Joe Jacobs, Lucille Thornburgh, and Union Organizers Interview 5

Partial Transcript: (inaubible)

GEORGE STONEY: Let me know when your read.

JUDITH HELFAND: Wake up everybody.

M1: Speed.

F1: Say Cheese!

Segment Synopsis: Union organizers read letters to President Roosevelt.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration; stretch-out

Subjects: Bibb Manufacturing Company; Columbus (Ga.); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Joe, what does that mean in terms of signing a paper?

JOE JACOBS: Well what they were trying to do was to get the attention of Hugh Johnson.

Segment Synopsis: Joe Jacobs and organizers explain yellow dog contracts.

Keywords: National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration

Subjects: Johnson, Hugh S. (Hugh Samuel), 1882-1942; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Charles here's one from your section of uh...

M1: Did you want [Reese?] to read that?

STONEY : Yeah Reese read that please.

Segment Synopsis: Various organizers discuss the faith that workers had in the Roosevelt administration.

Keywords: National Recovery Administration; eight hour workday; labor legislation; spinning; stretch-out

Subjects: Columbus (Ga.); Johnson, Hugh S. (Hugh Samuel), 1882-1942; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Here's a letter from Albert Cox, who was a very active organizer in Alabama and Georgia. Uh Thom.

THOM MALCOLM: This letter is dated October 26, 1933. Its addressed to Ms. Francis Perkins, Seceratary of Labor, Washington DC.

Segment Synopsis: Thom Malcolm reads a letter to Francis Perkins discussing multiple families being evicted from their homes in Opalika, Alabama

Keywords: Blue Eagle; eviction from mill village houses

Subjects: United States. Department of Labor. Office of the Secretary; United States. Dept. of Labor--Officials and employees; United States. National Recovery Administration

Partial Transcript: JOE JACOBS: This is Huntsville Alabama, its written by a man named J.R. Foster, who by the way, when he winds up says, "If you want the low down, let me know, for I will work with you, not from the standpoint of spite, but human decency."

Segment Synopsis: Joe Jacobs discusses conflicts between employees and management regarding how people in the mills voted.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; National Industrial Recovery Act section 7a; National Recovery Administration; conflicts between mill workers and management

Subjects: Huntsville (Ala.); Johnson, Hugh S. (Hugh Samuel), 1882-1942; Labor unions--Officials and employees; Newnan (Ga.); United States. National Recovery Administration; Working class African Americans

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: We know for example in Newnan, Georgia, there were three separate attempts. They'd form a union, the officers would get fired, they'd -- they'd get some more officers, they'd get fired, they'd have a strike, went back to work, they got fired.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney discusses attempts to organize in Newnan Georgia.

Keywords: eight hour workday; stretch-out

Subjects: Coweta County (Ga.); Newnan (Ga.); Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Its interesting that I was talking to a black man, who worked in the mill, and he told me about the fact that they had white and colored gates.

Segment Synopsis: George Stoney discusses segregation in the mills and the frustration experienced by Southern textile workers.

Keywords: United Textile Workers of America convention, August 1934; segregation

Subjects: African Americans--Segregation; United Textile Workers of America

Partial Transcript: LUCILLE THORNBURGH: Signed by the 14 men.

JOE JACOBS: I think you got to place it in context. What had happened was, Hoover was defeated, the depression was on, Roosevelt was supposed to represent a new day, new opportunity.

Segment Synopsis: Joe Jacobs contextualized the letters and the union organizers explain the relevance of these letters to the conditions that they deal with in the mill.

Keywords: Frank Gorman; National Recovery Administration; United Textile Workers of America convention, August 1934; education; flying squadrons; sexual harrassment; stretch-out

Subjects: Johnson, Hugh S. (Hugh Samuel), 1882-1942; Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions; United States. National Recovery Administration; United Textile Workers of America; Working class women

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Uh, Reese, this is a letter that testifies to just what you were saying.

REESE: This is to Secretary Francis Perkins.

STONEY: Give us a date.

Segment Synopsis: Reese reads a letter Francis Perkins about conditions being misreported to her.

Keywords: stretch-out

Subjects: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945; United States. Department of Labor. Office of the Secretary

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Lucille you were there at the time and you wrote this letter.

M1: A letter from Lucille.

LUCILLE THORNBURGH: I did?

Segment Synopsis: Lucille reads a letter she wrote to the Knoxville newspaper detailing why the workers of Cherokee Spinning Company were on strike

Keywords: Cherokee Spinning Company

Subjects: Knoxville (Tenn.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)