Profiles: Joseph Jackson

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Born 1924
Detroit

They took my Christmas savings when the bank crashed. The bank closed, and when I went to pick it up, they were closed. I had to be 5 or 6. I had a little savings account, and I’d put a nickel or a dime in the account, and I went to the bank, and the bank was closed. That bank never did open.

I worked for an iceman. I used to carry the ice with tongs. He lived in a little old shack there, but he used to sell ice. I must have been 6 or 7. I couldn’t carry big chunks of ice. I got little ones but couldn’t carry the big ones.

People were on welfare. Everybody was on welfare it looked like. We were on welfare, too. I remember little guys used to have wagons, and you’d go to the welfare store and get little foods. I don’t remember what you were getting.

We were eating regular. There was always a little bit of money in the house. I didn’t know how much. They were poor. Black people would send down South and get their families to come up North and live with them until they got a job somewhere. Ford was the popular plant. Ford had a couple of plants, one in Rouge and one on Woodward.

Interview by Michael Lawson

What Went Wrong

Donald Barlett and James Steele are revisiting America: What Went Wrong, their landmark 1991 newspaper series, in a new project with the Investigative Reporting Workshop. Over the next year, the project team will examine how four decades of public policy has shaped America's ongoing economic crisis.

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