Summary

Claiborne Paul Ellis, known as C.P., grew up in East Durham during the1930’s. His family lived on the white side of the railroad tracks, in a small run-down house. His father, who had a fourth-grade education, worked in the local mill for wages that barely allowed the family to survive. Mill work at that time was dangerous, unhealthy and offered no hope for advancement. Mill owners used new techniques in management to control the workers and extract as much profit as possible from their businesses. Workers had miserable lives and many drank heavily. Others joined extreme religious movements and engaged in practices that included putting live snakes around their necks during church services.

The mill owners’ greatest fear was the Labor Movement. The business leaders tried to persuade the exploited workers that unions would not help them. When the workers rejected those...