| Summary: | In this interview, Frederick Cox recalls moving to Birmingham in 1924; his father moved the family for a better education for his children. He attended Tuskegee University from 1935 to 1938. He decided not to go back to school in '38 and began to work for U.S. Steel until he retired. He talks about race relations and trying to organize labor during the 1930s. Cox explains that the workers had to initially keep their union membership quiet, for fear of losing their jobs. The union meetings would be held in secret, often in local churches; he goes on to say that local ministers were supportive of labor unions. He recalls overt discrimination in the workplace and adds that conditions improved after Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, creating the Equal Opportunities Commission. Before this period, there were "black jobs" and "white jobs"; he explains that blacks did the "dirty work." He goes on to say that black workers were simply called "laborers" and given no titles, while whites were employed as "pipe fitters," "millwrights," "machinists," etc. He also discusses the segregated facilities in the steel mill.The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries.
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