say a barefooted man is at the gate waiting for it. If they's talking 00:21:00to a lady, they'd tell her there's a barefooted lady at the gate waiting for it, waiting for them to let her go. And a lot of them went that way, too. I tell you, it was fearless times. It was fearless -- fearless times.GEORGE STONEY: Tell us about some of your friends who got -- might have gotten
caught like that.MORRIS: Well, some of my best friends got caught in it.
GEORGE STONEY: Well, we'll put it -- just a minute.
JAMIE STONEY: Yeah, let's wait on the plane.
GEORGE STONEY: We'll wait on the plane. It's going very well, though.
(break in audio)
GEORGE STONEY: I asked you about some of your friends that got caught in this.
MORRIS: Yeah, there was some of my friends, best friends, that got caught in
that, they was misled into it and talked into it, that lost their job forever. And they had to go back to farms and sawmilling and such as that, 'cause that done the textile work. It was done. Now, we had a lot of textile companies that was good companies.JAMIE STONEY: We -- we really need to stop again.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
(break in audio)
00:22:00JAMIE STONEY: Rolling in five, four, three, two, one.
GEORGE STONEY: You were talking about your -- some of your friends and what
happened to them.MORRIS: Well, they -- when they got caught in that union, and as I said a while
ago, they were blackballed, so that put them off to go on a farm or just pick up little jobs any way and anywhere they could get it. It wrecked a lot of them forever. A lot of them never did make a comeback on -- on it.GEORGE STONEY: Well now, you were -- you were around when the NRA came in. What
was the difference between working the way you used to and when they had only eight hours?MORRIS: That made it altogether different.
GEORGE STONEY: Just talk about -- you were working so long and then the NRA came
in, and tell us.MORRIS: Well, we was working that 11 hours and 45 minutes a day, and when it
00:23:00started doing that eight hours, it was like to everybody they was off half of the time. It was like they was on a picnic then. They gave you time to rest up. It make altogether different. It give so many more people a new job, you see, and that's where it really come in handy. That's what really started the ball rolling again 'cause it put over half as many people to work when they done that, and then they started up that third shift, well that put that much more to work. And made money roll pretty good, and the ball started rolling. It rolled pretty well ever since that.GEORGE STONEY: And then what did the company do about the stretch out? Tell us
about the stretch out.MORRIS: Well they speeded up machinery. They added more onto people's work on
00:24:00the jobs, and uh, they tried to make -- make up everything they could, that would bring the price on up. And all -- a lot of them was really overloaded, and they really speeded the machinery up to make it put out more production. It -- it made a big change. It made a big change in the -- in the freedom we were working. It -- it helped in a lot of different ways, right there.GEORGE STONEY: Now you were telling us about the -- the effect of the speed-up,
of the stretch out. Could you just describe it using that term?MORRIS: Well, the machinery was running at a slow speed, and when they picked it
up and speeded it up, some of it I'd say were nearly twice as fast. Well, that 00:25:00made it put out as much again production, where you really had to get up and get to stay in there with it, and that's what really made it bad right there. 'Cause a lot of people couldn't take it. A lot of people just couldn't -- just couldn't live up to it. It was so bad. And that -- that's where that -- these stretch outs and all, now they -- it's never been like it was since then.GEORGE STONEY: You think that the stretch out had anything to do with the union?
MORRIS: Well it might -- they might have been wanting to get a little revenge
right there, too. I wouldn't doubt but what it didn't have a little bit to do with it.GEORGE STONEY: What I mean is that, do you think the stretch out was one of the
reasons why people joined the union. If you did, say so.MORRIS: Well yeah. That -- that had some to do with it.
GEORGE STONEY: No, I'm sorry. Could you say, "I think the stretch out had
00:26:00something to do with it," if you do think that?MORRIS: Well that I couldn't say, really. I really couldn't -- I won't
attempt to say that 'cause I could be wrong on that, 'cause that was their ideas, we can't go with the other man's thoughts there, and I really couldn't say for that to be -- be right, right there.GEORGE STONEY: Were you stretched out?
MORRIS: We all was. Everybody. Everybody was stretched out at work, 'cause
when the -- see, you got so many frames (inaudible), you got -- so a spinner's got so many sides to run and everything. And when they speed those frames up, where you in a -- just an average walk, they put you in a trot and you got to really get up and go to stay with it. 'Cause I -- I'll put it this way. Say if you try to trot and keep up with a car, the faster that car goes, the faster 00:27:00you got to go to stay up with it. That -- that works the same way on the machinery like that.GEORGE STONEY: OK.
JAMIE STONEY: Might want to hold at this point.
GEORGE STONEY: OK.
(break in audio)
GEORGE STONEY: OK. Tell us about the supervisors.
MORRIS: Well, we -- we had some good supervisors. We had some that wanted to be
a smartass and show the power. And when you got one like that you had trouble, 'cause you couldn't please them. Wasn't no way you could please them, and they didn't have no pity on you. It was a very few of them that was like that, I'd say was real bad, but it was bad enough for all of them, 'cause all of them had to see everybody's doing their job. That was -- company's rules that everybody -- they had to see that everybody was on their job and done their 00:28:00job, and that's -- like I said, you found good and bad in everything, and a lot of times it was real bad. You didn't have no freedom after you got off from your work. You was still under their command. Say, if I got mad with somebody and wanted to get them out of a job, all I had to do was go tell the company they went so and so, such and such a place, and got drunk. They fired them. Which I know one man, carried a family to Tallapoosa, Georgia to see his -- some of the thick pe ople. He went on to Alabama to visit his people, come back and picked a man up, and the man come back and told the company he got drunk, and they fired him. And he was out of a job about two or three months 00:29:00because this man told that lie on him. There wasn't no right to that. That was all -- that was all wrong. And we had that to contend with. You just didn't know any time. You could get fired anytime and be innocent. That's the way it was with some companies. Now, like I said, there were some companies -- now my wife, she was down here for Arlen Mills and they was altogether different. They helped the hands there where they could and was good to them. It was all --