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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

Clark:

This is again in the twenties, the early twenties. This was around the time of our initial church involvement, the union involvement, and I remember tying this in my own thinking with the Democratic Convention, when Smith, Al Smith --

Q:

1928.

Clark:

Yes. It was around that period, you see. Now, there was one before that. There was a convention in '24, when -- when did Al Smith not get the nomination?

Q:

That was '24.

Clark:

'24, yes. All right, that stands out vividly in my mind, because my mother was involved in the organizing of the union, you know, and a social philosophy was beginning to develop in my own thinking, and I was involved with the fact that Smith was not getting the nomination because he was Catholic. This seemed to me very compatible with what my mother was doing in the shop, and --

Q:

Yes, I believe that was the convention that went well over 100 ballots.

Clark:

Right. And I don't thinkwe had a radio at that time, but it seemed to me that I was very much involved in following -- how, I don't know, unless it was through conversations, of the adults. Almost every day it seems as if I was concerned with that, and it was part of the conversation about the unions, you know. Well, anyway --

Q:

Did your mother become involved in this union organizing because of her job?





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