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Everybody needs a union. They need it more than anybody, and that's why I am with you. You can count on me to be with you in your fight for justice, for human rights, for dignity.” That whole business would keep going like that.

Then in one speech I decided--this was after discussing it with Elliot--I said, “Look, I have an idea.”

He said, “You see what's happening with the 1199 hat. It's now national. Everybody sees it on television. We've got to think of how we can use the thing.”

We had called 1199 in Charleston 1199-B, so in our speech, she says, “I want to say this. I want to say that when we win in Charleston--and we're going to win--it's not going to finish in Charleston. We're going to go elsewhere, and I am proud to say that I'm going to go with you to go to other cities. And you know, the 1199 number is so popular. 1199 and 1199-B are now so popular that I think that what we ought to do is, wherever we go, we ought to just run out the string of the alphabet, so there should be 1199s all over the country, C and D and E and F and G.” That was the first time it was announced, and we were going to catch with that and stay with it. That's where that starts with.

How long was she there for?

She would come and stay two, three days, and she'd come and stay two, three days. She would come a couple of times. But I by this time had a very warm relationship with her. Sometimes she'd come and I'd say, “Look, Coretta, I think that what we should do is, tomorrow you should go into the strike headquarters and spend the afternoon with the strikers. If the media comes, okay, but just sit and talk to the strikers, and they'll come with their kids,” so that you have that kind of thing. She also got a very warm feeling about the thing, because the reaction was fantastic. You don't see those things anymore. You didn't see them then, either.

She would say, after she would leave, she'd say, “Moe, keep in touch. Let me know what's happening.” She's a night person. I remember getting a call from her at three o'clock in the morning, in a hotel, and Coretta saying to me, “Moe, you know, you're not bringing me up to date. This evening I was at a dinner and I was sitting next to Senator Humphrey, and Senator Humphrey asked me, ‘What's the latest on Charleston?’” She said, “You know, I really couldn't answer it. I didn't have enough information, so you've got to keep me up to date on this kind of thing.” So I wouldn't mind calling her and she'd call me, so that I had an open line to her.