Search results

title: Ruffin, Roussell 07-16-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Employment, Race relations
Date created ms: 2001-07-19
Name: Ruffin, Roussell
Abstract: Roussell was born in Siracusaville in 1929. He talked at length about what it meant for him to grow up as a Black child. He graduated from Morgan City Colored High School in 1946. He was captain of the basketball team that year. After high school, Roussell worked in the cane fields and then as a crane operator in the local lumberyard. In 1961 he went to work as a crane operator for Brown and Root.

title: Ryan, John 05-08-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Offshoreshore oil industry, Enivornmental aspects, African Americans, Employment, Race relations, Industries, Technological innovations
Date created ms: 2001-05-08
Name: Ryan, John
Abstract: John tired of the moving around and ly found a position at the production facilities at Weeks Island. He started as a roustabout, then gauged, then made gangpusher. Then he was an operations foreman. Eventually he moved into construction, and we talk a lot about some of the tasks he managed. He ly transferred to West Lake Verret as a maintenance foreman. He also worked at Cameron for a while. He later started work completing wells offshore for Shell, and in 1963 he worked at West Delta 30 when Shell was first experimenting with directional drilling. He got called back to Morgan City, though, because they were having problems with personnel. He notes that many of the difficulties started when they were forced to hire blacks. There’s also some discussion about the pollution caused by oilfield work back in the early days. He also talks about when they first tried to computerize the offshore platforms, and what a disaster it was. We end the interview with a fairly lengthy discussion of loyalty to the company.

title: Ryan, John 01-06-2005
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Employment, Industries, Technological innovations
Date created ms: 2005-01-06
Name: Ryan, John
Abstract: John Ryan was born and raised in Alexandria. He left high school with some experience as a mechanic, but it wasn't long after he entered the service for WWII. He served in Europe. Upon his return he had a tough time finding work, but eventually he got on with a Shell gravity crew. John spent his entire career in the oilfield with Shell Oil. He began as a member of the gravity crew in the late 1940's and eventually made the switch to production. The gravity meter was one of a handful of instruments that the oil companies were using at the time to detect reservoirs of oil beneath the surface of the earth. John tired of the moving around and ly found a position at the production facilities at Weeks Island. He started as a roustabout, then gauged, then made gangpusher. Then he was an operations foreman. Eventually he moved into construction. He ly transferred to West Lake Verret as a maintenance foreman. He also worked at Cameron for a while. He later started work completing wells offshore for Shell, and in 1963 he worked at West Delta 30 when Shell was first experimenting with directional drilling. He got called back to Morgan City, though, because they were having problems with personnel.

title: Ruiz, Burleigh and Molly 07-17-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Employment
Date created ms: 2001-07-17
Name: Ruiz, Burleigh
Abstract: Burleigh Ruiz worked for Texaco for 39 years. His father was in the sugar business, but Burleigh wanted to make more money. He began as a radio operator in 1948 and then worked as a roughneck for two years. Burleigh was a gang pusher in 1962 out at Lake Barre. He didn't really like all of the responsibility and asked for a different assignment. He then became a gas lift specialist out at Caillou Island in 1972. That is the job he held until he retired in 1987. After retiring, he and his wife concentrated on their income tax business. Burleigh had taken an H&R Block course while he was still working for the oil company. He stated that the first Black man to work at Lake Barre was in 1966 - 1967. That is a bit earlier than other estimates I'd heard previously, but Burleigh and and his wife Molly insisted that that was correct.

title: Henderson, Dolores 03-07-2003
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Women librarians, African Americans, Race discrimination
Date created ms: 2003-03-07
Name: Henderson, Dolores
Abstract: Dolores was born in Morgan City and lived in the community all her life. She and Caleb raised two sons and one daughter, all of which they sent to college. Dolores credits her mother for her attitudes toward education; her mother wanted her children to have more education than she did. Her mother left school after the third grade and worked as a domestic all her life. After graduating from high school, Dolores went to Baton Rouge to live with her blind uncle and attend college. She fell in love with literature and became involved in oration, so she studied to become a librarian. She married Caleb during this time. When she finished school, few schools were hiring black librarians, so she became a teacher-librarian. She took a job in Slidell and stayed there during the week, returning home on weekends. She got a job in Houma for one year, took a year off to have her daughter, took a job as a librarian in Thibodaux for six years, and then got a job at Hattie Watts High School in Patterson, where she stayed until she retired. Dolores began storytelling after the schools were integrated and the high school was turned into an elementary school. She organized a library and reading program in her home and remains very active in community service. She has been recognized with numerous awards and received The Angel Award in 1996.

title: Lirette, Bill, Melvin, and Wayne 07-27-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Petroleum engineering, Unions, African Americans, Environmental policy
Date created ms: 2001-07-17
Name: Lirette, Melvin
Abstract: Melvin was born in 1910, began the oilfield in 1929 and retired in 1975. He was 91 years old at the time of the interview. He began work in the oilfield at age 19 in 1929. He began with Abercrombie as a contract worker but then was hired as a regular hand by Texaco, or "The Texas Company," as he knew it most of his life. He worked as a driller for 46 years and retired in 1975. He comes from the generation of people who didn't have any education except for life itself. During the interview he said several times that the best measure of a man was how hard they worked. He retired during the boom era and got a good retirement plan. Bill Lirette is Melvin's younger brother. He was born in 1919, began in the oilfield in 1949 and retired in 1983. He is only 85 years old and worked for Texaco his whole life as a mud engineer. The first interview does not have a lot of information about Bill on it. The second interview has extensive information about mud engineering, including, but not limited to, the different weights of the mud, the pipes, wires and machines associated with mud engineering and the amount of school/training necessary to be a mud engineer. He is a jovial guy who obviously loves his brother (he calls him Old Man) very much. He tells stories; they almost come off as legends, about Melvin's antics in the industry as well as how respected he was by the men who worked under him as well as the bosses. Bill is a very opinionated man who is not afraid to tell you what he's thinking. Wayne Lirette is Melvin's son who also retired from the oil industry. He retired in 1998 from Texaco. He worked as a compressor mechanic for most of his career. The first interview second CD has a lot of Wayne's opinions about unions, blacks and environmental regulations. Wayne was not present for the second interview.

title: Jackson, Pierre 06-08-01
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Health aspects, Offshore oil industry, Accidents, African Americans, Race relations
Date created ms: 2001-06-08
Name: Jackson, Pierre
Abstract: Pierre Jackson was born in 1934 and raised in the greater Morgan City area. He worked at a barbershop and in a variety of capacities related to the oilfield prior to his employment with Texaco in 1967. Once employed with Texaco, he worked at the Bateman Lake plant and then moved to company's new cryogenic plant in 1973. He was promoted several times and was a member of the local union. He was one of the first African-Americans to work in the oilfield.

title: Henderson, Dolores 07-16-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Civil rights, Race relations, Racism
Date created ms: 2001-07-16
Name: Henderson, Dolores
Abstract: Caleb Henderson joined McDermott after serving in the Navy and working briefly for Shell. Caleb developed a new technique for loading platforms and was promoted to supervisor on his merit. He was the only Black supervisor at McDermott in the 1960s. A discussion of the problems of racism in the oil industry follows.

title: Ryan, John and Marguerite 03-03-2003
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Employment, Industries, Technological innovations
Date created ms: 2003-03-03
Name: Ryan, John
Abstract: John Ryan was born and raised in Alexandria. He left high school with some experience as a mechanic, but it wasn't long after he entered the service for WWII. He served in Europe. Upon his return he had a tough time finding work, but eventually he got on with a Shell gravity crew. John spent his entire career in the oilfield with Shell Oil. He began as a member of the gravity crew in the late 1940's and eventually made the switch to production. The gravity meter was one of a handful of instruments that the oil companies were using at the time to detect reservoirs of oil beneath the surface of the earth. John tired of the moving around and ly found a position at the production facilities at Weeks Island. He started as a roustabout, then gauged, then made gangpusher. Then he was an operations foreman. Eventually he moved into construction. He ly transferred to West Lake Verret as a maintenance foreman. He also worked at Cameron for a while. He later started work completing wells offshore for Shell, and in 1963 he worked at West Delta 30 when Shell was first experimenting with directional drilling. He got called back to Morgan City, though, because they were having problems with personnel.

title: Davis, Haggai 06-21-2004
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Offshore oil well drilling, Patents, African Americans, Employment, Women, Employment, Labor unions
Date created ms: 2004-07-08
Name: Davis, Haggai
Abstract: Haggai Davis was born in Denton, Texas. He roughnecked in high school in 1947 for a drilling company called Cooper Herring. He quit high school in his last semester and went into the Coast Guard. He went to work for Warren Automated Tool Company out of Houston and then moved to Harvey (New Orleans) in 1952 where he met his wife, Gail (she was working for J. Ray McDermott in Harvey). Later, he went to work for Fishing Tools, Inc. and then Taylor Oil Field Rental. Then he went to Kajan Specialty (Fishing Tool company out of Houma). He did sales for Whipstock, Inc. out of New Iberia, La. and that company was so busy that Mr. Davis also learned and performed directional drilling. He headed directional drilling projects and worked in the oil fields of the southeast United States, the Middle East, Alaska, and London and the North Sea. He moved to Morgan City in 1958 and then returned in the late 1960's to work for Stable Drill. Mr. Davis has patented several drilling tools including a snubber rig and the Gumbo buster. He had his own company called Macaroni Tubing Rental. He was still working full-time at Tri-City Pipe and Machine when he gave this interview in July of 2004.

title: Long, Bob 07-01-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Race discrimination
Date created ms: 2001-06-07
Name: Long, Bob
Abstract: Bob was born and raised in the Morgan City area, and he quickly described the segregation common in Morgan City at the time. Bob got started out in the oilpatch a bit earlier than most Blacks in the area, because he was employed by one of the contractors. He is knowledgeable about other Blacks working at the same time, the kind of things they did, and the kind of hurdles they faced offshore. There are stories here about sleeping on the mud barges, rumors of Blacks getting thrown off the rig, and many descriptions of what it was like out there for black men. His descriptions are vivid and heart-wrenching. He also spent some time at Cameron Iron Works and several other companies in the Morgan City area.

title: Mayon, Terry 03-23-2004
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Veterans, Employment, African Americans, Employment, Women, Employment, Labor unions
Date created ms: 2004-03-03
Name: Mayon, Terry
Abstract: Terry Mayon is from Morgan City, Louisiana. His grandfather went to work for The Texas Company in 1925 and his father went to work for Texaco in 1945 and then for Kerr-McGee. Mr. Mayon worked for Kerr McGee for 22 years. He was also an air-traffic controller for many years. Mr. Mayon specialized in safety at Kerr-McGee and discusses World War II veterans in the oil field, accidents, unions, and women and Blacks in the oil field.

title: Middleton, Howard 07-16-2006
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Employment
Date created ms: 2006-07-16
Name: Middleton, Howard
Abstract: Howard Middleton is from Centerville, Texas. Throughout his career, he served as an educator, public servant, and consultant. He was the first African American to be appointed as Port Commissioner (1976-1994).

title: Doucet, Manson 06-04-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Offshore oil industry, Social aspects, African Americans
Date created ms: 2001-06-04
Name: Doucet, Manson
Abstract: Manson Doucet began his career in 1942 and spent most of it as a foreman in the Laughlin Brothers yard in New Iberia. At the height of operation, Laughlin brothers had 200 drilling rigs under contract to a variety of oil companies. Manson’s job was to supply these rigs with equipment according to their needs. The toolpusher would call in to the yard, tell Manson what the problem was, and then Manson would put together a pack of materials and have them shipped out to the rig. He provides a great overview of this process, the kind of problems they would typically run into, and the cooperation necessary to fix these problems. Manson was also on city council for several decades, and we talk a lot about the growth in New Iberia, the kind of things the town did to keep the oil industry there, and the impact of the rapid growth of the population in the region. There are brief discussions about the induction of African Americans into the workforce.

title: Welcome, Adam 05-14-2001
Subject: Offshore oil industry, Labor unions, African Americans, Race relations
Date created ms: 2001-05-14
Name: Welcome, Adam
Abstract: Adam Welcome is an African-American male in his early 60’s. He worked as a schoolteacher in the 1960’s, and then found employment with Texaco in 1970. He is an articulate and discerning conversationalist, and an interesting man. Of particular interest here is his work with the Exxon Employee Federation, an internal quasi-union within the company. He does not provide much insight into the nature of race relations in the oilfield. There is a bit about his perceptions of his ability to enter the industry in the ‘60s, as well as a brief description of the conditions under which blacks began to be hired. Also, there’s a good description of his first day of work. Perhaps of most interest, however, is his description of the activities of the employee’s federation, the kind of things they were able to secure from the corporation, and the duties he faced as the representative. These illuminate the strategies some oil companies utilized to avoid outright unionization, while at the same time portray the costs incurred by such moves – the federation was almost as active as the union, and was able to secure significant benefits for the employees.

title: Jefferson, David 01-07-2003
Subject: Offshore oil industry, African Americans, Race relations
Date created ms: 2003-01-07
Name: Jefferson, David
Abstract: David finished high school and went to work for Martin Chemical because his wife's father worked there. He was laid off after one and a half years, drew unemployment for six weeks, and then got on with Allied Van Lines in Lafayette. He drove for about a year and then joined a friend who was working for Bienville Furniture out of New Iberia. He stayed with that job about six years and was then able to get a job with Texaco in 1967. He was hired as a land roustabout and was the only black person on his crew. He learned that he would have to work on rigs to advance within the company and then requested a transfer to a rig. A month and a half later he was working on rigs, and within five years he had advanced first to derrickman and then to relief driller. Soon he advanced to driller, and in 1980 he went offshore as a drilling supervisor. He returned to work on land in the early 1990s when he was sent to West Texas to supervise a crew there. He retired in 1999 as a drilling supervisor for the offshore district.

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