Lonnie Morris and Annie Morris Interview 1

 GEORGE STONEY: Ok and elaborate anytime you want to, "Well she was my neighbor and I didn't know any of this" -- Ok, go.

F1: These (inaudible) after the strike, September 1934, because of union activities at Honor Mill Sargent, Georgia. C.L. Cooper, Will Gresham, Susie Gresham, J.T. Duncan, Leona Miller which was our neighbor for over 10 years.

ANNIE MORRIS: I know them.

F1: Dee Hopgood.

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed her

F1: Frank Cook, Tom Holloway

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed him.

F1: Johnny Wright, Willie Maude Wright, A.J. Kennedy, Fred Rogers, G.H. Hudson, Mrs. G.H. Hudson, Orin Hudson, Fenton (inaudible), Doris Howell, C.A. Pierce, C. E. Pierce, Lee Wright, (inaudible) Wright.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him, knowed them.

F1: Clinton Wright.

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed him.

F1: (inaudible). A.J. Crawley, H.C. Jones.

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed him.

F1: Rufus Getty, Frank Hendricks, Bonnie Jones.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Yucca Bright.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed her.

F1: Billy White.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Mary Murphy.

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed her.

F1: Lucille Murphy.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed her.

F1: H.A. Harris, Mattie Harris, Dewy Harris, Charlie (inaudible), Johnny White, Joseph Wright.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Curtis—

ANNIE MORRIS: (inaudible)

F1: Curtis Eason, Lee Eason.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed her.

F1: Russell McMichaels

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Homer Allen, Maynard Phillips.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Dewy Pruitt, J.W. Belling, Mrs. Minnie Belling, Emmitt Belling, Ruby Shumate.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Georgia Shumate.

ANNIE MORRIS: I knowed her.

F1: Clee Bright.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Walter Cook, U.B. White, John Crawford, Howard Cochran.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed him.

F1: Which is a cousin, Arch Crawford, Gladys Stitcher, Mr. Moss, Brodis 00:02:00Rogers, William Nelson, Patrica Nelson, Olan Hanner and Mary Hopgood.

ANNIE MORRIS: Knowed her.

STONEY: Well now did you realize all these people got evicted?

ANNIE MORRIS: No I didn't. Sure didn't. I didn't – they

[inaudible crosstalk]

ANNIE MORRIS: They probably joined the union didn't they?

F1: We lived next to Miss—

[inaudible crosstalk]

ANNIE MORRIS: Yeah, I said, "Do I have to?" and he said "No you don't." And I said "No I don't want to either." I said that they only way I'd need to join is to keep my job.

LONNIE MORRIS: They lost their jobs.

ANNIE MORRIS: They did.

LONNIE MORRIS: (inaudible)

ANNIE MORRIS: I know they lost their jobs, but I didn't know why.

LONNIE MORRIS: Buddy Jones lost his job on account of (inaudible). The reason I know they come down to (inaudible).

ANNIE MORRIS: Well I knowed they weren't working, I just didn't know they joined the union.

STONEY: Was there much talk about this when the, uh after the strike?

ANNIE MORRIS: Nuh-uh. No it was quiet. So that's the reason I didn't know that they belonged to the union. And Miss Miller, boy, I didn't know that. Cause she was out next door neighbor.

LONNIE MORRIS: (inaudible)

ANNIE MORRIS: Hmm?

STONEY: So what, how does that look to you as a young person working in the mills now?

F1: It's totally different. I can't see people being evicted from their homes. I can't see—I know that where I work now is not union and they probably—they may even act the same way if the union tried to come in the plant. I don't know that. But I can't see a person being evicted from their home for wanting to be in a union or to have something that would better their jobs. There are several companies around this town that has unions. They 00:04:00may not perform that great, they may not be what they should be, or stand up for their employees that much, but yet still I can't see-- This, this shocks me. I can't see these people ever losing their homes, or losing their jobs. Just because they wanted to be in a union.

STONEY: Had you ever heard about anything like this?

F1: Never. I mean I knew that there was a strike back in the 30s, I had always heard about that but it never dawned on me what these people went through till today. And, and now that I work in textiles around the lintheads as they've been called, uh, its, its, just a shock to me. The way the mill used to be when like my mom and dad used to work there and what it is now is totally different. Everything is automated. We have automatic machines that does the job for you. You know. We have black supervisors, which you wouldn't have had years ago. 00:05:00We have uh, uh, I don't know. We have great benefits where I work. We have a close knit family where I work. I've been there 16 years now.

STONEY: Now did you ever talk to your parents about all this?

F1: I can remember the one thing that sticks out in my mind is when my mother and daddy would get their money in a little yellow envelope. I can remember that till this day. They would bring home that little yellow envelope and it would have their name at the top, and to think now it would only maybe consist of a dollar a dollar and half for a week's work. You know that just sticks out in my mind. And I remember they always gave a silver dollar every year to the children at Christmas time. And I would always trade my silver dollars to my uncle for a real dollar, cause I didn't want the silver dollar. But I can remember things like that.

ANNIE MORRIS: Now she wanted to spend it and he wanted a silver dollar.

F1: And I mean I can remember going to the gate to give my daddy his lunch, and I can remember he worked on the second and my mother worked on the first. And even up through the years, even as I was 20 years old my mother was still working there. But I can see a lot of changes. It's just if she went in that plant now where she used to work it would be totally different. There is automatic pillowcase folders, there is automatic sheet cutters, you know everything is just automated and it would be totally different for her now.

STONEY: But there are not nearly as many jobs now?

F1: Well I would say, yeah, that we employ about the same thing. Because like in the packing room there's, it takes 3 people to run one line and it takes-- we're a cut and sew, and distribution center now, which means more people. Yeah I would say that it employees more people. And I think that the jobs that they have now, they're well satisfied with.

STONEY: Do you think it's important, and if you do say so or if you don't 00:07:00say so, and answer so that the audience doesn't have to hear my voice, do you think it's important for young people to know about what happened way back then?

F1: Oh yes to see the difference from the '30s to the '90s--

STONEY: No, no, say I think it's important that.

F1: I think it's important that the children know what it used be like in the '30s and how it's totally changed in the '90s, especially where union is concerned. That you would be evicted from your home or you would lose your job or they thought that you were saying something in reference to a union. I think they should definitely know. Because that's what the word freedom means these days, to me. I think it's only fair.

STONEY: How does your mother feel about that?

ANNIE MORRIS: The same way.

STONEY: Could you say that?

ANNIE MORRIS: Yeah, I feel the same way.

F1: I don't think she would want me to go through what they went through.

ANNIE MORRIS: No I wouldn't.

LONNIE MORRIS: No.

F1: And to think that I'm in the same industry that they were in, I'm in the same industry now. I'm at the same place they had worked, but you're talking 60 years difference, it's a big difference. Everything's changed.

STONEY: Thank God.

F1: Thank God. That's right.

STONEY: Ok.

JUDITH HELFAND: If a union—

[break in video]

M1: and anytime, can you stand by one second, reframe, anytime.

STONEY: Ok.

HELFAND: Repeat my question.

F1: I can remember maybe 2 times I've worked there, I can remember where a union – you know how they would come through the parking lot or maybe go to the end of the driveway just before you were on the mill property, and they would try to pass out a leaflet. And no, the supervisors, the company, and no they did not want it, and they don't want it now, you can tell that. Because they would be furious if they would be furious if there was somebody up there. And they wanted them dismissed from the property. And they would pass out their 00:09:00leaflets about joining the union.

HELFAND: And how would they respond to those employees that did take that literature and did read it?

F1: Well I think the (inaudible) was made if you have anything that you feel about a union or anything to say, you just don't speak about it you know. That not to be – the word union shouldn't be mentioned is the way it was put. You know you just don't mention it. Things are the way they are and I guess that's the way they'll stay.

STONEY: So has it been all that much change since the 1930s as far as union is concerned?

F1: I wouldn't think so, not really.

STONEY: Could you say that?

F1: I don't think that there has been that much change. I don't think – I think really their feelings would be the same now. They would not want a union. As most companies do not. You know, they just don't. I don't -- I think they would feel the same way.

STONEY: Ok.

[break in video]

M1: we're just using the mic off the camera.

M2: If we're rolling George, and if – you may want to pull out from them. (inaudible) Judy gonna be there?

STONEY: Get out of the shot.

[break in video]

M2: And guys talk to each other!

M1: Talk to each other!

[Silence]

M2: This is option for Judy, a little to the left.

M1: No, no (inaudible) let me show you. (inaudible) with the kids screaming?

[Silence]