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SPEAKER: Tonight honors Nellie Stone Johnson. Johnson is 85 years old. Her life is a chronicle of Labor activism in Minnesota. As a young girl, she remembers Elizabeth Gurley Flynn organizing workers on the Iron Range for the Industrial Workers of the World, better known as the Wobblies. In the early 1920s, she moved from her family farm to the Twin Cities, studied at the University of Minnesota for a time, and worked at the Minneapolis Athletic Club.

It was there in 1934 that she became part of the drive to organize the Twin Cities hotel and restaurant workers. The union effort was successful. Johnson was also instrumental in creating the Democratic Farmer Labor Party, along with Hubert Humphrey and others, in the 1940s. Tonight, she'll be honored at a special performance of the play Mesabi Red. You may remember we had some members of the cast of that play in our studio a while back.

And the play will be followed by a discussion about labor issues, led by Johnson and State Senator Sandy Pappas, along with members of the state AFL-CIO. It is my pleasure to say that she's with us in the studio this morning. Thanks a lot for coming in. Good to have you here.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Thank you.

SPEAKER: Can I get you to move a little closer to the microphone? I had it in my head somewhere you grew up in Rochester, but actually, you grew up on a dairy farm in Dakota County.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: I was born in Dakota County. My folks farmed there for a few years. And until I started to get a little older, I was the oldest one in the family and milking age. And then my folks moved to Pine County, about 14 miles east of Hinckley. And we increased our herd.

SPEAKER: Yeah. How does a young girl from the farm end up being involved so actively in the Labor movement in the Twin Cities? How did that come about?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: I think that labor organization is just a side of farm organization. My folks were very involved in the family-type farm organization. And I started to cut my teeth on the Nonpartisan League's paper. They were members of that organization, even though it was established in North Dakota. But it was a farm organization with better prices for farmers.

SPEAKER: Yeah. And you ended up at the Athletic Club, which I imagine in those days was a pretty stodgy place. And you decide to try and organize the workers there.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Well, we were working for $12 and 1/2 an hour. And I knew what it cost to buy flour and sugar and so forth to keep a family going. And so we really couldn't live on $12 and 1/2 an hour. I did live with my uncle and aunt, my father's brother. He was a railroad man, also a very strong Labor person, a member of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

And his job was fairly good. At least they had a good roof over their head and could eat three meals a day. So I just fell into that syndrome. And it was no different than organizing on the farm for those same principles as you would in a labor organization.

SPEAKER: I wonder about trying to organize workers in the Twin Cities, which even today is largely white, would have been more so back then. You as a Black woman, did you find resistance to that among the other workers because you were a Black woman?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Well, strangely, there's not the resistance that you would think, nor the discriminatory practices there because you're talking about bread and butter. And it really doesn't make any difference if your skin is Black or white. Everybody has to eat. And the people do want better conditions in order to buy that food and take care of their families.

SPEAKER: Yeah. I'm told that many of the folks who worked in Downtown St. Paul in the hotel and restaurant industry were indeed Black. Was that true in Minneapolis?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yes, that's right. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER: Yeah, OK. You organized the workers, and I'm not sure where the story goes from there. Did you folks strike at the Athletic Club or simply started negotiating with employers?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: No, we didn't have to strike there. We negotiated a pretty good contract, but it took two or three years to get a good contract. And there were some benefits, like two weeks' vacation for some of the employees there, but not for everybody. And we were able to get those classifications somewhat changed and make it possible for everybody to get the same amount of vacation or whatever the health and welfare programs were.

SPEAKER: Yeah, I'm a little surprised that you didn't have to strike because Minneapolis in the '20s and '30s was such an anti-union town.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yeah, you're right. But we didn't. We had a couple of strikes, but the one that comes to mind was the Miller Cafeteria. It was on 7th Street. You're probably too young to remember that.

SPEAKER: Yes, indeed

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: But nevertheless, we did. And then there were a couple of others that we did.

SPEAKER: And this was right around the time of the trucker strike of '34?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yes, 1934. Yeah. And of course, I remember that quite well and was very supportive of it. And my father-- the price of rutabagas and potatoes wasn't too good at that time. And he did truck both truckloads of rutabagas and potatoes to the strikers' food kitchen.

SPEAKER: That's right. I'd forgotten. A number of farmers from outside the Twin Cities.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yeah, well, he was one of those.

SPEAKER: Yeah. Then you got involved in politics with Hubert Humphrey and others, the formation of the DFL party coming in the 1940s then.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: But I was really involved in politics before that, probably not too well organized, but I was pretty well read. And my folks were in the Farmer-Labor Party. And if there was an election coming up, the materials had to get out to the farmers. My dad would tell me to take a horse and go around and do-- certain number of farmers that I'd have to take material to them.

SPEAKER: You were well prepared for this kind of activity. Sounds like it's in your blood.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: That's what I was going to say. I was 13 years old, so it really wasn't that new to me.

SPEAKER: Yeah. I've talked with some of the people involved in the merger of the Democratic and the Farmer-Labor Party, who talk about some University of Minnesota professors and students who after they'd get out of class, they'd hop in a car and drive off and spend the rest of the day speaking at this town and that town and the others, almost a barnstorming kind of experience.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: It is. There's never a dull moment when you-- well, at least it wasn't then. And people were just really looking for a better way of life. And there were a lot of people that were very poor people at that time coming into the Great Depression and food lines. You probably, in your history, remember a lot of that.

SPEAKER: Sure.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: And it looks like we might have some of that coming up again.

SPEAKER: Yeah. I am interested that throughout your very active involvement in politics through the years, you only ran for office once.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yes. It was strange. I ran for office in 1945 and served six years on the--

SPEAKER: On the Library Board.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: --Minneapolis Library Board, which was a citywide election. And being an ex-farm girl, Labor, Black, and a woman, it was the same as a white male running for mayor today. So I don't want people to think that it was an easy job. But I did serve six years. Well, I didn't want to run for office anymore, and I turned down many good political jobs over the next 25 or so years because I just felt I couldn't effectuate the kind of policy that I wanted, especially for Black America, if I took on a political job.

SPEAKER: It's easier to stick with your principles if you're not an elected official?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: That's right, mm-hmm, because you don't compromise yourself for just a salary, so to speak.

SPEAKER: Yeah. How do you, I guess, influence the political system then when you're not an elected official?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Very much so because I'm a very active person. I've always been active in somebody's campaign. And the issues are second nature to me. And this last election, I always considered myself a pro-choice person on the abortion issue. And this last election, I found myself supporting four pro-life candidates because they were very good in the area of education and employment.

SPEAKER: Yeah. So you're willing to compromise?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Well, I don't feel it's a compromise because I feel that these people are dedicated to that. And they believe in the equality of people, regardless of race, creed, or color. Then I should support them. And that's where the strength comes.

SPEAKER: Yeah. We're talking this morning with Nellie Stone Johnson, who is being recognized by the Great North American History Theater tonight. One campaign I want to ask you about was-- and I forget the date right off. [CLEARS THROAT] Excuse me. The Van White's campaign in Minneapolis.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: 1979. I can tell you the date.

SPEAKER: Yeah. And he became, if I remember my history, the first Black member of the Minneapolis City Council. Tell me about that campaign.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Well, I managed that campaign. It was a hard-hitting campaign. And I knew pretty much what I had to do to get him elected. And I didn't have a large committee, but I had about four or five people that were the inner sanctum committee. And we had a very large committee for fundraising and all of the rest of the trappings that go with a campaign.

But the main strategy on the campaign was done just about with five people. And we had a turnout in the Fifth Ward that had never been turned out before because we were running against two very formidable candidates. And I knew both of the candidates.

SPEAKER: What was the key to winning that campaign? Was it the turnout?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: The turnout, hard work, and then Van had a pretty good reputation in the field of employment at that time, and housing, too.

SPEAKER: So you were able to mobilize what, new people coming into the process?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Everybody in the ward because the turnout prior to that had not been the best turnout because people hadn't worked at it.

SPEAKER: Mm-hmm. How have you felt the past 10 years or so when politically the country has moved very much towards the conservative side of things? Have you felt the lone wolf as someone who's maintained her liberal roots all the way through?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Kind of, yes. And I think this is very much reflected in my thinking on Labor because I was on a panel Wednesday night at Metro College for Labor. And we're dealing now with the declining membership in Labor. I feel that Labor has got to hit some of the very people issues like we did back in the '30s and the '40s, like equality and also more active part in education. And then along with that, the whole equality in the workplace, equality in education, equality in everything, I think that's Labor's area.

SPEAKER: What do you think about the health of the Labor movement now? It seems to have gotten a bit perhaps stale. It's not very popular.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: It's like anything else. Take the civil rights movement, for instance, or even in the business world. People get old and tired, I guess. And I don't know, it just seems--

SPEAKER: I was going to say, you're not tired at all, and you're 85.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: it Generates something in me just to see people have that equality and be happy people and raise good families out there.

SPEAKER: Yeah. On top of all your activism over the years, you've had a shop in Minneapolis. And I asked you before we went on the air, are you still putting in the hours there?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Yeah, a couple of days a week. That shop, I've been involved in that almost 29 years now. And that shop was started on the basis of a hobby of mine. When I was working in other places, I liked to sew for myself and just make all kinds of clothes for myself. Buy $0.50-a-yard material and make myself a couple hundred-dollar garments and that sort of thing. And aside from it being a very practical thing, I just liked the challenge of working with materials.

SPEAKER: Yeah. Back to the performance tonight of Mesabi Red. You're going to take part in the discussion afterwards. What are the things that you will be telling those people tonight? What are the things that you want to tell people about the health of the Labor movement and those kinds of issues?

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: I think people need to know about the security. Those that don't know what the Labor movement is all about, I think they need to know about job security and, well, just the whole political arena of health programs and, as we were talking about, education. I wouldn't know right at this time what I'm going to tell people until they start asking me some questions. They'll ask me the questions. I like to feel questions.

I always feel that I'm going to be talking down to people if I have a preconceived idea of what they want to hear or what I think they should hear. I like to have those questions come to me.

SPEAKER: Thanks for putting up with my questions this morning. It's been good to talk with you.

NELLIE STONE JOHNSON: Well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER: Nellie Stone Johnson, who will be honored tonight during and following a performance of the Great North American History Theater's Mesabi Red. The run of that play, by the way, has been extended through March 17 at the Great North American History Theater. Also, we should note that the history is following in the footsteps here in labor education. Sunday's family day performance, adults who buy a ticket can bring a child for free and then stay for a post-performance discussion with kids and the cast.