Excerpt Transcript: “When he opened the door at 4:00 PM, it looked like there were about three or four hundred students outside. And they all came in, and they lined up around the counter and they took trays as they come in, and they just began to bang on the counter. Just stand there at a steady pace, just banging on the counter. And we had of course walked out and sat down. And Mr. White who was the supervisor at that time was the only manager, supervisor in the building and it almost frightened him to death. [Laughs] So he turned around and he came back to where the group had sat down, the group had sat down together, we had a table, we all planned out where we were going to sit, and so we had all sat down around this table. So he came back down the hall there, and he looked at us and he said, “What in the world is going on,” and so somebody said, “We are on strike.””
Excerpt Description: Elizabeth Brooks describes the first night of the first Foodworkers Strike in February 1969.
Interviewee Name: Elizabeth Brooks
Interviewer: Beverly Washington Jones
Excerpt Transcript: “When he opened the door at 4:00 PM, it looked like there were about three or four hundred students outside. And they all came in, and they lined up around the counter and they took trays as they come in, and they just began to bang on the counter. Just stand there at a steady pace, just banging on the counter. And we had of course walked out and sat down. And Mr. White who was the supervisor at that time was the only manager, supervisor in the building and it almost frightened him to death. [Laughs] So he turned around and he came back to where the group had sat down, the group had sat down together, we had a table, we all planned out where we were going to sit, and so we had all sat down around this table. So he came back down the hall there, and he looked at us and he said, “What in the world is going on,” and so somebody said, “We are on strike.””
Organization: Black Student Movement
Event Mentioned Date: 2/23/1969
Excerpt Length: 0:59
Interview Date: 10/2/1974
Interview Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Campus Space: Lenoir Hall and Manning Hall
Citation: Interview with Elizabeth Brooks with Beverly Washington Jones, 2 October 1974, E-0058 in the Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.