Blanche Willis and Her Daughter Kay Interview



GEORGE STONEY: All right, Kay, could you tell us about how you got into the mills?

KAY: My mother worked for Harry Cannon, President of Cannon Mill. I worked --

GEORGE STONEY: Stop, sorry. I'd love --

(break in audio)

KAY: Maybe let her do that.

GEORGE STONEY: OK. Go ahead.

JAMIE STONEY: Rolling.

GEORGE STONEY: Go.

KAY: Now? Continue from --

GEORGE STONEY: No, you start from the beginning.

KAY: I'm getting nervous. Hold on a minute. I worked for --

GEORGE STONEY: Much louder.

KAY: I worked for -- my mother worked for Harry Cannon, President of Cannon 00:01:00Mill. She did domestic work in his home. She --

BLANCHE WILLIS: And he told me the day before that she would be receiving a notice the next day that she would go into the mill, that she would have a job. And I was so excited, and I came home and told her you'll get your notice tomorrow, and you will be the first one in the washcloth, first black in the washcloth department.

GEORGE STONEY: How'd you feel about that?

KAY: I was very excited about it. I could hardly sleep that night. I got up the next morning and prepared myself to go to the mill. I went for an interview.

WILLIS: She started a few days later. She didn't go in that day, but it was a couple days later. She had to go to have her examinations and all of her tests before she could go begin her work. And on her first day -- she can tell you about that, I'm sure.

KAY: On my first day I went in and the other white employees, they were standing along the wall waiting for me to come in and they watched me as I come in and they left at 3:00. Everybody watched me up until 3:00. Then my -- the supervisor come over and introduced me to the other ladies in the mill. And --

WILLIS: She started training.

KAY: I started training. I went to school, it was called going to school for six weeks. So I went to school for six weeks and learned to thread the machine -- the sewing machine. I had to learn to thread the sewing machine. We did that for three or four hours and --

WILLIS: I think I was just about as excited as she was because while she was going all day I thought about my child going into the mill, entering a new 00:03:00environment which she had never been before, and I could hardly wait. I think I was sitting out maybe 100 feet from the gate waiting for her to come out. I couldn't wait until she came out of the gate, and I met her half way from the gate and threw my arms around her and asked how did go?

KAY: "How did it go? How did it go," she said. So I was still nervous from the eight hours and I told her it went fine. The next day, I guess about 2:00, my stomach started turning over. God, I was so nervous. And then I prepared myself to go to work that day and they were all, like I say, standing up against the walls and waiting for me to come in to watch me to see how I was going to act or what I was going to do.

GEORGE STONEY: And now, where did you train? I gather they had a separate place to train you. Could you tell us about that?

KAY: No, the training was -- the machines were I guess maybe 15 women on each -- they had two lines like 15 women on each side. So I had a machine that I trained 00:04:00and I had this trainee that taught me what to do, how to thread the machine and what to do.

WILLIS: I understand she was a very nice Christian lady and she had a lot of patience with her and she came out holding her hand when I went there to meet her that day, which encouraged me so much and that made me feel so much better because I didn't know how her outcome would be and how she would do messing with needles and a machine which she had never sewed before. She couldn't even hem a handkerchief at that time, and I don't think she does much of that at this time, but she is one of the best over edgers up there. She is one of the fastest and she is the oldest black and she is one of the best. She went out and did some work at a doctor's house and she worked there for seven years. And it was at Christmas time and she decided to go back to the mill at Christmas time 00:05:00in December, and I understand she met her supervisor in the supermarket and he chatted with her a little while and she said she told him she would like to come back to the mill, and I think that was about the middle of the week, and on the fi rst of the week she got her call and her card to come back to the examining place wherever it was.

GEORGE STONEY: Kay, that's an excellent story. So good that I'm going to try it all over. (break in audio) All right, Kay, let's start again.

KAY: I -- I started the work in the mill -- do you want me to start again?

GEORGE STONEY: Yeah.

KAY: Nineteen sixty.

GEORGE STONEY: Stop. "I started working in the mill." "I started working in the mill in 19--"

KAY: I started working in the mill in 1962. My mother worked for Harry Cannon, President of Cannon Mill. She did domestic work in his home. She talked to him and he gave me a job. I was the first black woman to work in the wash cloth department.

GEORGE STONEY: How did you feel about it?

WILLIS: Well, I was very excited at lunch time when he came home and he told me while I was serving the table that Kay would get her notice to come to work in the mill, she had a job, and she would be getting her notice in a few days, and I couldn't wait to get home to tell her that she would be going into the room and into a place that no one had been but her -- no black -- and I was really excited to come home and tell her to look for that because she'd been wanting and expecting the notice.

GEORGE STONEY: Kay, tell us how you felt when you went in there and what the 00:07:00women did -- white women did -- and so forth.

KAY: I was very nervous when I went in the first day. But the white women were very nice to me.

GEORGE STONEY: Now you were telling us before that you went down and they were standing up against the wall and they watched you [all this time?] --

KAY: Yeah, when I went in --

GEORGE STONEY: OK.

KAY: When I went in I was very nervous and when I went in all the majority of the ladies was -- they would stand along the walls and watch me and just stand and stare at me and the -- my trainee, the lady that trained me, she was very nice and she would take me to the restroom or whatever, to the smoker, and then we -- she taught me how to thread the machine and what to do, put the labels in the washcloths and I trained for to learn how to thread the needle, I guess for 00:08:00about three or four hours, and then we'd do other things, you know.

GEORGE STONEY: How does it feel now that you pioneered that and now you look around and there are lots of people around your color?

KAY: Well, it makes me feel good to know because I was the only --

GEORGE STONEY: Put that in -- put that in -- my question in your answer.

KAY: Uh --

GEORGE STONEY: You look -- I look around and I see all --

KAY: I look around and I see all the black women now and it really makes me feel good to see that they have more blacks than they did in 1962 and it takes a lot of fear from you. Well --

WILLIS: And I understand they call her the black queen of the washcloth department up there. She's well known and highly recognized because she is the oldest black up there sewing and quite naturally she's more experienced than the others.

GEORGE STONEY: Well, Mrs. Willis, why do you think that the Cannon's chose your daughter?

WILLIS: Uh, because I had worked for him for quite a while and I had been telling him since they were hiring black, I would like for him to get -- see that she got a job. As a matter of fact, to my knowledge, he was over the labors and I had talked to him for quite a while and then when he came in that day he said, "Well, Kay has a job now and she will be receiving her notice to go for her examination." I'd been looking forward to the day that I would hear that, and I was expecting him to tell me because he said he would attend to that.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, Kay, do you have any idea why Mr. Cannon did that? Was it just out of the goodness of his heart or what was happening all around you that caused that to happen?

KAY: Well, he -- because of my mom mostly and they had to hire so many blacks in each department. But I was the only black that worked there for so many years, but I guess in the last ten years they've hired at least five or ten more then they gradually -- I guess it's about 25 in the department now, black women.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, that was 1962 when you got hired.

KAY: Yes.

GEORGE STONEY: Could you just tell our audience, because a lot of them won't know that 1962 was a time when a lot of things were happening around the country that made the mill have to hire blacks. Could you talk about that?

KAY: That made them hire blacks?

GEORGE STONEY: Now, there was a Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, all of that, you see, was making it possible for them to -- for the Federal government to say, look you've got to do this. Maybe Mrs. Willis you'd like 00:11:00to talk about that.

WILLIS: Well, I can say they were in the process of hiring and they after hiring these -- I understand that they hired the first two ladies -- black ladies -- and they didn't take them directly into the mill at that time. I thought maybe they -- I guess they think maybe they could get away with it and I understand that they were teaching them outside of the mill in a warehouse to spin or whatever their job was and I think some of the government men came, I guess, to find out how they were getting along and inspect what the black people were doing and they found them out there apart from the mill and they told them that they would have to take them in -- into -- inside of the mill and let them work with the other employees and teach them how to work.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, did you anticipate any trouble or you've lived here a long time and knew that black women hadn't been in the mill before. Did you worry about trouble for your daughter?

WILLIS: Well, no, I didn't worry because of Mr. Cannon -- because, you see, I was his domestic servant and I had worked there for 17 years and not only that afterwards I had friends and I would ask him, you know, if he would get them a job and he found many of my friends a job. He'd say, well, you know, because of me he'd say, well, tell them to come over to my house and I'll talk to them at a certain time. But I felt assured that she would be safe because of him, because he sent her there and he was over the personnel.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, what do you think Mr. Cannon would say if he knew that you were speaking out so strongly for the union now?

WILLIS: Well, he was a quite frank, honest man and I think he would be real pleased because he was considerate and as things has changed down through the years and at that time we only had a few educated people and we have quite a few educated blacks now. As a matter of fact, my oldest son is a lawyer. He finished Winston Salem State University and he went to Chap -- he went to North Carolina over at Durham -- North Carolina College at Durham and he received a law degree there. And my youngest son graduated from A.L. Brown and he went to Winston Salem State University and he took some training over in Texas Pullman --

KAY: Washington --

WILLIS: Pullman, Washington and he took some training there in Farmer College and he didn't like that and then he came home and through the help of Doctor Troll -- encouragement of Doctor Troll, he was in the mill and I understand he was in the office -- working in the office and he got hurt in the mill and he went to Doctor Troll's -- he was a chiropractor and he told him why don't you take up chiropractor, and he left the mill and he went to Georgia -- what part of Georgia?

KAY: Atlanta.

WILLIS: Atlanta, Georgia, he graduated at Life Chiropractor College at Atlanta, Georgia and that's where he resides today.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, both of you have been very active in this union drive. Maybe 00:15:00each of you could tell me why you've been active. What gets you active?

WILLIS: Well, first of all, I was happy. Oh, it was real nice when Damon Silvers and Jonathan Davis came here, and I think I learned about it in about a week or so and someone sent him here. I don't know whether he got my name from the roll that I was a retiree from Cannon Mill, but he called me on a Saturday afternoon and quite naturally I was busy. I didn't think too much of it at that time. And then I told him he could come over Monday afternoon, and he came Monday afternoon and after he came I learned that they took 30% of our pension, and he was working with the pension situation and I was happy to get to work with him. He wanted to know -- he wanted to know, as a matter of fact, he questioned me about it. And then after I knew so much and I talked to him and I 00:16:00was so happy to have him, I started working with him. And we worked together, I think a Mr. Wright -- W.L. Wright and I where he is top -- whatever you would call this.

GEORGE STONEY: Well, I noticed when you were in the union how you were a really strong supporter of that union.

WILLIS: Yes, Mr. Wright and I were over the pension situation with Damon Silvers, and we went with him and he really -- as a matter of fact, he went with him to service one Sunday after -- one Sunday morning and most times every day Damon and I would be together and he'd call me and whatever he would find out, he says, "Miss Willis, can I come over and tell you about this?" and so whatever he'd found out and whatever I had thought about that would help us in our struggle I would tell him. And so we just started to working together and 00:17:00going places and going to the churches and meeting together and then we had a meeting at the union hall. His first meeting was before he met -- was acquainted with me. And then the second meeting, well, I was in that meeting -- Mr. Wright, he was a top -- he was the head of the meeting, whatever you may call it.

GEORGE STONEY: Kay, can -- you have a different interest from your mother. Your mother was interested in the pension thing. You must be interested in something else because you're still working in the mills. Could you tell us why you got involved in this union thing?

KAY: I wasn't as active as my mother, but I supported it, the union. I -- we need the union -- we need a union very bad in Fieldcrest Cannon for reasons of 00:18:00unfair treatment and -- I just can't talk.

WILLIS: Better working conditions.

KAY: Better working conditions, yes.

GEORGE STONEY: OK, let's start again. Let's try that again.

KAY: OK, I supported -- I wasn't as active as my mother with -- in the union -- with the union, but I supported the union. I do support the union because we have so many unfair treatments in the -- at Fieldcrest Cannon, unfair --

WILLIS: Working conditions.

KAY: Working conditions and I feel like we need the union.

GEORGE STONEY: All right, now, once again, because I don't want you to break that -- I want a complete sentence. Also, if you could add that -- (break in audio) All right, Mrs. Willis, I'm going to ask you again tell us about the 00:19:00Civil Rights Movement here and how your family got involved.

WILLIS: Well, they were kind of afraid at the beginning and asked --

GEORGE STONEY: Just start with saying, "Well, during the Civil Rights Movement, my family."

WILLIS: OK, during the Civil Rights Movement, at first my family had got into it. My son was off in college and he came home and he and some more classmates decided to go up to Irby's restaurant and eat. They didn't allow black people in there at that time. And they went up there and sit down at the counters and they wouldn't serve them. So, I understand that he threatened them and they left, they started out. And when they started out, I think he had called up everybody around up there, so kind of a crowded community, and he said they was lined up on each side. They had to stand back and said, when they came 00:20:00out of that they stuck their hands in their pocket like they had guns. As they went through that crowd, and the owner's name was Irby, he followed them to the car and they had some coffee. I don't know how they got the coffee, maybe they served -- they sold him a cup of coffee and when he got to the car, when they rolled down the window and threw the coffee at him and they drove away. The people thought they had guns and they all fell back and didn't do anything to him. So he went back in inside and called the law and took out a warrant for them. Signed a warrant. And my son came in, and we didn't know anything had happened. We were in the bed. It was around twelve o'clock, I guess. And around 1:00 or 2:00 there were a knock at the door and when we heard the knock he jumped up and ran from his bedroom into our bedroom and said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you something." He knew it was a policeman. And he said, "We were up 00:21:00at Irby's tonight and he called a policeman for us." And they came to the door and happened by me being so well known here, one of the young men -- one of the young officers -- his name Yates, and he was married to a close family -- white family -- that we're close friends. And they were supposed to took him back to Rand County, but I said, "Mr. Yates, can I go over uptown here and sign his bond?" and he said, "Wait, I'll talk to the chief." And, of course, I knew the chief there, he knew me. An d he told him, yes, we could come up there and sign his bond and it was just a little bond, you know. And that's when everything broke out. From that time on people started demonstrating and going in and demanding to be fed, served, and it just went from one thing to 00:22:00another and after they saw and knew it was the law and they were doing it other places, well, they just gave up and started letting us come in. And that was an experience. We would go in there and if there was a seat we would always sit right at the front because before then, we would have to go to the back of the restaurant and there was a little window there and they would hand us our sandwich out and we would stand there and eat it or go around the counter somewhere. If you knew one of the cooks or somebody, we could go back in the kitchen and sit on the stool while they were cooking and sit there and eat. But after this happened, we all started to go in. Up until today I never go to the back anymore because I always had to go to the back when I was allowed to go among them. When they allowed us to ride the bus they had one long seat on the 00:23:00bus and they wanted all the black people had to get on that seat. And I had this experience one day. I was coming from Concord and there was only one lady on the back seat and two other blacks was across from me and it was mill changing time -- it was time for them to pick up the mill hand. At that time we had city busses and they ran to Concord and all over the white section and picked up the laborers and I thought, well, since there are a lot of people getting in, I'll just sit here at the seat, like this seat and there was a long seat behind. And I sit down there and he went on for a few blocks and after awhile he -- the driver of the bus, it was a city bus -- and after awhile he stopped the bus and started to watch the back and I looked at him. I was kinda frightening. He was looking so mean, you know, and he come -- a little white boy came and sit down 00:24:00beside me and he pulled the little white boy up and sai d, "Get up and go back there and sit down!" So, I just got on up. That was before, you know, any other pressing went on. I got up and went back there and sit down and there were two -- another couple, black couple, just across from me. He said, "You get up, too! You go back there and sit down." And so they did likewise. But after then -- after I knew I was entitled to sit anywhere on the bus and even to now I get the first seat I can get to because I was demanded to go to the back always before that time.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, what did your employer -- did you ever talk about this with --

JAMIE STONEY: Ask them to adjust her microphone.

WILLIS: I want you to see that.

JUDITH HELFAND: (inaudible) do I have to move my car for you to get out?

M: No, my car is over the other driveway.

WILLIS: I want you to see them.

M: OK, I will. I'll call you later tonight.

GEORGE STONEY: Bye-bye.

HELFAND: Thank you.

M: Sure, thanks -- I owe you the film, by the way.

HELFAND: OK.

GEORGE STONEY: I'm just going to wait until you back up because your car will make noise. (break in audio) Did you ever talk with your employers about all of that Civil Rights stuff?

WILLIS: No, I never mentioned it to them and they didn't talk -- they didn't speak it to me.

JAMIE STONEY: Excuse me, could you start that one more time, please?

WILLIS: He wasn't that type of --

GEORGE STONEY: I'm sorry, I didn't realize --

JAMIE STONEY: I was on the wrong person.

GEORGE STONEY: OK, and could you mention --

(break in audio)

WILLIS: I didn't mention this to the folk that I were working for -- the Cannons -- I didn't mention it to them. I didn't take any of my problems to them whatsoever. However, they were real considerate, but I didn't take any of my problems to them.

GEORGE STONEY: Well, Kay, did you know that -- you knew all this kind of thing was happening, didn't you?

KAY: Yes, I knew all of it was happening. Well, she told me about the bus situation. I didn't know about that.

WILLIS: But she knew about the integration and we read about the Martin Luther incidents and all that stuff, but we didn't have television. We were unfortunate to have televisions at that time.

GEORGE STONEY: Well, Kay, did you regard your getting in the way -- going into the mills the way you did was kind of a continuation of all of that? Could you talk about that and how you felt about that? Did you feel yourself as a kind of pioneer?

KAY: Yes, I felt myself as a pioneer. I felt good about it, to be able to go in and make a decent salary because I had never been able to make a decent salary. I did domestic work, too, for $15 a week or $16 a week and that's as much as they would pay you. They wouldn't pay you over $15 or $16 a week. So, I was 00:27:00glad to be able to get in the mill to be able to make money that I could have things like other people.

GEORGE STONEY: Now, back to the early days in the mills, before any of the black worked in the mills, could you tell me what they did and what kind of money they made?

KAY: Before they worked in the mill? They made $15 a week. Didn't anybody make any -- the domestic women they didn't make any more than $15 a week at that time. Back in the '80s.

WILLIS: As a matter of fact, the white women would get together and they had clubs and they made a rule that all of them would pay $15 -- whatever they paid every -- they would have clubs and they were meeting those clubs and they would -- they would discuss this issue and they would all vow that they wouldn't -- wanted to pay any more -- wouldn't do any good to stop one and go to the other 00:28:00because they had already made this rule that whoever hired a black domestic servant, they weren't going to pay them over $15 a week. And they all stuck to that.

GEORGE STONEY: Now going way back, though, before any of the blacks worked in the mills, could you tell us what they did in the mill village and did you live in the -- were you born in this town?

WILLIS: Yes, I was born in this town and I think I stopped in the eighth grade -- went to the ninth -- and as a matter of fact, my mother was old and I had two little nephews and all of them left me at home and I had to stop school and go to work. And I went to work for a well known family that some of the people that my mother had washed for, she was a wash lady at those days when she was able, she'd go on to their houses on very cold days and I would go with her and sometime it would be so cold she would put on a plank and make a fire and we would have to run a wash pot with a fire around it and we'd have to run then 00:29:00and warm our hands and even heat the water that we washed with and put it in a tub or rub board, we'd rub. And I would help her to do that and some days after she finished and had to wash them and boil them in the pot and then take them back in another wash water and rinse them in two rinse waters and then we would wring them out and hang them on the line and sometime it would be so cold out th ere that the clothes would freeze before we could put the clothes pins on them.