Carolina QuotesPaul Robeson, they came and told us he had been to Russia and what communism was.
Velma Hopkins Connected to the Carolinas
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No citation is recorded for this quotation.
- form
- interview
- work
- Oral History Interview (1983)
- year
- 1983
no citation recorded
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“Paul Robeson, they came and told us he had been to Russia an…” Velma Hopkins. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-EAF6787D08. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/eaf6787d08
More from Velma Hopkins
We'd go to singing and he'd say, "Velma, how can you sing? They're working the hell out of you." And I said, "I'm singing the hell out of you."...it made you forget how hard you were being worked and the treatment you were going through. Singing is something that is good for the soul, and we used to do lots of it. We had to.
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.
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.