Container
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Title
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Series: Neal Harris : Family background in Mississippi; farming in Mississippi; work in Alabama lumber mill; experiences
at and reflections on Tuskegee College; importance of fair-skinned color; recruitment by
J.D. Stephenson for work at Fairbanks-Morse; impressions of J.D.S.; segregation at
Beloit YMCA; difficulties in organizing against segregation; organization of
Steelworkers local at F-M; CIO policy of non-discrimination; service as union shop
steward; sit-down strike at F-M; participation in strike; the black church in Beloit; Ku
Klux Klan in Beloit; NH as a Republican.
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/1
Time
0:00
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Introduction
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/1
Time
0:31
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The Harris family background in Starkville, Mississippi--conditions in
Mississippi
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/1
Time
5:37
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Going to school in Mississippi--working as a young boy, harvesting speckled
peas, banking potatoes--the necessity of obeying white people--limitations on black
people
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/1
Time
13:14
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Farming as a young man in Mississippi
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/1
Time
22:03
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Landlords, good ones and mean ones--dealing with the neighbors,
swindlers--Mr. Ware and the bank account--Negroes and mean landlords, treated black
people “just like you'd do your children”
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/2
Time
0:00
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Neal Harris “running to live”--beatings--keeping black people
down
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/2
Time
5:26
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Neal Harris' efforts to get an education--ordered magazines--hand-me-down
books in school--limited opportunities
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/2
Time
13:10
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Work in north Alabama lumber mill--use of guns--fair mill owner, but
unequal pay for black workers--life in the lumber camp
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/2
Time
23:21
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Neal Harris left the lumber camp from fear of a mob--foundry work in
Birmingham
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/2
Time
29:07
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Application for college at Tuskegee, Alabama
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/3
Time
0:00
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Learning a trade at Tuskegee--meeting with Dr. Robert Moton, the successor
to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute--problems with the chief engineer at
Tuskegee--learning the baker's trade, cakes for Dr. Moton--Mr. Owens, the math
teacher--the student body
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/3
Time
17:01
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The importance of color--fair skin preferred--problems with being able to
pass
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/3
Time
23:07
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Neal Harris' reaction to the influence of Booker T. Washington at
Tuskegee--training the hands and the mind--lack of professional and skilled jobs for
black people in Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
3/1/4
Time
0:00
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Further comments on the lack of professional and skilled jobs for black
people in Beloit--segregated clubs in Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
0:00
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Introduction
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
0:11
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Neal Harris comes to Beloit from Tuskegee, recruited by J.D.
Stephenson--opportunity at Fairbanks-Morse--May 8 as Emancipation holiday in
Mississippi--freeing of slaves
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
9:22
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Work opportunity at Fairbanks-Morse--transportation to Beloit--the role of
J.D. Stephenson--originally came as a summer employee--absence of any opportunity in
the South--further comments on J.D. Stephenson and jobs with
Fairbanks-Morse
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
17:57
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Other workers who came from Tuskegee at that time--they eventually left
Beloit--World War I veterans returned to reclaim jobs, caused black
unemployment--work in Birmingham
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
25:48
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Neal Harris' trip from Tuskegee to Beloit--segregated car to Evansville,
Indiana--thoughts on the train
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/2
Time
0:00
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Further comments on the trip to Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/2
Time
2:01
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Neal Harris' first impressions of Beloit--comparison to
Mississippi--segregation in Beloit, but no fear--first residence in
Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/1
Time
9:35
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The importance of J.D. Stephenson--limitations of his work
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/2
Time
11:10
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Neal Harris' early years as a Fairbanks-Morse worker--no opportunity to
advance to a trade--inequalities at Fairbanks-Morse
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/2
Time
18:03
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Segregation in the YMCA--segregated Hi-Y clubs
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/2
Time
19:54
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Difficulties in organizing against discrimination in Beloit--soliciting
from blacks for segregated institutions--efforts of local NAACP to desegregate civic
activities--Johnny Watts
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/3
Time
0:00
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Blacks had to excel to be recognized
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/3
Time
1:06
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Neal Harris recalls the organization of the Steelworkers local at
Fairbanks-Morse--CIO policy of non-discrimination--company efforts to prevent
organization--overcoming racial antagonism in organizing the union
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/3
Time
11:15
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Neal Harris' service as union shop steward--dealing with
grievances
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/3
Time
20:24
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Threat of jail during World War II for pushing grievances--closed
shop--union forced uncooperative workers out
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Tape/Side/Part
3/2/4
Time
0:00
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Leaders of the union--grievances
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
0:00
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Introduction
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
0:16
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Fairbanks-Morse workers choose the CIO over the AFL for their
Steelworkers local--AFL closed to blacks and less skilled workers--skilled
workers vs. unskilled workers
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
8:01
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Sitdown strike at Fairbanks-Morse--no strike during World War II--strike of
1946 resulted from backlog of World War II grievances
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
11:47
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Union leadership--Neal Harris recalls an organizer from Birmingham,
Alabama, who preached cooperation between black and white workers--blacks as
strikebreakers in Beloit--dirty work
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
20:24
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Anti-union workers--“clamping down” on a non-union worker--need
for unity
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
24:50
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Union organizers--Neal Harris' reaction to John L. Lewis--Emil Costello as
a Wisconsin CIO organizer--stalling a strike
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/1
Time
29:41
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Survival during a strike
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
0:00
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Reaction of Harris family to Neal's participation in strike--Hostility of
most Beloit residents
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
5:20
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Communists and the union--the need for unity--pay cut as a motive for union
organization
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
11:21
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The union as a “godsend for the poor people”
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
12:38
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Neal Harris and the church--church as a focus for unity in the black
community--church activities at Tuskegee--Veterans Hospital and segregation in
Tuskegee--KKK in Tuskegee
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
22:21
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The KKK in Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/2
Time
28:08
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Neal Harris' church activity in Beloit, joined church right
away
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/3
Time
0:00
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Church little different from South--Neal Harris comfortable in black
churches
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/3
Time
6:31
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Difference between the South and Beloit in exercise of voting rights--fear
of courts and police in the South, absent in Beloit
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/3
Time
13:35
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Neal Harris as a Republican--“effects“ of Woodrow
Wilson--desire to enter the army during World War I--Neal Harris in Tuskegee ROTC
under Benjamin 0. Davis
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Tape/Side/Part
2/2/3
Time
24:44
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Stories about the North which circulated in the South--tough stories about
Chicago
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