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Phyllis Griffin interview transcript, December 21, 2004

                                                                                                      [page] 4
NL: Who is Evelyn Davis?

PG: Evelyn Davis, um, had established a day care center in Iowa. You have to talk to Mary Campos about the details about it, and Mary Campos is an incredible resources about my mother, and my dad. Which I hope someone will do a thesis about Stanley Griffin some day.

NL; Um, this is actually a very nice segue. Um, that you talked about educating her children as maybe what she would have been most proud of. How much did your mother see a separation between herself as an activist and herself as a parent or teacher?

PG: I don't think there was a separation. I think she had a way of combining it all together. Um, there was a tremendous education that happened around the kitchen table at home. I remember after we moved on 44th street, a map of African going up on the wall. (laughs) "OK". She brought a woman who had lived many years in China to come speak to us when we were very young, and she had organized a brownie troop. And what she wanted us to know, she wanted us to know that there was nothing to fear about China. That it was racist, um, labeling, to call them the "yellow hordes." Which got us ready, I guess, to go resist the Vietnam War. 

NL: Um, well, my follow up to that question was, how did she make you and your sibling a part of her activism. Maybe if you could think of some other stories?

PG: Um, she gave me a subscription to "Ramparts" magazine when I was in 8th grade, for Christmas.

NL: Could you tell me a little bit about that magazine? I'm not familiar with it.

PG: "Ramparts" magazine was a radical magazine at the time, in the 60s. And um, at first I didn't want this as a Christmas present, you know? I wanted something more jazzy. But it has had a major influence on me, it still resonates with me, that Christmas present. SO I learned about the use of napalm on citizens of Vietnam, I learned about Che Guevera, and I read the first four chapters of "Slaughterhouse five."

NL: Loved that book....can you talk a little bit about the relationship your parents had with each other? And I guess, when you talk about this, what ways did your family conform to the normative 1950s model of male wage earner and female housewife?

PG: Well my mother, um, my mother really didn't hold down a full time job, Dad did. But her early goals in my life, uh, when I was really young, was to return to Graduate school with the hope of being able to get a law degree so that she could become a judge. With three children and a disgruntled husband, uh, this became impractical. And I was really upset with her that she gave that up. But she did not give up going to meeting the NAACP, sitting on committees, um, what else? She stayed active, politically. 

NL; And when you say that your father was disgruntled, why would that be?

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[page] 4 NL: Who is Evelyn Davis? PG: Evelyn Davis, um, had established a day care center in Iowa. You have to talk to Mary Campos about the details about it, and Mary Campos is an incredible resources about my mother, and my dad. Which I hope someone will do a thesis about Stanley Griffin some day. NL; Um, this is actually a very nice segue. Um, that you talked about educating her children as maybe what she would have been most proud of. How much did your mother see a separation between herself as an activist and herself as a parent or teacher? PG: I don't think there was a separation. I think she had a way of combining it all together. Um, there was a tremendous education that happened around the kitchen table at home. I remember after we moved on 44th street, a map of African going up on the wall. (laughs) "OK". She brought a woman who had lived many years in China to come speak to us when we were very young, and she had organized a brownie troop. And what she wanted us to know, she wanted us to know that there was nothing to fear about China. That it was racist, um, labeling, to call them the "yellow hordes." Which got us ready, I guess, to go resist the Vietnam War. NL: Um, well, my follow up to that question was, how did she make you and your sibling a part of her activism. Maybe if you could think of some other stories? PG: Um, she gave me a subscription to "Ramparts" magazine when I was in 8th grade, for Christmas. NL: Could you tell me a little bit about that magazine? I'm not familiar with it. PG: "Ramparts" magazine was a radical magazine at the time, in the 60s. And um, at first I didn't want this as a Christmas present, you know? I wanted something more jazzy. But it has had a major influence on me, it still resonates with me, that Christmas present. SO I learned about the use of napalm on citizens of Vietnam, I learned about Che Guevera, and I read the first four chapters of "Slaughterhouse five." NL: Loved that book....can you talk a little bit about the relationship your parents had with each other? And I guess, when you talk about this, what ways did your family conform to the normative 1950s model of male wage earner and female housewife? PG: Well my mother, um, my mother really didn't hold down a full time job, Dad did. But her early goals in my life, uh, when I was really young, was to return to Graduate school with the hope of being able to get a law degree so that she could become a judge. With three children and a disgruntled husband, uh, this became impractical. And I was really upset with her that she gave that up. But she did not give up going to meeting the NAACP, sitting on committees, um, what else? She stayed active, politically. NL; And when you say that your father was disgruntled, why would that be?