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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Vivian Morrie
ADDRESS 225 West 130th Street
DATE July 7th, 1939
SUBJECT Harlem Riot*
1. Date and time of interview
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of p€rson, if any, acoomr)anying you
6. Description of rpom, house, surroundings, etc.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms,
each bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material
refers.)
FORM C
TEXT OF INTERVIEW (UNEDITED)
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Vivian Morris
ADDRESS 225W. 130th St.
DATE July 7th, 1939
SUBJECT Harlem Riot.
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
"I haven't seen you for some time. Where've you been?"
'Haven' been aroun' much. Been lookin' f'r work. Yeh, I
been outa work the las' coupla months. Sure I been on relief, but what
the hell's that? What's it git yuh? I am' been able tl git me a job.
Where the hell d' they think jobs is comm' from?: Y1 talks about things
gittint tough; I thinks if they gits much tougher they's gonna have
plenty a trouble, sumpin like the riot they has back a coupla years in
1935."
"Hat do you know about the riot?"
"You askint me? Yeh, I oughta know if anyone does. I been
there smack ma middle of it an' all night long. Riot' they says it
is. Fromwhat I kin see this am' no riot like they likes -V call it,
no mam. T1 my mint ant experience it wuz sumpin wren a lotta fightinl.
T' my min' it wuz a expression of downright bitterness ----how kin it be
but ----all the hard knocks we cullud people been gittin" handed out too
all a gem pilinl up one atop a another it hadda bust out wide opeh some-
time ----an' it did. Yeh, we wuz bitter as all hell. You know haw come.
spends our oash---as little as we kin git when we gits it, -Muir
food ant olotes ftr us right here on a huntred ant twenty fif street.
We spends our last rusty cent ant can' even git us a coupla jobs no
haw in any a tern stores.
MOON. OM
"Take fir instance the kid who started the riot. He been
hoppint arount outa work lookint ftr a job since he left high school
ftr about a year ant couldnt git none. ----Don' git me wrong. I don'
mean tt say its correct tt smash windows ant beat hell outa the whites
who got businesses tt git us jobs, but dammit it does make ytsore as
holy hell when ytwanna work ant they don' hire ya. Plenty a surprises
in tat riot. ----it git started trount about 4 P.M. ---Sure, the kid
swiped a fist a candy. I guess he musta been hungry. That wuz the
startint point. Hell came after that. Word got arount the kid wuz
murdered. That's all they needed ttknow. Windows wuz busted tt hell,
shots wui fired, ant Lawd, yl shoulda seen' The crowd wuz set ttbust
inta the armory. Jesus! swipint guns --ant they woulda used 'em --y'
kin imagine if they did.
A hearse come swingint down the street ant they thought they
WU Z gonna take the boy. It wuz like throwint gas onna fire. Hell ant
brimstone pop out. —Some funny things happen ma whole mess a it. I
kin remembers a couple. When, things a this kind happen, people think might
fast an do fast. Chinaman comes rushint outa the store ant hang up
a sign sayin': "Me oollored too." ---Yeh, here's a hot one. Sam Katz,
a glazier guy on a huntred and twentfif street didnt so much as git touched.
Instead as I kin remember he git the job a puttint in the glass windows
most of tem.
"Ftr all the stealint goint on the main thing they steal wuz
food. I sees gt woman reach inside a busted window ant heave out two
bit, juicy hams, slings 'em unda her arms, an says: ti been eatint pig
feet ant ohltterlinre ftr a belluva 1pnc, tines rAlt it not on I'm
can.to eats ham. 'An' than she traipses downs street on home. --..Yehs
they been takinf plenty a food. One a tam sayes 'Dam iL 1 aint gonna
oat ttmerrowei. —a...Mang about 4 A.P a milk wagon yits on &erne etroot
ant they makes for It. Out comes the driver soared ao hello an
saivs tAw, leave hi: alone, hets onoy a worker, we mint got notilint
on 711m41 So they swipes all the bottles a milk inoteads---•-qteee all the
otealint 7oin on wue like a new world ....everAdaiscaus in their hens
ant reach, at they *ease needed ant didnt never 1.te•+,..--
"1 oeo a wilite Lelia with a per stuck in his pocket coin,
up ant down the ,looh a nunbcr a ti as. The oullud folks in t' kink
he ¶t a newspaper reorter ant they dislikes reportere for the dirty
stories they been always printint stout the Aaok man. They calls him
a uhito eon of a bitch ant crabs ant rpie the paper outa his pocket.
It wu:', the '.)aily Jorker. be ,uy seos It ant sayis snots O.K. it's
workint manto paper. Leave hi. %lona. 7ess 004 So they leaves him
-It vow :luro sumpint lightine ant broakint windows rpint
'Ant I tell yt this. 8,.,ne people c:otta idea this viim a race
rit. know it wuont. Fir instance darinc the ovonint aoullu(L liquor
store wuz busto:. into ant the rAft-dlo min the joInt say lie's oullud an'
they shouldn't buat up the joint. tile lives like the rest atom',
eomeone yells out. 'BO taint no better, !;ittin, the gravy from um 120140
so they .:ae,13 on bustint up the joint ant takint out bottle L aliquese abet
tryint tt say is that itwaant a questirm of' oula. People us sore
at the guys who live one ..ravy while they wus starvins tt death.--.—..
*Yoh, nary it sure sus a knockout. Tho oops sure didn't help
none. At fire' they juet keeps their bane one guns till it got real outa
hen' ant then they lots loose. They sin' no rraper words ttsay 'abet
what happon. 414st I
In Sore $12T71 At shot deo,1 onetty 1.t shot
stealint :rooeries. wue hell. I -.1.1ose the winliow washers
7A:ton urioraplo,Tod fir a courla days•
-its al -lest as bad.
Oney ,13 took a hen.' ant sends down a 1 0 a rain lool tem of a
bit. c4)rta:•1.- di it ell rtt. The raIn none dawn ant soaks te::;.
Certainly dV, the
I toll 79 t7111, ithe7 up work ins first plies this Vito
wouldn't a sterte ----.I gin' 7Tophata but I 37nowe this1 if jobs
ant stuff! dor, 1t bet'or, I Us a as s ant 1r -ire it's ?orlIn har'pen
acain, anti rinnt T)o Ptr fun.