| Summary: | In this interview, Willie Johnson talks about life during the Depression, the Ku Klux Klan, his dealings with labor unions, and describes at length the conditions of the mines in which he worked. Johnson describes how his father, like many farmers, moved to the city to work. He and his father were both employed by TCI. Johnson never made it past the fifth grade because he needed to help the family make money, especially during the Depression. He explains that he admired the ideals of the labor unions, and as the United Steelworkers weren't present in Alabama yet, he went to work in the coal mines and joined the UMWA (United Mine Workers of America). Johnson discusses how the unions caused some problems. They divided the workers and were sometimes difficult to deal with. He describes how he began to see that the Walker Country UMWA would strike at times convenient for the workers to go home and do their planting. Johnson also discusses the conditions of the mines. He says they were dangerous and people often died in them. He describes the physical layout of the mines and talks about dealing with rats, keeping them out of their lunches. He talks about children working in the mines, often to help their parents, but they would have to sign a waiver keeping the mine from being responsible for them. Prisoners also worked in the mines for little money, and many of them saved that money so that they could buy property. Johnson describes the Ku Klux Klan's habit of running around scaring people but says he never heard of any violence in his area. He says he talked to one white man who claimed that the Klan wasn't organized around the purpose it came to have in that day. He says the man said it originated for the race, and that blacks should have their own Klan.The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.
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