They were afraid of black people. They just couldn't stand to see, their nerves would not allow them to meet with ten black people without an attorne… - Velma Hopkins

We felt like that instead of those nationals sending in white organizers that would go to 256, we wanted them to go where the white workers were.

We had one voting place in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, for blacks, Fairview School. And when we started our drive to get people to register, actually pulled it to its height, it was at that school. That's where the policeman came out there, in gear, to arrest everyone of us.

In the beginning of the union we set up, because we had poor people, they didn't have enough. And you couldn't go to the welfare or nothing if you were black. If you were black and had a clean house, you went to the welfare, you didn't get nothing. They'd tell you if you had a little old raggedy radio set, sell the radio and use that money. So we had clothes banks and things, and churches would contribute to that.