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Was it intensified because it was an era of confrontation and fear? I mean, it was the height of the Sixties.

It was '69. I think the Black Power thing was around.

This was the time of the Black Panthers?

Yes.

Images of blacks with guns.

No. There was somebody in town, Bill Saunders, he was a black man who had worked with the hospital workers before we came. He was like a political mentor for them.

You told me his name before. Saunders.

I'll get you the info. Highlander is making a film on him now. Bill Saunders was close to black power people and felt that way himself, although Bill Saunders also had very close ties with the political establishment in the governor's office, lieutenant governor, etc. And so Bill was dealt with. They dealt with him as a person who they wanted to keep the doors open, and Bill had his own agenda also. He was very friendly with Elliot, very friendly with Elliot, and they would meet and talk at great length. He was friendly with Nick, too. I knew him, but I was busy on other things. Elliot had a lot of time on his hands because he could not be up front. Elliot and I stayed in the same motel all the time and would spend a lot of time together. But I was on the telephone all the time, all the time on the telephone. Phones were constantly going with me. Elliot would have a room next to me so I could run to his phone, run to that phone, you know, that kind of thing. If it wasn't in the headquarters, the phone would ring. But that's just the way I work, no big deal.

Coretta comes and the excitement and the enthusiasm is fantastic. The national networks are there, the reporters are there. I'm asked to draft a speech for her, but I'm so involved in it that I can write very warm and human speeches in the style of Coretta King, you know, a civil rights leader, that makes sense to the workers and gives it a broader base. Like she'll say, “1199 was my husband's favorite union, but after coming here, I want to say that 1199-B is my favorite union.” She'd always include a thing that was in the speech that, “Why am I here? I'm here because this is a strike by black women, black women hospital workers. One thing that hospital workers--black, white, or brown--have in common, all over the country, is that they are poor. They're terribly exploited. They need a union more than anybody else.