WATERLOO - Rath Packing Co. hired James Estes in the early 1940s at a wage of 40 cents an hour. It was a big raise.

A few years earlier Estes had been working in a sawmill near his native Kosciusko, Miss. for $1.50 a day.

He worked at Rath for 37 years, retiring in 1976. "I haven't had another job since," Estes, now 95, joked.

Since retiring he has enjoyed being a husband, father and active member and deacon of Antioch Baptist Church.

Estes is the latest subject in "African-American Voices of the Cedar Valley," a series of videotaped oral histories of various local African-American leaders and pioneers conducted by African-American studies scholar David Jackson, who holds undergraduate and doctoral degrees respectively from the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa. It is a project several years in the making, accomplished with help from co-producer and UNI communication studies professor Joyce Chen, and project editor Cleo Nobles Jr.

For the oral history project, Jackson has established a nonprofit private foundation, leasing space at the UNI Small Business Development Center. He is working on the marketing and distribution of DVD collections of the oral histories through local schools. The oral histories will be aired in coming weeks on local public access and other television channels.

Jackson recorded Estes' recollections of his work with Rath and at Antioch.

Estes, now a widower, followed an uncle, Humphrey Micou, from Mississippi to Waterloo in 1935. His uncle had found good-paying work in Iowa and encouraged him to come north. He worked odd jobs at different places including at a local barbershop, Roth Jewelers and Richfield Clothiers, "washing windows, shining shoes, mopping floors," and became fairly well known in town before the city's two major employers both offered him a job.

"Rath and John Deere, they called me the same day," Estes recalled. "Rath called me in the morning and John Deere called me in the evening. I went to John Deere because John Deere was five days; Rath was six. That sixth day, I wanted to have it off."

But he was caught in one of Deere's seasonal layoffs. He went to work in a downtown barbershop and became acquainted with the individual who did all the hiring at Rath. "He told me 'Be out there the next morning,'" and he was hired.

He worked on the dressing floor for 12 years and then in the millwright shop for more than 30 years, assigned with upkeep and repair of machinery. It was good, steady work and he showed an aptitude for it. "I like to tinker with machines anyway," he said. He worked his way up from apprentice to 'A' mechanic.

Rath was about 50 years old at the time Estes was hired. It had been the city's largest employer in the years prior to World War II. The giant packinghouse's size and capacity were practically incomprehensible to Estes' family back in Mississippi when he returned to visit.

"My dad wanted to know how many hogs we killed in a day. Back home, if you killed one hog and dressed him up in one day, you'd done real good. I said sometimes we did 600 hogs an hour. He was real surprised."

Estes' pay increased over time, benefiting from the labor contract at the plant, which rewarded all organized workers. Estes worked his way up to $200 a week.

One of the toughest periods, however was the bitter strike in the spring of 1948 between Rath and the United Packinghouse Workers of America union.

"That was scary," Estes said. A union member, Estes said he was on the picket line on May 19, 1948, when he saw his brother-in-law, 55-year-old Fred Lee Roberts of rural Dunkerton, shoot and kill striker William "Chuck" Farrell as Roberts tried to drive across the picket line.

"I never told anyone that before," Estes said.

A dozen strikers had grabbed Roberts' fenders and started rocking his car. Farrell, a 38-year-old father of three, had jumped on the car's running board and was partway through the window.

As Estes watched, Roberts, doubtless frightened according to eyewitnesses, pulled his World War I .45 caliber pistol and shot Farrell in the right cheekbone, cutting a main artery and killing him instantly. The bullet went through Farrell's head and struck a bystander on the shoulder. Pickets snapped and a riot ensued. Waterloo police disarmed Roberts and drove him away in a squad car, but rioting picketers overturned 27 cars and set their gasoline on fire. The crowd had swelled to 5,000. At Waterloo officials' request, Iowa Gov. Robert Blue dispatched the Iowa National Guard to restore order. Roberts was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in 1949, after a jury deemed the shooting either an accident or self defense.

While there was labor-management strife, African-Americans were treated well at Rath, Estes said. The unionized packinghouse became a place of empowerment for the city's black community.

Many African-Americans were able to rise to positions of labor leadership. In fact a group of predominantly African-American picketers had turned Fred Roberts' car away from one gate on Vinton Street before his fateful encounter with Farrell.

Aside from that unfortunate incident, Estes and his wife lived a full and happy life. At the outbreak of World War II the elder had gone to Camp Dodge with a friend to enlist in the military, but was not accepted.

It was just as well, Estes said. He did not want to leave Essie.

James and Essie were married nearly 68 years, until her death in 2007. They had one son, Patrick, who now takes care of his dad, often taking him with him when he's out working and tending to the family's rental properties.

The elder Estes still gardens and his mind is sharp. He uses a cane but bounced back recently from a reinjured hip.

He hurt it the first time at Rath years ago when, distracted, he fell one floor down an open elevator shaft.

In between those injuries - and before and since - he's had a pretty good life.

More information about Jackson's oral history project may be obtained by calling the UNI Small Business Development Center at (319) 273-4344 or stopping at Jackson's office on campus in the Business and Community Services Building, 8120 Jennings Drive, Suite 13.

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1426 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com