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Phyllis Griffin interview transcript, December 21, 2004

16

PG: Well, other people have seen it, I think I'm just seeing it for the first time even though a picture was given to me. 

NL: Hmmm. . are you aware at all of how your mother's college experience might have affected your mother's fight for civil rights?

PG: Oh yeah. There was a lynching in Nashville. Tennessee. She went to work immediately. It was a young man who was lynched for something insignificant. They stormed into his living quarters, dragged him out, and hung him.

NL: This was while she was in college?

PG: Yes. She was outraged by that. And um, helped to organize a picket line, and walked that picket line. My father was outraged by that, and walked it to. 

NL: So do you think that Fisk University instilled an ethic of activism in its students?

PG: No, my mother brought the activism to Fisk. 

NL: Um, OK. 

PG: Fisk University is a middle class college. At the time that she attended it was stratified economically and in relationship to the color of your skin. The lighter the color of your skin, the straighter your hair, the more prestige you had. The darker the color of your skin, the tighter the quality of your hair, the less status you had. She didn't like that. 

NL: Hmm. That's very interesting. Do you, are you familiar at all with the Greensboro sit-in movement of 1960?

PG: Mm hmm

NL: DO you remember, um, do you remember that from when you were a child, and do you remember what your or your mother's reaction was to that, to that movement?

PG: Um, my mother was really glad that the movement, the sit-in movement happened. She was frightened for the people sitting in. Um, we followed it very closely. And there were nightly discussions (pause)

NL: Well, why do you suppose that Greensboro spread so quickly? There were sit-in movements within a week, within a month, that had spread all across the upper south and eventually into the lower south. 

PG: It was an idea whose time had come. People were ready. 

NL: And you can compare it to the Des Moines movement against Katz?

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16 PG: Well, other people have seen it, I think I'm just seeing it for the first time even though a picture was given to me. NL: Hmmm. . are you aware at all of how your mother's college experience might have affected your mother's fight for civil rights? PG: Oh yeah. There was a lynching in Nashville. Tennessee. She went to work immediately. It was a young man who was lynched for something insignificant. They stormed into his living quarters, dragged him out, and hung him. NL: This was while she was in college? PG: Yes. She was outraged by that. And um, helped to organize a picket line, and walked that picket line. My father was outraged by that, and walked it to. NL: So do you think that Fisk University instilled an ethic of activism in its students? PG: No, my mother brought the activism to Fisk. NL: Um, OK. PG: Fisk University is a middle class college. At the time that she attended it was stratified economically and in relationship to the color of your skin. The lighter the color of your skin, the straighter your hair, the more prestige you had. The darker the color of your skin, the tighter the quality of your hair, the less status you had. She didn't like that. NL: Hmm. That's very interesting. Do you, are you familiar at all with the Greensboro sit-in movement of 1960? PG: Mm hmm NL: DO you remember, um, do you remember that from when you were a child, and do you remember what your or your mother's reaction was to that, to that movement? PG: Um, my mother was really glad that the movement, the sit-in movement happened. She was frightened for the people sitting in. Um, we followed it very closely. And there were nightly discussions (pause) NL: Well, why do you suppose that Greensboro spread so quickly? There were sit-in movements within a week, within a month, that had spread all across the upper south and eventually into the lower south. PG: It was an idea whose time had come. People were ready. NL: And you can compare it to the Des Moines movement against Katz?