With No One to Help Us (1967)

you no I went in to ask them to give me linen and stuff and they told me that they couldn't give me any linen because they had made a mistake on my check so therefore they're making me pay back money to them for the mistake they made the only way I say that they can't make you do it is that like a lot of us go down there and really like raise a lot of Hell about it he didn't believe that I had purchased what I purchased in a particular store and I took JY these women are on welfare and they formed this committee to protect their rights their chairman is Mrs Maran the other day they're going to keep walking over you when you volunteering in the community and you're really doing it I say With all sincerity sometime you forget about time and you really forget about many things that surround you otherwise you were only thinking of that moment of things that you have dreamed about now there are beginning to happen and you're part of that you're one of the persons that's making it happen we went into the business of the stores that were overcharging welfare clients who were buying on credit I myself used to go into the stores maybe buy three kinds of meat and we would take them and weigh them and see how much he overcharged us our main reason for wanting to start a consumer buying Club is so that welfare clients will not have to go back buying food on time because we found that when a client went and bought food for $10 when she went to pay her bill the bill had gone up $5 so this is our main purpose of feeding these people for a whole month so that when they got the checks on the first of the month that they wouldn't have to go back into debt we're trying to stop this trying to stop this credit buying and after we this month is over and the uh people have been fed throughout this month through the contributions that we get we're planning to set up a Vine Club so if you are interested in you know sending a contribution or a donation or we start getting donations from churches in those bags loads and loads of food amen J the food is here and we volunteers your committee calls you that's nothing come on now how much you going put all right all right bye have you got yours baby we just had a busy month providing food for these people our next step was then to concentrate on the consumer buying Club to get people enough interested in it to join it said POS now I only want 5 lb of flour I can just buy five you can buy just anything that you want okay if you don't want nothing but some sugar or some salt you can bu it okay see this is I don't mean willness I mean you know like whatever you want to get this is what you get what I say whatever you pay for this I understand yeah are you going to Jo that yeah all right I got your name all right I don't know if you have my name or not I'm a member of the air Bo that me no different about being a member being a member of this club is to buy your food when we are by ours yeah let me get up I don't think y'all understand I don't why don't you take your time darthy you talk too fast I don't want to understand what she talking about too quick for you H yeah she getting too fast and I like to kind of see what I'm getting could I have a little bit of peace and quiet please I found that people doesn't seem to understand what the club really consists on it only consist upon instead of going shopping up to Jack store or durandy store we're going to a c place and buy this food at wholesale price the same thing they paid for in this way we don't have to pay any more for the food so um if there's any question about what I'm saying if you want me to slow down a little bit I'll [Music] that's right that's second emotion we just pick out certain things that we'll be able to like get you know according to how many people want the same thing you know what I'm saying or I figur that if we had the list is already written up we can just give it to them let them check off what they want so you listen to what I wrote down very quickly and see the things I missed uh soap powder scouring pads cleanser soap bar bleach caned peas green beans corn lime is I'm sure I left out of vegetable pork and beans dyed cereals canned milk canned fruit such as Peaches fruit cocktail rice tea coffee grits cornmeal flour sugar salt pepper lar tuna fish mayonnaise Jello what else can you think no if you put I think that you should freeze the list there and let's get on a working basis to see just what we're going to do cuz this list could go on forever really I think I think that's why there should be a membership fee in order to join this club in order to have some money in the treasury whenever we get started how how high is all right this is like what do you off here you know like I'm going to really leave it up to them what well I say myself I feel that everybody should be able to put in $10 this is my own saying now what do we get for this membership Fe $10 all right this is a membership fee in order to hold in the trade in order to run the thing as far as like paying the thing that we have to have in order like truck we got to order a truck how we going to get it I mean you know like we got to rent a truck or pay somebody to go get and stuff or whatever like we got to have some money in order to get started I don't know if everybody here is on Welfare when they're talking about $10 at this date in the month to give up and uh I know I couldn't give it and I I think about 10 or 12 others couldn't give up $10 at this date in the month and how are we going to start anything if we don't have any money if you tell me that then I want to know after that you just don't have $10 to put out I don't know how much Jones does it I wish you'd tell me I don't have no money but I will have name that you will give your money there's a lot of business going on and perhaps this is the wrong time to say what I have to say because what I do have to say I'm quite sure you're not going to be pleased at it this Committee in the past month has raised to my knowledge several thousand to provide free food for the welfare recipients check wait Mr Harrison we have a bank account and all money that was given to me haven't come to not even no no check yourself I won't say several thousand but this committee has has has dedicated itself has dedicated itself to raising funds to provide food come out here to congratulate us Pat us on the back or what come down to congratulate you I came down to tell you about what is needed to start a Buying Club and what kind of commitment is necessary to make it work do you think any more than 20 people to buy a Buying Club I think 20 people is a start yes and that's what we've done but it's not enough I think if the next meeting comes along and there's not 40 people here it's not enough you know for a whole 18 months I've been struggling getting this committee together and I didn't have nobody really like the staff UCC to come and help I mean it's nice to come down here and tell us now what we did here in April but what what I mean uh what about all last year and and I will tell you in response to that that UCC is never going to do anything until the people make the demand wait a minut demand wait now you now you come in you want to talk I got some talk for you da okay I can how many times have I came down to your sta of meeting on Friday on Wednesday and ask why didn't the other area boards or the people in the area boards didn't not come and help the welfare of mothers when you came down how many people did you bring I didn't have to bring any people I I mean I know what was going on here why did I have to bring more people I spoke for the people I were you you read the papers I had demonstrations and what was told that the staff could not go out there and help right here let me answer let me answer the question let me answer the question myself Aran is going to stand and say that three five or eight people is enough to influence UCC I say that influence on uccc has importance when there is 100 300 500 wait see 50 people closed A A A store owner April 1 19 people went to jail the welfare mother committee spearheaded it don't tell us about 300 people we see what they did why you think we do anything this mon on place we have a Vine club and we going to do something baby don't get up and say you got to go home this is where you speak out here oh no I mean I mean let him know how you feel well I thought you know you we've been struggling with this thing for a long time you don't let nobody come here and Pat you in the back for one month what you did and what they did we've been doing this all time I mean don't get up and say you going home now the man is here tell him that's the way [Applause] you get them red up this the way the people talk down there when they come to their conference I want to see you get up on the floor and let them people that they talk they taxes are paying your bills baby I had it I had it up to here when they call and ask me what is what they they taxes paying for my children I don't like that dog on jump I mean you sit there I mean don't jum up and run I'm going home now stay here let this man know that you don't like what happened wait a minute let me tell you something our welfare mothers are not sitting down I'm on welfare and I still work that's why everything else too where you been where you been sitting up in office how you know what we doing tell me I been sit down I got I walked in here on 20 [Music] people go down to the mayor's office with five people he's going to have and get what I want I don't need no five people if you got to have a couple hundred anything you want forget it don't take no take no I go to Washington get what I want by myself I don't know people come up the damn hill to see what we're doing what poor people can do we going to do it [Music] may the fight really brought the committee more closer together I always tell you know visitors or someone that wants to come in and like talk to the mothers to be sort of careful of what they say because these women aren't just there sitting there some of them coming there heavy hearted you go and get your group working like this group is trying to work and then maybe you can find thato this is darthy Jones calling I wanted to know if you have cash and G darthy Jones I wanted to know if you have cash and carry or are buying clothes the wholesalers didn't want to you know actually let us buy food with people that you know you you used it already no good I explain everything to her you know what she told me when I finished I want to sell the restaurant she want to sell the restaurant I don't sell to nothing but other words whatever approach that I had I told her that you know it was for the welfare people and all you know she said well after I finish she said I sell I only sell the restaurant if I had thought of that I would have told I was a restaurant you know in order to get what I want how many how many bags do you need huh how many no the two P bags yeah right how much give me a good $6 for 24 24 P 24 for 2B yeah 4.75 it's 25 cent the bag Char a 20 well you're not getting any Bargains down here when is bargain day down every day in the week well see what we try to do is buy things by the case you know and we want to know the prices of them and anything you're interested you ask me the price tell you okay you're going with us going with you you could jot down anything that you see that we need I know I've never been into a great big Warehouse where all is canned goods and food and stuff like this was at our next Monday night meeting we were ready to take orders can I ask you all is there anyone here tonight that's new to the whole back of the Buying Club you cannot buy anything in wholesale unless you buy it by the case they do not sell it by one or two it has to be everything on here is case so what we have to do now is just sit down and figure out same Reon if we come up with say there's a case of 24 and there's only 16 people wanted one jar that means that we cannot get a case unless the whole case is filled so this is the way it has to be if I order uh 10 cans of string beans somebody else order 10 can of string beans in the k now if you not going buy we get our money back right you think I'm going to keep it got the stream beans we waiting for the stream beans wait only thing that you got to do is you got to say to me say look I want them stream beans come on here get them four cans you know like push the next person you know like come on let's get those stream because I want them you understand this makes sense to me do it you know what I mean are we going to have any meet you know I'm a meet kingg the reason why we can't have meat now that'll go into two but you know you have to have license you have to be you know inspected by the health department and right now we feel we're just a baby in the wood we just starting to crawl I see what so I mean well I was concerned because I was playing on order case of State well I think you [Music] fun you know this is only a test really we're going to see how the people stick together and how here work out how much can we really save within the month and like if we save this month automatically next month we going to do the same thing but if we can't see a saving in we going do anything but I know that there is a [Music] Sav 3 4 8 9 11 12 13 I get 13 I'm going to count it again 20 cents we'll have the 20 cents today that makes it very sure that we don't make any mistakes for the simple man this is did you make out your order what I actually seen this happened it seemed like it was a new thing being born here we are here we were a month ago we didn't know which way to go here we had these people that had to be fed and a month later here we were getting money from some of these same people wanting to buy and it really give me a a it really did something that made me feel very good to know that people really wanted to come across to be part of something where's the peanut butter I have 18 here I we're out here you know with all this money and money that really W weren't yours but just hear you were shopping for maybe 30 families sitting there thinking I was wonder if we had enough money to pay for all this [Music] food she's got Mar Cas I to make sure I get enough Cas that was uh like going to a food store and buying too much food and having to you have over there and uh I was just saying a little te prayer inside say that we could take you know be able to take it all about that much [Applause] Mone about maybe a little more maybe a little [Music] less you you have I man so hard you want should have one on the left hand side I have [Applause] [Music] one Danny that's glass [Music] pick it [Music] up [Applause] da like where you going no you know like in case I'm not here you not here when people come and Pi up make sure y'all look at these clips I'm going to leave these clips here and that way you can see who hold more money on these you put put maybe put maybe you ought to go over and put down there who you mean who somebody might owe money you know somebody some of them look better you know well you should put down the O and how much it is you could do that while we're doing this bag else box Sal two cans of salmon cans of salmon I was very tired we were all very tired we were all very very very much tired and I I think the tiredness came from wondering how you know sometime you can think very hard and wondering how things can uh how things are going to turn out and when they do turn out good uh some of the tiredness sort of wear off but then you know that it's just not tiredness from the work it was a tiredness of from worry warning how everything was going to go what you folks doing eating a get grocy out here come on let's go EA that [Music] stand your corn so that I what you when you're finish honey okay then we have to ask this lady's money so we can give it to her back I be glad when I get used to working M that the parents of today do not make way for the children of tomorrow they'll be winding up in the same six that we're in now and my main purpose is so that they may not have to go on welfare roads so that our children won't have to wind up living in poverty but I am doing it for children so that this is my main reason so that they won't have problems like we've had to try to work out wait again wait wait wait Jeffrey say hi oh they're gone now oh [Music]