- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with Jessie Grace
- Contributor to Resource:
- Grace, Jessie
Kuhn, Cliff - Date of Original:
- 1984-07-16
- Subject:
- Grace, Jessie--Interviews
- Location:
- United States, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, 33.52066, -86.80249
- Medium:
- interviews
transcripts - Type:
- Sound
Text - Format:
- audio/mpeg
image/jpeg - Description:
- Jesse Grace was a coal miner in the Muscoda camp from the age of 15 until 1954, when the mine closed. In this interview he recalls the working conditions in the mine, living in the company camp and losing his leg in a mining accident. He also discusses mining methods, including mining with mules. He recalls The Depression and says that the mines were shut down during this period. He says once the New Deal started, work started to pick up pretty well. In his discussion of this period, he describes walking 56 miles to work for the WPA (Works Progress Administration) in Hueytown. Grace also describes how the union came about in 1933. Until he worked in the mine, he had never heard of the union but was warned by his employers to not have anything to do with "folks come from up North or somewhere or another, wanting to get y'all in a union." He says the workers eventually joined because they wanted better working conditions. Grace was laid off as an "undesirable" due to his union activities; the company was eventually required to hire him back and pay him for the two years of lost work. He also recalls losing his leg in the accident and returning to work after he had recovered. The company provided $300 in compensation for his leg.
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/169
- 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:
-
