- Collection:
- Working Lives Oral History Project
- Title:
- Interview with Herman A. Taylor
- Contributor to Resource:
- Taylor, Herman A.
Kuhn, Cliff - Date of Original:
- 1984-07-17
- Subject:
- Taylor, Herman A.--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, Herman Taylor discusses growing up the son of an industrial worker as well as talks about his own job in the steel mill. Taylor says that while his father worked from sunup to sundown, his mother ran the household, including managing the money. He describes his mother as a strong woman and shared stories of how she managed the household; for example, she didn't trade in the commissary because it wasn't good for their finances. In addition, his mother worked at the welfare department during the Depression; however, Taylor says his family was never on relief. He also recalls stories of how people got fuel during the Depression, sometimes by throwing coal off train cars to pick up later, sometimes by tearing up abandoned houses for firewood. Taylor describes the process of making steel, from the raw materials to make the iron to the adding of alloys to make steel. He worked as a laborer then as a brickmason's helper. He says that to get along in the plant, you needed "a weak mind and a strong back" or at least you needed to pretend. Taylor also talks a little about the differences between northern and southern steel plants, especially in terms of modernization. Taylor describes the hierarchy of jobs and says blacks couldn't advance very far. Eventually, the black workers took the company to court. Though they won, the company found ways to keep black workers down anyway. Taylor discusses the local union. He recalls that the miners were much more violent in their strikes and protests; he says they were more protective of their jobs. When the miners quit working, they would come to the steel plant to tell them about it, and the steel workers would stop, too. They would likely be shut down anyway for lack of raw materials. Taylor ends with a discussion of local union leaders and organizers.
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/280
- 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:
-
