Interview with Ethel Mae Matthews

OK, now, give me a sense of did the lives of poor people change, say, when Jackson took office in'74 and then when he left office, in, whenever it was, `80-81; um, in that space of time did the lives of poor people change?


Some. Some. Because, when Maynard was in there, he had jobs for uneducated peoples, you know. And, peoples who had never did no work, didn't know how to do no work; he had jobs, you know. They were low jobs like sweeping the streets. But, that was a job. It was job, you know. And, it didn't call for you to be educated to be done went to college to have two or three degrees and five or six diplomas sitting up on your wall, or hanging up, you know, catching dust. But, it was a job, you know. Womens and young womens and middle aged womens would have jobs sweeping the street, picking up paper and all of that. And, they had something to help themselves with. But, since then the streets don't get swept. There's nobody out there to sweep the street; nobody out there to pick up paper. And, you know money's green. Ain't never seen no White money, no blue money, no Black money, no gray money; money's green, you know. If you make an honest living, money is green and you can go to the store and spend it.