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JUDITH HELFAND: -- colored workers. Before you said they must have been sweepers?
BROOKS POLLARD: Mmm-hmm.
HELFAND: Would you say that? That you never heard of--
POLLARD: I really and truly never heard of a colored person working in the mill.
Not until after the union. Maybe there were some that came in.HELFAND: I think-- but, but you were-- you seemed to be surprised that there was
a black--POLLARD: I was sup--
HELFAND: -- local, that they were in the union.
POLLARD: Yeah, I was surprised.
HELFAND: So could you tell me that, that really and truly maybe, you just said
that maybe they were sw--a local of sweepers. That's what you were saying.POLLARD: They might have been in –working down in the warehouse or maybe
00:13:00sweeping. I don't know. But John never did tell me about it. So, I never believed they did have one or two.HELFAND: Could you, could you say--I, I--Ok that's great and I'm just going
to open up to that page again, where that colored local is.POLLARD: Mmm, that's on Liberty Street that was a colored street.
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POLLARD: Listed in this directory, United Textile Workers of America Local
number 2145, "c" in parentheses, Frank Dew, Dew, Dewberry secretary. Meets Saturday at 10 a.m. at 511 ½ South Liberty. Union is union waste company. 00:14:00HELFAND: Now wait, now what were you saying about Liberty Street?
POLLARD: That's where they were to meet, on Saturdays.
HELFAND: You told me that--you said Liberty Street was in a--could you tell
me--could you say "and Liberty Street was--", and tell me what neighborhood--POLLARD: Part, part of it was in white and part was in colored. Black as they
like to be called.HELFAND: So could you tell me – so are you suggesting that--could you say
that, well they were meeting in a part of town that was black? Well this local union was meeting in a part of town that was black. Could you say that?POLLARD: Um they met at 511 ½ South Liberty, there were some blacks that lived
down there, but and a few whites, so it could be either one, but it must have been a black that lived there too somewhere on that street, down below here. 00:15:00HELFAND: And n--could you could you say – Now I--could you tell me what jobs
the black people were doing at the time and then image that they--that's what they – that's what this local union was?POLLARD: Black people, most of them did washing and ironing and things like
that. And the men who were laborers, I guess. But I just never heard of a one being in a mill at that time. There are plenty in there now.HELFAND: But at the time you know--you just said it might have been that they
all were in the warehouse.POLLARD: It could be.
HELFAND: Could you tell me that again?
POLLARD: I said--
HELFAND: And refer to this local union.
POLLARD: This local union on--uh 2145 it, it could be a warehouse that they
00:16:00worked at or some other place like that. But it says United Textile Workers of America local. So undoubtedly the must have had a few in there. Kept it quiet. Mmm.HELFAND: Quiet because why? What do you mean quiet?
POLLARD: Well they had you know coloreds back then and whites most of them
didn't clash. Of course I had a lot of black friends.HELFAND: And your husband was an org--was a local organize, did he help organize
any of the black work?POLLARD: If he did, he never mentioned it to me.
HELFAND: Could you repeat my question in your answer. Could you say, "Now my
husband was real active, but if he organized these black workers he never told me." Could you tell me that?POLLARD: Mmm. Yeah. Well, John, my husband very active in the textiles and it
00:17:00says textile union, uh I mean where he worked. But he never mentioned it to me that he, that he organized them. I believe he might have.HELFAND: I'm just going to ask you one more thing and we're done. Now,
"my husband being as active as he was I still never heard of the black workers."" Could you, could you--POLLARD: My husband being as active uh in the union like he was in the job that
he had in the union, he never mentioned any Negros in our union. Maybe he didn't think it would be important, I don't know. He didn't have any regrets about colored. 00:18:00HELFAND: And do you think that the other textile workers in the area, do you
think they all would have joined if it was a mixed local?POLLARD: Probably not.
HELFAND: Could you tell me that?
POLLARD: I don't know. I just – back then there was a lot of difference
between whites and blacks. But I don't know whether they (inaudible)--mixed with the union or not. Of course it has that here in this book. You'll have to ask somebody else.HELFAND: Thank you so --
