Oral history interview with Hill Baker, June 1977
Subtitle: interview H-0109-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Dilley, Patty, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Blue collar workers; African Americans; Employment; Race discrimination; Race relations; Social life and customs; Railroads; Employees
Other titles: Interview H-0109-2, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Hill Baker, June 1977; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Ninety-three-year-old Hill Baker started his working life at age twelve, helping his father with odd jobs. He started factory work soon afterward, followed by seven years on the railroad, a long period at a furniture plant, and finally, odd jobs in retirement. He describes a regimented, top-down working life, in which he and his fellow workers followed strict rules of conduct set by their superiors. Baker did not find this work environment uncomfortable. This kind of mildness, or perhaps just reticence, pervades this interview, such as when Baker shrugs off the idea of joining a union or describes his years of hard work as "all right." Baker, who is African American, does not remember any incidences of particularly unpleasant racial discrimination, although he recalls that railroad jobs were segregated. At the end of the interview, the interviewer tells Baker that his recollections will be useful to those interested in learning about working conditions in the early 20th-century South, but Baker's reserve may limit its utility.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on June 5, 2008).

Interview participants: Hill Baker, interviewee; Pat Dilley, interviewer.

Duration: 00:55:13.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 133.7 kilobytes, 101 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series H, Piedmont industrialization, 1974-1980, interview H-0109-2, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Jean Houston. Original transcript: 32 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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