Oral History Carolyn Griggs

Abstract

This interview is on Mrs. Carolyn Griggs. In this interview she talks about her childhood and her school life. Growing up was pretty fun for her, it wasn’t until her adulthood actually she started to receive a bit of segregation/racism. More details will be explained during the transcript of interview. Get Ready to Listen :)

Research

History tells us who we are. It is the collective story of what it means to be a Philadelphian. To live here. To work here. The African American history collection online seeks to give visitors a snapshot of the complex history of African Americans in Philadelphia. The Museum is proud to present its first online exhibition, a compilation of 200 diverse objects spanning five centuries that illustrate the broad experience of African Americans in Philadelphia, at work and at play, dealing with struggles and celebrating successes.

Resources

http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/african_american

Interview Below

RaVaana Griggs: Hello my name is RaVaana Griggs and I am conducting an interview with Carolyn Griggs.

RaVaana Griggs: My first question is, Where were you born? What was it like in the city you grew up in?

Carolyn Griggs: I was born in Philadelphia,Pa in the year of 1966. Uhhh Philadelphia to me has always been a friendly place, a lot of different ethnicities and just a good time growing up just having a great time with my youth is what I can remember. Lots of fun with my family and friends.

RaVaana Griggs: Ok, have you ever experienced discrimination?

Carolyn Griggs: Well, I’ve experienced various discrimination most recently in my 48th year of life and while I was conducting a um track championship in Bloomington Indiana. I was the only female of African American descent who was part of the management staff and I had a crew of 8 individuals working um on my team and most of them were, I would say there were 7 white males and 1 caucasian uhh female. I introduced myself to the group unn there was really no response from the group and kind of uhh, I felt that I wasn’t, I wasn’t to be part of their management or to be a leader for that particular group. Umm Uhh as I spoke to them in a group setting and gave them instruction uhm I over heard one of the individuals say, “ I don’t take instructions from a black women uhh this is our stadium and I’ve always worked here, I’ve always been the head uh for this type of event I don’t know why they brought someone like this here”. Umm but part of what I do is manage uhm races for youth athletes of various ethnicities and backgrounds, gender both male and female and, we have a management team a diverse group and I just happened to be in charge of the other starters who start the races the that group. Umm that comment it was very disturbing, at first I wasn’t gonna say anything because, I am from Philadelphia and I’m in a strange town not knowing um a lot of the individuals there but I know that is the home of the Klu Klux Klan and that is one of the uhh very uhh predominantly umm white areas, where everyone in town basically looks the same. There is not a lot of diversity in that little small town where we were conducting this championship and they just happened to win the bid and had the resources to such a, an event. I did bring it to the head of my management staff and umm they spoke to the individual about the comments that were made and umm the person was basically escorted from the venue and was not allowed to participate for this umm seven day event.  Umm later in the evening the person came to me and asked if they could speak to me, yes I ablibged to speak with them and they wanted to appologize they said “ they had not umm had anyone of my ethncity come and be a head or manager over them and they felt uncomfortable with that” but I said “ It’s 2014 and I know you see and watch TV you read you, your, and,and you’re twice my age I know you’ve seen African Americans before and our commander and chief is one so I don’t know uhh why you would make that comment and, and not think that you could, think that you could get away with it and did not be addressed. I am unfortunatly sorry that you feel the way you do but uhh as you live on in life and as I do so myself um don’t dissrespect other just accept them for who they are um and just move on with you life and I’ll do the same and it was an experience that I’ll never forget but it didn’t change how I felt about people, some people are ignorant and in there ways and set in there ways, there’s nothing you can really do but just educate them about one how to conduct themselves in, infront a group setting of,of various ethnicities we have so many different umm ethnictities and we all get along very well together so that was my, my experience with discrimination.

RaVaana Griggs: Okay, Growing up how did you feel about caucasian people?

Carolyn Griggs: Uh,um growing up most of my teachers were caucasian I had a few African American teachers and we were taught at home um just to respect others as a as you were to respect yourself, to treat everybody with kindness and care and we really didn’t look at color to much yes, we read about it in books, saw it on television as I said growing up in 1960-1970’sit was a pretty interesting time in our culture and just our years but again not feeling the brunt of that but just seeing uh changes were we had more opportunities as African Americans to, to attend um  you know schools of higher learning and, and to be offered better employment and housing and so on and so forth it really didn’t have an impact on me in my young life I just saw that changes in  just were amazed at the you know contributions that African Americans made to society as a whole.

RaVaana Griggs: Okay so, How to you white people thought of you as an individual?

Carolyn Griggs: Well, I.. am very confident and know for a fact that I was very well thought of and so was that of my family and basically the circle of friends that I had, because we were about our work and about moving forward and doing great things and helping in the community and church and our neighborhoods and always my parents were apart of the um we had the, what was it?, home and school association. My mother was there when she could, to contribute to any events that we had at school and supporting um our community so um we were always regarded, treated with him regard and that from what I can regard

RaVaana Griggs: Okay, did you got to a school that was mixed or predominantly on race?

Carolyn Griggs: My elementary school was predominately African American was Commodore John Barry Elementary School located and 59th & Race Sts in West Philadelphia.

RaVaana Griggs: What were you experiences in school?

Carolyn Griggs: My experiences in school were excellent umm I always loved to read,and worked really hard uhh and I would help with uhhh my teachers, as I would be first to finish tests and they would let me mark test and just umm feed my creativity and thirst for knowledge so I always had a wonderful experience in school.

RaVaana Griggs: Okay, do you your mother or father experiencing, experiencing discrimination?

Carolyn Griggs: I remember my mother more so than my dad, because my dad worked weekends and, and night shifts a lot so but umm every Saturday, mostly every Saturday my mother would take us for long walks either to the zoo uhh to the park or to uhh a shopping area and it was uhh 69th in Market streets. It was a store there called Kresge’s and most people uhh would remember uhh it was like a branch of Woolworth, my mother would give us five dollars to go in and get us whatever we wanted um this one particular Saturday I had some puzzle books and um I wanted to buy uh I believe it was a necklace for my mother but I didn’t have enough money. And, so I, instead of leaving it on the counter I took it to show my older sister and the one lady uhh who was a sales clerk she was a caucasian lady she thought I was stealing it but I wasn’t I didn’t think and im like why would I steal I have money in my hand, but she umm my mother um saw her uhh chasing me and, and, and stopped me and my mother came over to me and she asked her, “to take her children out of the store, because they were stealing”. And I said no I wasn’t stealing I wanted to get this for you but I didn’t have enough money do I wanted to find my older sister to give me two more dollars so that I could buy umm so that was to me um very discriminatory, because um there was a little boy next to me who actually did take something and I saw him stick it in his pocket and I told the lady well that boy right there he took something  he put that brooch in his pocket you didn’t say anything he stole right there you didn’t say anything to him but you were looking at me probably, because I’m black. Umm so that was on incident I can remember of my mother experiencing discrimination more so, because of the color of her children and the color of her so.