Bill Woodham Interview 2

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: -- your name and your address, and that way I'll know its at the right level?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses joining the union, and the textile workers' strike of 1934.

Keywords: eviction from mill village houses; union organizing; violence during the strike

Subjects: Great Depression; LaGrange (Ga.); Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934); Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now the people, you said the people moved away, who took part.

BILL WOODHAM: Yes sir the people who took part in the strike and didn't go back to work, they were forced to move.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses what happened to the strikers when the strike ended.

Keywords: aftermath of the strike; eviction from mill village houses; mill villages

Subjects: Textile Workers' Strike (Southern States : 1934)

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: One of the things we've been trying to figure out is that when you first started working in the mills how much did you earn?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses his wages, the impact of the National Recovery Act and working at Calloway Mills.

Keywords: Calloway Mills; National Recovery Administration; eight hour workday

Subjects: Textile workers; Wages

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: This is one of the few places where after the '34 strike there was, you know within the next year, another big strike.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham mentions a strike that took place in LaGrange in 1935, and the arrest of his brother during the 1934 strike.

Keywords: Calloway Mills; eviction from mill village houses; imprisonment of strikers

Subjects: Fort McPherson (Ga.); LaGrange (Ga.); Strikes and lockouts--Textile industry

Partial Transcript: JUDITH HELFAND: You said your brother went into the Armed Services after World War II, why didn't he go back into working in the mill?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses when and why he went to work in the textile mills, his education, and he and George Stoney discuss real estate costs and their impacts.

Subjects: Great Depression; Textile workers; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: When did (clears throat) when did the Calloways start introducing the, uh, things like the picker counters and the efficiency machinery.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses efficiency measures in the textile mills and in specific the Bee-do system.

Keywords: mill managers

Subjects: Textile factories; Textile industry; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: BILL WOODHAM: I think the biggest thing about the strike people just wanting to make more money and having a better way of living.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses the union organizers that came to LaGrange, and why he became disillusioned with the union,

Keywords: union organizing

Subjects: Textile workers; Textile workers--Labor unions

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Now one of the things we're trying to get (inaudible) some kind of flavor of the relationship between you workers and the supervisors, and the management.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses the relationship between management and workers, how managers were promoted from within, why he joined the union to learn how to fix looms, and his work as a manager.

Keywords: loom fixing; mill managers; weavers

Subjects: Textile workers; Textile workers--Labor unions; Wages

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: I just wondered, we hear a lot of talk about the kind of difference in attitude people of in the mills and people outside the mills and words, mean words like linthead.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses how textile workers were perceived by the larger community and his sons.

Keywords: Calloway Mills; lintheads

Subjects: Children; Textile workers; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Well the big, the next big movement around here was the Civil Rights Movement, were you in the mills when they started hiring, uh, colored people?

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses integration at Calloway Mills.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; Calloway Mills

Subjects: Social integration; Textile workers

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: That Calloway Foundation has done a lot, hasn't it?

BILL WOODHAM: They have done a lot for this community here.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses some of the philanthropic donation done by the Calloway Company over the years.

Keywords: Calloway Mills

Subjects: Philanthropists; Working class--Education

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: Well one kind of final question, uh, when you were working in the mills first, they had many times more workers in the mill for the product they put out than now--

BILL WOODHAM: Oh yes.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses how textile mills have changed due to integration and new machinery.

Keywords: African-American mill workers; mill managers

Subjects: Automation; Textile industry

Partial Transcript: GEORGE STONEY: We're working with these people in these humanities councils of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee making a film about all of this.

Segment Synopsis: Bill Woodham discusses his involvement with the Masons, George Stoney explains the film to him.

Subjects: Freemasons; Textile workers