Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 915

could see me, not saying why. He proceeded to tell me that he represented Helen Miller and that he demanded a hearing. I said, “The law doesn't require any hearing in this matter. She's to answer the charges in writing.” That wasn't fair, he said, and he stormed around. I finally got rid of him.

Then the union took it up. There were two unions in the Department of Labor by this time - one CIO affiliated and the other AF of L affiliated, and actually a third one which was the old employee's association. Of course, all the Negroes in the department belonged to her union. It was one of those who recruited them, although she wasn't colored. They made a terrible fuss. One afternoon they just camped out in my outer waiting room office, just filed it up. They stayed and stayed and stayed and stayed. I could get out, but they didn't know there was another way out. I could have left, but I wouldn't. I wasn't going to run off. I'm not that kind of a person. I can sit it out as well as they can sit it out. I don't run away. Every now and then they would peer in and see that I was still there. I just sat it out with them, as I did with the mothers who came down to protest from New York City. They hounded and





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help