Nanny Leah Washburne Interview 4

ANN ROMAINE Solidary forever. Solidarity forever. Solidarity forever. For the union makes us strong.

ROMAINE: Yeah!

NANNY LEAH WASHBURN: It does. (claps) You might have to go to jail, but that won't hurt ye', if they don't kill you while you're in there. (laughter)

CLARA SMITH: True.

ROMAINE: All right. You want to do "The Amalgamated"?

SMITH: Let's do it.

ROMAINE: All right. We'll do that and that'll be -- (plays autoharp) (All three sing) "We will stand for the union. We will fight for our rights. We will hold our banner high. No one else in our shop speaks for the workers right (inaudible). The Amalgamated is our only friend." (ROMAINE mainly here) "We remember old time union leaders back in 1910 --Eugene Debs and Elizabeth Gurley Brown. Well, the companies and the government tried to keep them down, but that old time union spirit was born to win." (All three sing) "We will stand for the union. We will fight for our rights. We will hold our banner high. No one 00:02:00else in our shop speaks for the workers right (inaudible). Amalgamated is our only friend." (ROMAINE only) "We remember the sweatshops, sewing factories, and the women who gave their life's blood and much more. And the union came to organize for safety and for health, brought union power to the women on the floor." "We will stand for the union. We will fight for our rights. We will hold our banner high. No one else in our shop speaks for the workers right (inaudible). Amalgamated is our only friend." (ROMAINE only) "It's been 75 00:03:00years and the union's here to stay. Merged with the Textile Workers, too. Workers north, south, east and west have a mighty friend, known all around the world as ACTWU." "We will stand for the union. We will fight for our rights. We will hold our banner high. No one else in our shop speaks for the workers right (inaudible). Amalgamated is our only friend."

ROMAINE: All right.

WASHBURN: Good.

SMITH: Very nice.

GEORGE STONEY: Oh, good. That's excellent.

[break in video]

JAMIE STONEY: Rolling

GEOGRE STONEY: Okay, Clara?

CLARA SMITH: Annie? Annie? How you doing? I want you to tell me, first of all, my family is textile. And all of my family now works in the mill today and under very modern technology and supervising and everything. Why don't you tell me a little bit about the time that you worked in the plant in the mills?

WASHBURN: You mean when I first went to work?

SMITH: Yeah. Start back when. How old were you when you first started?

WASHBURN: About 8 years old, 7-8.

SMITH: Well, start -- if you can remember 7 or 8, start back at 7 or 8.

WASHBURN: In Rome, Georgia.

SMITH: Rome?

WASHBURN: I went to the superintendent's office and asked him for a job.

SMITH: At school?

WASHBURN: Ma'am?

SMITH: You mean -- the superintendent's office do you mean at school or --

NLW: Cotton mill.

SMITH: Cotton mill. Okay.

WASHBURN: And he said, "You look mighty little to be wanting a job." I said, 00:05:00"Yeah, but I can learn." He looked at me, you know, and he said, "You're little, but," says, "I'll tell you what to do. You come to work in the morning." I says, "Tell me what you going to pay me a hour." He says, "A penny."

SMITH: A penny?

WASHBURN: Twelve cents a day, 12 hours to learn to spin.

SMITH: Now was it your choice -- was it -- were you compelled to go to work yourself, or was it because of your family or -- explain why at the age of 8 you wanted to go to work into the mills?

WASHBURN: Well, there -- there wasn't any school around there that I knew about, or my mother. And we had no school. Of course, the company had a bathing pool for the people in the cotton mills. That was unusual, you know, for 'em. But they wasn't no school and I lived the same way in Douglasville. 00:06:00There wasn't any school there.

SMITH: Now how far was Douglasville from --

WASHBURN: It's -- Douglasville is, I guess, about 40 miles from here, you know, this side of Villa Rica.

GEORGE STONEY: Ask her how she learned to read?

SMITH: Now how did you learn to read? At the age of 8, 7 or 8, you went to work in the mill. You said there was no school. How did you learn to read?

WASHBURN: I didn't know how to read in Rome, Georgia, but we -- we moved away from there to Co-- College Park and I was in the -- my folks worked the Gate City Cotton Mill there. And what happened, I got a letter from a boyfriend. He wasn't my boyfriend. He was just a friend. His sister, we was buddies in the cotton mill, you know, and very nice person -- family. And what happened 00:07:00concerning this letter, I asked my mother to read it for me. I didn't know how to read. And so she said, "You go out there under that oak tree and read that letter by yourself and, if you don't know how, you can learn." I went out there. That set me afire. I said, "I got to learn," to myself, you know, "I got to learn to read and write." And I went to learning and studied.

SMITH: When you say you went to learn, you did it on your own? How did you?

WASHBURN: Yeah, on my own. And, ah, when I's going to school in Douglas County I didn't get any education there because the teacher, she spent all of her time with the share-- with the -- you know, with the sharecroppers owned the land, you know, sharecroppers' land --

GEORGE STONEY: No start off "She spent all her time with the owners, and she didn't do anything for the share croppers." Start again and tell that story.

WASHBURN: See, the sharecroppers, they had -- they didn't have a chance. And so what happened, she -- she -- the teachers didn't do anything for us as far's --

SMITH: Did you have books? Did the teacher give you books, the sharecroppers' children?

WASHBURN: The teach-- the, ah, school?

SMITH: Yes. I mean, were you separated in class?

WASHBURN: I don't even remember a book.

SMITH: You don't remember a book?

WASHBURN: Not a book, but, ah, they prob-- they had books there at the school, but these teachers boarded with the sharecroppers' landlord, the landlord, you know.

SMITH: The owners, right.

WASHBURN: Uh huh, and she spent all of her time concerning that -- with, you 00:09:00know, with the Childs. (inaudible) with the Childs owned a lot of land. Fact, we was living on their land, father and mother and all of us.

SMITH: "All of us"? How many? You had a lot of sisters and brothers or was it just you?

WASHBURN: Well, I had -- I had six brothers and I had four -- three sisters.

SMITH: Were they able to go to school, as well?

WASHBURN: They -- they was some of 'em married.

GEORGE STONEY: Ok you --

[break in video]

WASHBURN: No, I haven't told her, these -- these Broadwaters, one of 'em was my sister-in-law, you know? She had help me and she had help me learn to play the piano, what little, you know, I learned.

GEORGE STONEY: This is while you was working in the plant?

WASHBURN: That was when I's working in Rome, Georgia.

SMITH: Okay.

WASHBURN: But where did we go from here?

GEORGE STONEY: Ok, we're gonna move around here, move the camera.

[break in video]

SMITH: I don't know about this stuff, you have to tell me.

JAMIE STOENY: Rolling.

SMITH: When you were a child, Nanny, explain to me or tell me about did you ever have an opportunity to go to the mills to see what was happening or were people from off the street invited to come in? It's not like today. Today, you can't go into the mill unless you work there. How -- explain to me about that.

WASHBURN: Well, ah, you see, sometimes my sisters'ad be worn-out, they's so tired, and they'ad sleep too late to go to work on time. And when that whistle 00:11:00blows, you know, you'd better be there. Well, they wouldn't have time for they breakfast, so that'ad throw -- I was on one -- they'd -- my mother would send to me to take their lunch -- take their breakfast to 'em?

SMITH : Uh hum.

WASHBURN: And that's, ah, what I did at the Elizabeth Cotton Mill. Now that cotton mill sold out and turned to be a Martel later. I's a-working in that Martel mill when I got -- met my children's daddy. Well, anyhow, I'd have to go over a bridge and it'd make me so nervous, you know, to go over a bridge -- they's a big creek -- to the cotton mill. They's two rows of houses, the village. And my mother, she had, ah, one dear friend that, ah, was caught in 00:12:00the trap over to the -- over in Clark's Cove? That's in East Point. They was killing and hanging Afro-Americans and so this one got away and, you know, come to my mother's. She had to come about half a mile or more to get to my mother's. She knew my mother and she stayed there, but I'll go back. You see, when I was in the -- taking the lunch for the -- my sisters, I watched ever way they worked on the machine and she, my oldest sister, was slow, you know, and I 00:13:00could learn easy. I learnt, you know, to do the kind of work she's a-- doing, you know, spooling -- spooling in the cotton mill.

SMITH: I know spooling.

WASHBURN: Well, anyhow, that was bad times, you know, along then. Well, they was -- broke out that riot out in Clark's Cove in East Point, 'tween East Point and where we lived. And they called ever-- ever person on the village, cotton mill village, to come -- they'd have to come into the cotton mill that night. And so that night we all had to go in the cotton mill -- children, babies and everybody had to get out of them houses. They told us that the black folks was 00:14:00coming in there and kill us all.

SMITH: They told you that?

WASHBURN: They told the people that.

SMITH: And was there a reason why they would tell you that the black people were coming to kill everyone?

WASHBURN: On account of slavery. They wanted to keep the white people under slavery, cotton mill people, but they couldn't keep 'em as bad as they had the Afro-Americans. So this woman come by there and -- and, as I said, she -- my mother hid her in a closet.

SMITH: Oh, she did?

WASHBURN: When a man come by and told everybody had to come into the cotton mill. We went and stayed down there nearly all night. So we come home in time for 'em to cook the breakfast of the workers so they could get back on the job 00:15:00at 6 o'clock. That's was, ah -- that was during a race riot. Now they was a-hanging, they was a-murdering, and all of that -- Afro-Americans over in Clark's Cove. That ain't no joke. That was true.

GEORGE STONEY: Know I wonder if you could ask Annie how she got arrested during the strike, 1934. Tell her that story.

WASHBURN: Well -- well --

SMITH: Tell me the story about how you got arrested during the 1934 Strike, Nanny.

WASHBURN: Well, I'll tell you. I'll try to make it as snappy as possible. You know, ah, I was on starvation. I had five children and I lived across from Capitol Avenue in a little shack, you know. And, ah, I – that was during -- the union was going on then. And so my children didn't have nothing to eat and 00:16:00I had no money and these are WPA days, you know, then. And then, ah, ah, ah, I got 'em to go over to Capitol Avenue, where my mother was living, so they could get 'em something to eat. And so when, ah, ah, they left, I went on to the social workers and asked her and told her what shape, you know, I's in -- didn't have no bread, no sugar, no coffee, nor no nothing. And that was the truth. And I asked her and told her I needed some help bad. And she listened at me for a few minutes and she then offered me 50 cents.

SMITH: 50 cents.

WASHBURN: 50 cents now.

SMITH: Five children. Okay.

WASHBURN: 50 cents. I says, "50 cents, lady, won't buy nothing." I said, "That wouldn't buy groceries for even one." And, ah, she wouldn't give me no more, and so I just says, "You keep that 50 cents."

SMITH: Good.

WASHBURN: And I went and caught me a bus and went out on the picket line. But I first stopped at a man's house and he -- he told me he was a-going to the -- to picket that day, and I told him I'd come back there and we'd -- he'd carry -- you know, could show me, which I already knowed. And so I -- when I got off and went to his house for about 5 minutes, he -- he wasn't the feller that you could 00:18:00think about. He wasn't a-going to no picket line. He was just lying to me.

SMITH: Oh, he lied to you?

WASHBURN: And I happened to have a "Daily Worker" in my bosom and I carried it. I thought I might give him a little education by reading it to him, you know? But I seen I's with the wrong place and the wrong man, that he wasn't no union man.

SMITH: So how did you get away from him?

WASHBURN: I told him I had to go on to the picket line and, ah, he said, "Well, I'll be over there directly." But I knew better than to let him see "The Daily Worker." You see into it?

SMITH: Uh hum.

WASHBURN: Because you got to know to trust people concerning as bad as it was then, you know, a "Daily Worker" -- do you know what I mean by a "Daily Worker"?

SMITH: Explain "The Daily Worker" to me.

WASHBURN: A "Daily Worker" is a Communist paper. That's a Communist paper.

SMITH: So you had to be very careful as to --

WASHBURN: You have to be very careful and we were -- I wasn't in -- in the right shape to even let a union person that didn't know me, you know, ah, ah, you know, see the paper.

SMITH: I understand. Uh hum.

WASHBURN: But I thought this man -- he'd had me fooled, you know. I had a little confidence in him, thought he was a good union man, but I went ahead and it wasn't -- when I got on the picket line, was picketing, it wasn't very long until I asked a lady could I go to the bathroom at her house. She was, you 00:20:00know, picketing. And it broke up, the meeting broke up about 10 o'clock, picketing. And so she said, "I'd be glad for you to." And her and her husband and I went on to her house and then I come back. While I was coming back to catch my bus, the -- the polices got me.

SMITH: What do you mean "got you"? Did they grab you?

WASHBURN: Arrested me. Arrested me and put me in the wagon and he put me in the -- I don't remember whether it was a car or wagon, but I think it was a car then.

SMITH: And did they hurt you when they put you in the wagon?

WASHBURN: Well, when they grab you, most of them'll hurt your arm. I -- I've been hurt in Alabama and Tuscaloosi and all over the country, you know, being so rough.

SMITH: Uh hum.

WASHBURN: And, ah, I've had -- had to almost go to a doctor with my arm in -- in, ah, Alabama.

SMITH: So what happened after they got you on the wagon, after they put you on the wagon?

WASHBURN: They put me -- my sister was out there picketing, too, you know, but, ah, I was a little late 'cause I was trying to take care of getting something, food for my children?

SMITH: Right.

WASHBURN: Well, they -- they put me in jail. They give me a female examination. Now you can't believe this.

SMITH: Explain the examination.

WASHBURN: A female examination.

SMITH: They didn't take your clothes or or anything? They just ran down a bit, right?

WASHBURN: Right. They almost took 'em off.

SMITH: Oh, they did?

WASHBURN: They give me an examination. Now you know what they done that for?

SMITH: No.

WASHBURN: Well, I had a Daily Worker.

SMITH: Oh! (laughs)

WASHBURN: I had a Daily Worker in my bosom.

SMITH: Now I get it.

WASHBURN: You got it, ain't you?

SMITH: Yeah.

WASHBURN: So they arrested she and I they accused us of --

SMITH: You mean your sister?

WASHBURN: My sister and I, Annie Mae Leathers. She was a Leathers then. They arrested us both and put us in the, ah, ah, Big Rock Jail down here on Butler Street. And then they give us the examination, you know, female -- what about that?

SMITH: Uhm.

WASHBURN: I guess they thought we had a spy ring!

SMITH: Did they find the newspaper?

WASHBURN: No! I had it in my bosom!

SMITH: Oh, okay.

WASHBURN: They was welcome to find it quick. So went on and was accused with insurrection trying to overthrow the government of the United States.

SMITH: How long did you stay in jail?

WASHBURN: Seventy-four days 'fore we could get out on bond. And we got two Afro-American -- you've heard of Benjamin Junior Davis, haven't you?

SMITH: I don't believe I have.

WASHBURN: That was a won-- wonderful lawyer and Mr. John Gere. That was our lawyers.

SMITH: So how did you come apart -- how did you obtain the lawyers? Did someone -- did they come in to just represent you or did someone in your family call these attorneys, these Afro-American attorneys? Explain that to me.

WASHBURN: Well, ah, some -- they already knowed. It was in the newspaper, you know, and I -- I don't remember about my people, but they would tell 'em, you 00:24:00know, the lawyers -- my mother and brothers and sisters knowed Mr. Gere and Mr. Davis. So, ah, we had a time. Now I remember my son, that's handicapped -- you know, he's blind and deaf?

SMITH: Uh hum.

WASHBURN: He -- he can remember things so wonderful. I'm proud of that. He said I talked about three hours on the stand. You know what I's a-doing? Giving the -- giving 'em a good outline on this country and what they's doing and what they'd done for the blacks. See, the black didn't have no freedom at all, practically none then. You know that.

SMITH: I know that.