- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with Morris Benson
- Contributor to Resource:
- Benson, Morris
Hamrick, Peggy - Date of Original:
- 1984-06-08
- Subject:
- Benson, Morris--Interviews
Labor unions--Alabama--Ensley
Ensley Steel Plant (Alabama)
Steel industry and trade--Alabama--Ensley
Segregation--Alabama--Ensley
Education--Alabama
Alabama--Religion
United States--Civilization--1970- - 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, Morris Benson discusses his involvement in the union and his working life at the Ensley Steel Plant (TCI). He details his involvement in organizing labor, beginning in 1936. He was a deacon of a church and was asked to find out how other black workers felt about organizing. Benson says he tried to get everyone to join. He recounts early strikes in the 1940s and recalls early segregated union meetings. Benson details how the union helped him get a raise and a promotion. He also talks about company spies. Regarding his early life, Benson says he got a sixth grade education, explaining that "colored folks" in the country could not go further in school. Benson describes FDR as the "greatest president we ever had" and goes on to say that he "brought us out of that hole that Hoover put us in." Benson also discusses his involvement in the church and the role of the church in the black community. He discusses revivals and offers up differences between city and country churches.
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/257
- 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:
-
