Please note this interview was recorded over a telephone call. In this oral history, James Daniels reflects on his time working at WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) and his work with the labor movement while at WMATA and beyond. He also speaks about his time growing up in South Carolina, where he lived until he was 12. The part of South Carolina he is from was still dependent on the cotton economy, and as a young child he picked cotton on a plantation. He remembers the fear that the Ku Klux Klan struck into his family and how that limited their political involvement. He talks about his excitement to move to Washington, D.C., away from a life that seemed to have no opportunities. In high school he was influenced by the Civil Rights, and Black Power movements and joined a Black Studies reading group. He already remembers marching with people from his neighborhood into white areas of town and being received with a high degree of curiosity.