- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with C.S. Johnson
- Contributor to Resource:
- Johnson, C.S.
Kuhn, Cliff - Date of Original:
- 1984-07-17
- Subject:
- Johnson, C.S.--Interviews
- Location:
- United States, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, 33.52066, -86.80249
- Medium:
- interviews
transcripts - Type:
- Sound
Text - Format:
- audio/mpeg
image/jpeg - Description:
- In this interview, C. S. Johnson discusses his work history during the Depression as well as his experience trying to register to vote in the 1950s. Johnson explains that his family came from the country and had been in the business of sharecropping. He recalls living through the Depression and how difficult it could be to get a job with the WPA and especially the NYA (National Youth Administration, part of the WPA). Johnson recounts his various jobs: selling popsicles, delivering for a bakery, working in a packing company, delivering for a drug store, and working for L&N Railroad. He wife got him the railroad job because she worked in the house of one of the bosses, as a maid and cook. In addition, she went to beauty school and became a beautician. Johnson discusses how hard it was to receive a job promotion as a black man, although he eventually succeeded. He also describes the difficulty of registering to vote. He recalls making the attempt dozens of times, only to be asked questions designed to prohibit him from voting. He was asked to recite the U.S. Constitution and the names of Alabama and U.S. senators. He even remembers being asked how many gallons of water were in the Alabama River. When his foreman heard that he hadn't been registered yet, he was finally able to do so ostensibly because of his connection to the foreman. Johnson conjectures that because the man at the registration office knew the foreman, he didn't want to appear to be racist.
The digitization of this collection was funded by a gift from EBSCO Industries. - Metadata URL:
- http://digitalcollections.libraries.ua.edu/cdm/ref/collection/u0008_0000003/id/147
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Images are in the public domain or protected under U.S. copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code), and both types may be used for research and private study. For publication, commercial use, or reproduction, in print or digital format, of all images and/or the accompanying data, users are required to secure prior written permission from the copyright holder and from archives@ua.edu. When permission is granted, please credit the images as Courtesy of The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections.
- Original Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Contributing Institution:
- William Stanley Hoole Special Collections Library
- Rights:
-
