(Guitar music and voices)
00:01:00(inaudible singing)
(Sign: Revival Now in Progress)
PREACHER: (inaudible) all I care about tonight. I don't care about -- you say
"I come to hear you" -- no, I just come to hear God and let God have (break in audio) -- one day at a time right now. (inaudible) If you live around here in 00:02:00this community, I want you to invite somebody to come with you, Amen, tomorrow night. Call somebody and go out here. If you got a neighbor, just invite them to come on down here to this old-fashioned tent, Amen, get under and hear the gospel be preached. I'll tell you what. Tuesday night we had a glory-- I had a glorious time. God just moved in here and had one of those uplifting services. He just met with us and we just got water for our soul. And I'm looking for that again tonight. Just looking for somebody to get saved. I believe somebody's going to get saved (inaudible). 00:03:00( voices praying, traffic sounds)
00:04:00CREW: Car.
REVIVAL ATTENDEES: (singing) Some glad morning, when this life is over, I'll fly
away. To the home on God's celestial shore. I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory. I'll fly away in the morning. When I die, hallelujah bye and bye, I'll 00:05:00fly away. When the shadows of this life have grown, I'll fly away. Like a bird from prison (inaudible) I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory. I'll fly away in the morning. When I die, hallelujah bye and bye, I'll fly away. Just a few more 00:06:00weary days and then, I'll fly away. To a land where joys shall never end, I'll fly away. I'll fly away, oh glory. I'll fly away in the morning. When I die, hallelujah bye and bye, I'll fly away.(break in video)
GEORGE STONEY: Okay, tell us about how you got to the cotton mill.
FLOW BOWIE: Well, I'll tell you, we -- our father died when we were real small.
We were all born in Carroll County and there were six boys and two girls. And our dad died. And, ah, our grandparents, my mother's family, moved us to Hogansville and my mother went to work in the mill there and my two older brothers, which was 16 and 14. And that's how we made -- made it and they were -- in 00:07:00those days they didn't have child labor, you know, and they worked.STONEY: Start again. (overlapping dialogue; inaudible).
BOWIE: Well, my -- my father died when we were all real young and we lived on a
farm. And then my grand—we lived in another county, Carroll County, and they, ah, ah -- our grandparents moved us to Hogansville, the whole kit and caboodle. And my mother and two older brothers went to work and they worked there for -- I would say they were 14 and 16. And they worked there and six years later my mother remarried and, ah, so they -- you know, we just all grew up there. And my stepfather, he put -- his child was put in machinery in textile, put in -- you know, he'd go from mill to mill, textile place to another, and we moved up 00:08:00in the Carolinas and we moved around a lot. And finally we moved back to Eatonton, Georgia and lived there. And wasn't no union or anything like that in tho-- there then. And, ah, so that was just -- and the family just got scattered away, you know, and so we moved to Newnan, East Newnan. And my stepdad helped put machinery down here and, ah, so my sister and I got married here, two fellas from here. And that's why were in East Newnan. And we lived there. We married in '30 and then we worked in the mill there, my husband and me. And, ah, then we had a daughter in '31. And, ah, we lived there till the union started, you know. And then that was rough times and so I never knew any 00:09:00of the union officials. It was such a secret and meeting in different places. They didn't have a meeting place really, and, ah, my husband went -- you know, he went to the meetings and had -- and, well, we -- he hadn't been going -- well, they wasn't organizing at all. It was just talked around and he carried out literature around. So before they even got into the striking and e evrything, they fired my husband. And so they -- ah, I was working, but they fired him and they didn't fire me right away. And, ah, he went -- then I had to move because we lived on the village, which was one of the rules of the company. And we moved to Montgomery, Alabama. No. First we moved down to his uncle's in Troup County, which is the next county over here. I'm pushing up my glasses. 00:10:00And so --STONEY: Well, let's go back and start talking about why your husband joined the
union, what kind of person was he.BOWIE: My husband? He -- he -- he just knew it would help people. He knew it
would help us to have a better living and better living environments and everything and it would have everybody, but they was just -- they just wouldn't have it. And I don't know. I couldn't name how many people were in that group. And I never knew any of the officials, but I knew when my husband came home about the third or fourth meeting -- they did it, I think, about twice a week or something like that. And, ah, I knew when he told me who was there that night, I said, "Well, you just watch. You'll be the first one to go." And I knew he would. And he actually was the first man to go. And then, you know, you just 00:11:00have to move and that's --STONEY: Now go back and tell that again, and tell why, when you knew that that
guy was there, that they'd have to go. So start off to saying, "When my husband started going to the meetings."BOWIE: Well, when he started going to the meetings, and they were, I'd say, 15
or 20 -- I don't know if there were that many -- I never went to any of the meetings because I was -- I would have gone, but he just didn't want me to get into it because he knew what it was leading up to. And, ah, so he was the first man to go. And he came home and I said, "Who all was there?" And he named off some -- I can hardly remember who was there, other than this particular fella. And I said, "You know you going to be going. You'll be the first to go." And he was. They fired him. They didn't tell him. They didn't give him any -- that they were firing him on account of the union. But we knew that's what it 00:12:00was. And this fella worked on there, though, all those years -- died down there. But everybody knew -- he told (coughs) -- excuse me. He told on anybody, everybody, and there was a lot more that now that were there and worked all the time, they were sympathizers, but they absolutely wouldn't -- they still there. They didn't fire them. I don't know. They just fired my husband a few more.STONEY: What'd you call those people who reported?
BOWIE: You don't know what I'd call them, but they were -- (laughs) I -- what
did they call them? I don't know. I can't remember.STONEY: The other night you said something like "snitches".
BOWIE: They had a name. I'll think of it in a minute. And so other than that --
00:13:00STONEY: Tell about after your husband got fired, what happened to you?
BOWIE: Well, they told me -- my husband -- we knew we's going to have to move
and if we'd just set there, they would have evicted us. They'd have set us out on the street and we had a three year-old daughter. And we didn't want that to happen, wasn't going to have it to happen. And, ah, so we moved, as I told you, down -- and his uncle was a bootlegger and he started. They run -- you know, he did -- my husband, he just hauled it. You know, he drove for them. And we did that for about a year. And then we moved to Montgomery, Alabama and he played baseball. He was a good amateur -- well, he played double A baseball, got paid for that. And, ah, so then six years later we moved back to East Newnan. 00:14:00STONEY: Now let's go back to you talk about when your uncle -- your husband,
you told me -- just want you to tell this story again. After your husband got fired, you moved down with your uncle, and they ran whiskey? And they had to do it because -- ah, how'd you feel (inaudible) how you felt about it, moved to Montgomery, they still ran whiskey. Okay?BOWIE: Yeah. The uncle kept running it, but we moved. No, I didn't like it
'cause that was just something I'd never liked it --STONEY: You want to start at the beginning and tell that story again so we'll have it all (inaudible).
BOWIE: Well, we moved down and -- and he started, which we knew that was taking
a chance, a terrible chance in tho-- any days that you do that. So he, ah, moved, ah -- I said, "We just can't live in this and we can't raise our child in this," you know. So that's what happened to us then. And, ah -- but they -- they would've -- if I would've -- they told me if I would -- if my husband went 00:15:00to work before he moved, if he could find him a job, I could go back to work and work. And I said, "No. No way am I going back in there." I said, "He's the breadwinner. He's our -- he's our" -- you know, I had to stay with him. I wasn't going to take a house somewhere and then go back there to work. They knew I was a good -- I was a good worker. And he was, too, but he was just a -- he was strong-willed and he thought -- and it would have helped. But you jus—and there's a lot of sympathizers that would have gone, but they were just for their own security. They were just afraid to, and it paid them to stay, I guess. (lights go off; break in audio)BOWIE: Oh, for God's sake, what is it? You ready?
STONEY: Okay. Tell us what kind of person you were in the mill.
BOWIE: All right. Now that's a better story, because I can't remember a lot of
things. But, anyway, I never -- you know, a lot of people, they -- I don't know 00:16:00what they called them in those days, but they would tell on ever—you know, if they saw one doing something, they'd report it to Mr. Wood or to any of them. And, ah -- but I never did, and I just thought it was ri-- I forget what they called them, tat-- naw, they didn't call them tattletales. That ain't what I called them, anyway, but, anyway, (laughs), ah – but I never seen -- they -- they would get in with the boss. I mean they'd play up to the boss, but I -- I didn't do that. I didn't have to do that and I thought it was so common for them to do it. And I said, "No. I'm -- I'll take care of myself," you know. And, ah, I never -- I never – I can't say a thing against textile work because I was good -- I was a good worker. I knew what I was doing and I – I took every advantage of my ability to do what I was doing. And, ah, as far as chasing 00:17:00them around or something like that, I never had it. And I never -- I have -- I hadn't got anything bad to say about them. And we made a good -- a good living as any working people. In those days it wasn't nothing to do but work in textile or farm. And -- and my husband certainly wasn't a farmer. And, ah, we just – we had -- it was -- as far as the environment in the mill, me going to work and being mistreated, I wasn't.STONEY: Could you talk to me about what kind of a man your husband was?
BOWIE: My husband was -- he was -- he wasn't --(laughs) he was a good, moral
man, but he didn't – he wasn't as -- he didn't want a boss. He didn't want a boss. And I'd tell him all the time, "The boss has got a boss," you know. And he'd bring his job home with him and I never did that. I said, "That -- that'll be there in the morning when you go back. Forget it when you get home. I don't 00:18:00want to hear it." And, ah, he was -- and he'd just quit if he didn't feel -- if he thought somebody was trying to push him around and -- and when actually they wasn't. (laughs) It was he just didn't want a boss. (laughs) And you got to have one. But I didn't have any trouble being bossed, because I did my job and I think he did a good job, but he was just, ah, stubborn, I guess you'd say.STONEY: Well, what attracted him to the union?
BOWIE: Well, he was always attracted to the union. He wanted the union in the
South. He would have loved to have seen it all over the South. And he would have worked for it and -- and he would have been good -- a good leader of it. But they just wasn't going to have it, and I knew they wasn't going to have it. Now I would have gone with him with any way it went, but he just didn't want me with the group that was doing that, that was not out with a stick or something, you 00:19:00know. And some women did. But I – I didn't. I -- I was -- and I wasn't -- I didn't go to work when all that was going on. I stayed home. And I always spoke up for him. And they never asked me about it, you know. They never said, "Are you interested in that?" or anything. I could have worked on if I would, and let him go.STONEY: Could you tell us about how the -- what they promised in the union, how
they recruited, and about the literature?BOWIE: Now I -- I don't -- I just know they'd pass out the literature. I
didn't go to the meetings and I -- but he would tell me what it was, the promising things. But he had mind enough. He was smart enough to know what they'd do if he could -- if he could organize it. And he was just so brazen about it. He didn't -- he didn't try to sneak around like the rest of them. He 00:20:00went out and he'd pass that literature when he knew durned well what's was going to do. (laughs)STONEY: Now when did he get fired?
BOWIE: He got fired -- well, he got fired before the strike, before it started.
And, ah, we -- we were there when it was going on, and it was so much confusion. And -- and it was kind of dangerous to get out, you know. And they finally called the National Guards and all that in and hauled those people off. And he didn't want -- he – I wasn't -- it wasn't that I was against the union, not at all. And I could see it like he did. But I could not – he just didn't want me to go out into it. I wasn't – I couldn't have gone out there. If I'd have got out there, there just wasn't a place for me. And that's the way I feel about it.STONEY: Now why didn't he get arrested?
00:21:00BOWIE: Do you know till this day I don't know why, because he was in there with them.
STONEY: Start at, "I don't know why he got arrested" --
BOWIE: You want to know why he did not get arrested? I don't know. He was
there and my stepfather was there. He was, ah, ah, he was working at East Newnan at that time. And as far as his daddy, Papa Bowie, he was for it, but he was more -- he wasn't brazen about it like. But that wasn't the reason they fired him. But they fired my husband on account of going to the meetings. They didn't give him a chance to -- but he went -- he was there, but he wasn't carrying a stick and all that stuff. But he was in – there at the, ah, around in the crowd. And I don't know why they didn't.STONEY: Now you've got a story about, ah, ah, let's see -- there's a story
about, ah, ah, the base—your husband playing baseball on the team. Could you 00:22:00explain about the mill's paying baseball players?BOWIE: Yes. They -- he went to Montgomery. He played double A baseball. He
was a good amateur baseball, that wasn't professional. And they -- we moved to Montgomery, to West Boylston. They they paid him to play ball. And he took care of our child and -- and played baseball. And -- and then they came after us to come back to Newnan. And his mother and daddy. And we moved away to Hogansville. We went first to his uncle's and then we moved to Montgomery, we came back to Newnan six years later. And, ah, then, ah, they start -- when he -- they wanted him to come out to Sargent, Georgia out to play ball. And we moved everything back. We came back to Newnan -- I mean out to Sargent. And, ah, 00:23:00he was playing ball with them. And Bobby Lee, and he's still here to this day, he was the superintendent of the mills. And because they went over his head and got -- hired my husband to come back, he fired him, fired my husband. He said now they didn't -- he wasn't going to pay nobody to play baseball, you know, and they should have asked him. And so they fired him and they told me I could work on. Well, I worked about two weeks and I came out and my husband and his brother was sitting – they lived right in front of the plant. And they were sitting over there with their feet propped up (laughs) on the banister. And my job was a mess when I went in the next morning. And I hated Sargent. I hated 00:24:00it and I had started my daughter to school in the first grade and I -- no, second grade. And I said, "I'm not letting her to go school there and I'm not going to straighten out this mess in this job." And I just pushed the frames off that I was running and went over and told the boss I had quit. He said, "You know you can't quit, Jess fired." I said, "You -- I -- I have quit and I'm going out of here." And he followed me to the gate and, ah, he said, ah, "I'm not unlocking this gate." I said, "If you don't unlock this gate, I'm going to climb over this fence because I'm getting out of here." And my husband and his brother were sitting over on the porch and he saw the confusion and it was me. So Harv -- the man, his name was Harv Grizzard, and he called my husband. I said, "I wish he would tell me to go back in there. I'd quit him a lot quicker than I'm quitting this place." So (laughs) my husband crossed the street and he said, "What's the matter, Honey?" I said, "This damn fool won't let me out of 00:25:00this gate." (inaudible) And he said, "You'd better let her out of there! She's quitting. Let her out of there." Well, they let me out the gate and I walked right out of that gate and, ah, that very afternoon we drove down to East Newnan and I had a sister that lived there. And I went in to see her. She was working and I went in to see her. And Mr. Boggs, everybody hated him. He was a scrooge, but I liked him. And I'm going to tell you something. The reason that he came up and he said, "What in the world have you -- where are you living now?" I said, "Well, we do move around a lot, don't" -- and I said, "I just quit the job out at Sargent. We've been out there two weeks." He said, "Do you want to go to work?" I said, "I'd be delighted" and he said, "You come in in the morning and go to work." And I went to work in there. And they was starting up the first looms at East Newnan. And he said, "We will put Jess to 00:26:00work." That was my husband. "And he can" -- he started up the first looms there. Well, we worked there and he -- I don't know -- I'd say two years, a year and a half. And he did have a boss that was -- I don't know -- bosses used to take advantage of men and they did some women. I've seen them crying like a baby. I never cried in there in my life. I would just stand up and tell them, you know. And they never sent me home. And, ah, I didn't care if they did because I wasn't going -- I was just full-grown, too. And so we moved -- he -- he quit and went to Hogansville and went to work. And they -- I – they generally just fired the wife. If the husband quit, you were just automatically 00:27:00out, off. But they didn't me. I worked six weeks and my husband was in Hogansville and he'd come home weekends and so on Friday he'd been gone six weeks. And they paid us off on Friday evening and so the boss told me, "All right." He said, "Florene, I don't have your money." I said, "Why?" He said, "I don't know why it's not here." And he was a second man. He wasn't the main boss. And -- but he said, "I'll bring it to your house in the morning." And my husband came home on Friday nights and I told him and he was so mad he didn't know what to do. So Harv Burch came to our house and, ah -- but in the meantime, Mr. Boggs, he told me -- he came over and told me and honestly, tears ran down his cheek, and he said, "Florene, they's going to make me let you go." But, said "If you will move off of the v illage, I will -- you can work on as long as you want to." And I said, "Well, Mr. Boggs, I'm just not going to do 00:28:00that." I said, "I'm not gonna do it." I said, "If I can't live there, I'm certainly not going to work here." And, ah, so the next morning this Mr. Burch came to our house and he said, "Florene, they kept your money because you still in this house." And my husband blew his stack. He went to the office and there wasn't anybody there on a Saturday morning, but they gathered in. He went up there and he told them that he -- he wanted my money, that "She's not responsible for that house and you're just not going to not pay her for a week's work." And they gave it to him. And then I went -- I just quit and he went – he was working in Hogansville, so I went down, ah, our daughter and me. She was in the -- I'd say she was in the fourth grade at school. And we went -- went down and, ah, spent the weekend with him and I decided I'd see if I could go to 00:29:00work. So they gave me a job. I went in to the personnel man and he gave me a job. And I worked one night and they told me -- they called it "the hobo job" or something and said nobody could run it. Well, they put -- I worked on a second shift, went to work at 3 in the afternoon till 11, and, ah, I run that job that night and just sit around. And so the next day the overseer, he came over. I was looking out the window and he came over there and he said, "Miss Bowie, would you, ah -- where did you work last?" And I said, "East Newnan." (laughs) He said, "Surely you're not from East Newnan." Said, "I've never had a person from East Newnan could do a -- do a thing with any of the jobs." I said, "Well, that's where I'm from." And he asked me how I liked the job and I said, "The job's fine," but I said, "They moved me in two rooms and I got a 00:30:00daughter and I can't bring her home and I'm not staying anywhere I can't bring her home." I said, "We can't live in two rooms," and I said, "When I came to work this afternoon I saw a house being emptied at 19 Greene Street in Hogansville." And I said, "If I could get that house, I'd like three rooms. And I might be interested." And he said, "Lord," said, "there's so many people that lives off the village and drives in, I'm just afraid I couldn't do that." And I said, "Well, I'll work the rest of the week." And the next afternoon the personnel man came down there where I was working. He came down there. He said, "Miss Bowie," said, "they tell me (laughs) you're not going to stay with us if you don't get a house." I said, "That's true." He said, "Well, you can have it any time you want it." And I moved into that house and brought my daughter home, put her in school in Hogansville.