Participant: Patton, Gwendolyn County: Montgomery

Transcription

1 Section 1 Interviewer: Graham Neeley Form completed by: Vanessa Ricaurte Date of Initial Interview: 3/16/2012 Date of Subsequent Interview(s): First Last First Last (mm-dd-yyyy) (mm-dd-yyyy); (mm,dd,yyyy) Participant Data Section 2 Participant: Gwendolyn Patton As a child, family life centered on: city life Main line(s) of work: educator, archivist Issue most discussed: Civil Rights involvement DOB: 8/14/1943 Age: 68 Race and/or Ethnicity: African American Gender: Female Place of Birth: Inkster, Michigan Approximate # of years in Black Belt: since childhood Participant's location for Interview: Montgomery, Montgomery Co. City or town of current residence: Montgomery, Montgomery Co. Locale: Home First Middle Last E.g. (town,farms,lumber,etc.) E.g.(Tenant farmer, gov't job,etc.) E.g.(Civil Rights,sharecropping,job) (mm-dd-yyyy) E.g.(town,county,state,country) E.g.(Year-Year, # of years) E.g.(town,county,state,country) E.g.(town,county,state) E.g.(Home,work,library,etc.) Locations listed by level of importance: E.g.(town,county,state,country) Locations where participants have resided are in BOLD. Section 3 Medium of materials in file: E.g.(pictures, documents) Total length of audio recordings: (01:24:36) (length of audio) Total # of Parts in same day interviews: Part 1 (51:03); Part 2 (33:33) E.g.-Part 1, Part 2 Interviews conducted on separate days: 10/19/2012, Audio # 0161 E.g.Int. 1 (Date) Int 2 (Date) Completed log: Yes (Yes/No) Does this interview have more than one participant? No (Yes/No) Additional Participants in interview and relation to Participant in section 2: Interview Data First Middle Last; E.g. ( sister, friend,etc.) See other Participant's Data Sheet with matching Audio IDs. * Further information on the interview on 2nd Sheet

2 General comments & explanations of Interviewer: Main Topics discussed by Participant: Childhood, Work, Church, Food, Race, Civil Rights, Politics, Town Keywords on Google Map Born 1940s; female; civil rights; Tuskegee Institute; TILE; Montgomery Bus Boycott ; the Selma to Montgomery March; Martin Luther King; voting rights; Montgomery; Montgomery County

3 Field Notes and Interview Log Form Project: Black Belt Heritage Project Subject of Fieldwork: African- American, a worker in The Civil Rights Movement, Student Body President at Tuskegee. Currently works in Montgomery as an archivist for Civil and Human Voting Rights Movement with documents as far back as Interviewee: Dr. Gwen Patton Date: March 16, 2012 Location: Montgomery, AL Interviewer: Graham Neeley Log Form Completed by: Vanessa Ricaurte Note: Quotations taken directly from Dr. Patton s words Field Notes Age of Dr. Patton D.O.B- October 14, 1943 Interview Log Form (continued) Part 1 Time: Subject/Topics 1:00-4:30 Memories attending of Citizen Schools, 8-9 years of age spending time in Montgomery with grandparents during the summers. She talks of the black social Life of the upper Class black families, tea parties and church socials. Father married again, after her mother died. Second wife was the mother of Dr. Patton s half-sister. Dr. Patton s mother treated half-sister, Sandy, as well as her own daughter. 4:40 talking of her step-mother, Sandy s mother 5:10 Left home for Alabama at age 16, could no longer tolerate home-life with stepmother 5:45 father divorces step-mother, all children support the father 6:00 explanation of the Literacy tests before 1965, insulting test blacks had to take. Test would consist of questions of the Alabama Constitution and U.S. Constitution

4 6:40 a Political Science major could flunk the voting test; a person had to explain all government & politics. It was tedious and a barrier. 7:00 it was put forth by State Representative Boswell in the 1940s. [Boswell Amendment-1946] 7:25 Citizenship Schools were held in homes of black residents, such as Rufus Lewis. For voter registration Dr. Patton worked with Lewis and her grandparents. 7:45 Dr. Patton she came from a Proud Negro Family. (As African- Americans denoted themselves during that time.) There were family expectations of movement work. 8:15 First memory of organizing- 1948, at 5 years old. In Inkster, Michigan trying to make the hamlet classified as a city. At 1950 it became a city. Early on learned about County governmentpower at a local level is with the County Commissioner. 9:30 Father was a Union Man UAW. She learned from him the necessity to have a platform rousing speech. Read the newspaper at the dinner table 9:50 Father was a writer in newspapers 10:10 going back and forth to the South. And so was there during the Bus Boycott in Montgomery. Go fetch this that for the elders. Take leaflets here, take leaflets there. 10:35 Uncle was a postman. *Key during the boycott, because they would carry leaflets along their routes. 11:00 initially the black Community funded boycotts. Boycotts were funded by beauty Salons and local barbers, as well as Savings & Social Clubs. 11:15 Club out of Nowhere headed by Ms. Gilmore, an example of how clubs raised money 11:40 People from the North [US] would send money. Dr. Patton s own family sent shoes during the boycott, because people were wearing out their shoes. 12:00 Dr. King called the boycott to national attention and raised national support, for being a great orator 12:20 in 8th grade, Dr. Patton wrote a paper on the Montgomery Bus Boycott for Civics Class 12:30 her paternal family s church was bombed on January [Four Black churches were bombed in Montgomery January 10, 1957] 12:45 Dr. Patton went shopping for people with no cars. She would have a list of things they needed for neighbors on her street.

5 13:00 in 10th grade she wrote Balance of Terror is Dead at 15 years. In response to the death of John Foster Dulles [ Secretary of State January 26, 1953 April 22, 1959] and the death of a Congo President, which she believed had U.S involvement 14:00 the ability of learning, and how it was fostered by her family and experiences. 14:20 Story of her birth- Came in screaming Montgomery Police had killed her mother s brother, Nathanial, while her mother was pregnant. Her mother could not get out of bed for grief. Patton s family believed that impacted her life, before birth. You came out screaming freedom 15:14 she talks of life in college at Tuskegee Institute. Direct Action League and Tuskegee Institute Advancement League TIAL 16:00 Memories of Tuskegee Movement, with Professor Dr. Paul Puryear 16:18 wrote a paper called Insurgent Memories 16:35 there was class divisions within the black Community. She gives an example of a Dr. Foster s Christmas party. Different parties held for different ranks and classes. 17:00 the segregation between classes. There was a present class distinction. A swimming pool had different pool days for upper class black children and working class black children 17:45 Dr. Patton awareness of never growing up poor. However, she was taught by her family, you never know [When it comes to circumstances] and We are all equal 18:20 I had to break that up Meaning segregation due to class in Tuskegee 18:35 remembering Sammy Young who attended a Northern Prep School. He was killed. Young s mother had a maid, who was Johnny Ford s mother. Johnny Ford later became Mayor. 19:11 Dr. Patton had a maid and babysitter. Young took offence at this class structure When all of us are black. And all of us are suffering under Jim Crow. 19:35 Movement developed. Citizenship Schools were held in rural towns in Macon County. She taught at Little Texas, AL. 19:50 Education should be relevant. 20:10 Sit-ins at Tuskegee and Wait-ins. During the same time students applied for summer jobs

6 20:45 Of a county then of 87% black and we don t have jobs. Tuskegee was passing itself off as a Model City. But we don t have a black City Councilmen. We had a black Bank and they got rid of it. 21:20 Taxi- cab fare was not standard for all people from the bus to the school 21:30 Dr. Patton began attending City Council Meetings 26:30 more positions created in Student Government Association at Tuskegee Institute. Such as cabinet and rewrote Student Government Association. 27:00 Protested at the Tuskegee City Council Meetings- in the city of Tuskegee for maintaining segregation in the town 27:35 Dr. Foster, Tuskegee Institute, began an open door policy initiated by Student Government Association. Dr. Patton wanted to challenge the Model City Image of Tuskegee. Dr. Foster did not want the students to protest. 28:25 Example of protest: Students began going to all-white churches and the white people in the churches, would beat the stew out of us. 28:45 Professor told Dr. Patton that the students were not supposed to go downtown on Sunday. Dr. Foster was worried over the beatings. 29:25 Dr. Patton challenged Dr. Foster on the idea that Tuskegee was a Model City. Dr. Patton asked, Well, maybe if you led us, they wouldn t beat us. There was a discord between the students and the administration, who were gradualists. 30:20 Meeting with Dr. Foster in a plane. Both she and Dr. Foster were to attend an event. Dr. Patton proposed that they travel together to save money and they compare schedules. After that in 1965, when magazines like Ebony or Jet contacted Tuskegee wanting to know of students, Dr. Foster passed the request to Dr. Patton. 32:00 Dr. Patton graduated in May :10 Vice- President of the SGA was Benny James. Dr. Patton was asked again to be SGA President, but she did not want the position because she had enrolled as the Graduate Program at Tuskegee. 32:30 she decided to be the Vice-President and students elected her. She selected and groomed future Student Body Presidents for the next three years.

7 33:45 Past example of life value: When Dr. Patton graduated Carver High School in Montgomery there became a riff when she became Salutatorian by her grades and displaced another student. She asked the administration if they could both be Salutatorian. 35:40 Opinion of authority figures. I respect authority, but it depends on whether authority is respectful. 36:00 TILE opening Tuskegee to SNCC. Actions taken to welcome them and assist the organization on campus. 36:30 Dr. Patton was part of those meetings with Dr. King and Jim Foreman (Reverend T. Vivian?. Met and had meeting as H.E. Gadsden Motel in Birmingham. 36:45 SGA and TILE were separate entities, however would work together. 37:00 Rule: If you were a part of TILE and your grades were falling you would be shifted to SGA and receive a tutor. Initiative of Dr. Patton Striving for us all to be B average students. 37:45 SNCC s influence in Tuskegee not to underestimate the intelligence of the community 38:25 student-body decides to march from Selma to Montgomery 38:30 events and instances leading to the march; death, riots, violence perpetrated by statecontrolled police powers 39:00 march and voting rights; Rufus Lewis taught voting rights from childhood 39:45 learning the process of organizing from Lewis 40: they had agreed to march this Sunday from Selma to Montgomery ; being if we had voting rights, we could set up public policy 40:15 Dr. Patton s role was to organize the east counties of Macon and Bullock; to meet and converge with the west side of Alabama at the state capitol 40:45 we thought were going to get there Thursday ; Bloody Sunday beaten and needed to regroup 41:00 they left that Tuesday; Turn-Around Tuesday, Dr. King knelt and prayed, turned around and headed back to Brown s Chapel 41:20 We were bewildered, outraged by turn-around Tuesday.

8 42:00 organized Macon and Bullock County, raised money to get buses. We were going to still march; the plan had been converge at the State Capitol on Thursday. There was no meeting to decide otherwise. 42:35 they were called, The March that wouldn t turn around. The march was not called that then. 43:00 Judge Frank Johnson issued an injunction telling the protesters not to march 43:40 the students did not pay attention to the injunction and they had to go to court and held in contempt of the judge s orders. 43:50 they did not march constantly; they operated a relay and they walked and rode in a car and walked again 44:45 students arrived in Montgomery and they did not have a parade permit; they wanted to meet at the First Baptist Church and march from there to downtown. All hell broke loose. 45:00 State troopers arrested them for standing on state property. Montgomery police would arrest for standing on public property. 45:20 if a person left the rally, they would not let the person back into the rally. People were forced to pee on the hill, and it ran down to Dexter Hill Avenue. This instance is noted in James Forman s book on Sammy Young Jr. 45:50 stayed 3-4 in the morning on the hill; went to Dexter s Church. It was cold and raining. They slept and stayed in the church until 6 or 7 in the morning. They wanted to return to the hill but were surrounded by the police when they exited the church 46:30 Alabama State students came and moved between the Tuskegee students at the church and the police, and they remained a buffer, as the Tuskegee students got into buses to take them back to Tuskegee. Alabama State students kept up the march until March 21 st. They were beaten and trampled by horses. Tuskegee students returned throughout that time to join with the Alabama State students. 47:00 Dr. King was furious with me He knew my grandparents hand in the movement since the 50s I just let that go by. 47:50 from that experience on the hill and lack of bathroom facilities, Dr. Patton suggested portable toilets for the coming marchers on the 25 th 48:00 Jesse Jackson did not march in 1965; I know that for a fact.

9 48:20 We old-heads need to get out the way. There needs to be room for young bloods 48:40 Patton called the food eaten during the march as awful and Patton wanted Tuskegee Institute to organize and feed 800 marchers. Patton organized the Institute to provide at least one meal, and she put together the menu. She ties these actions to Jess B. Semple 50:00 Patton talks of a rental provided by her grandparents. It was called the Freedom House and is located at 2113 Council Street Montgomery, Alabama. It was established in 1962, James Bevel. Part 2 Time: Subject/ Topic 00:00 More on the Freedom House and Reverend James Bevel. Patton wanted young people to join the movement 00:45 previous Freedom House was located at an apartment. Patton asked her maternal grandmother and step-grandfather to rent their property to be used as a Freedom House 1:30 TILE was formed and inclined for direct action 2:00 During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, there were meetings twice weekly. There was the Monday night, inspirational meeting with the intent of motivation. They would sing songs and get energized. The Thursday meetings were for planning. Patton s paternal grandfather Sam Patton was a business leader and 42 people on his payroll. Patton learned organization from him. 2:50 To this day if I write a proposal I include compensation. 3:00 Dr. Patton was the only child at the Thursday, planning meetings. Patton and a childhood friend named Viola Bradford, were the only two kids in a book by Jo Ann Robinson, Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. 3:45 Cornerstone of Dr. King s leadership, that people don t talk about was he believed in consultation, early on he didn t do anything until there was approval by the Thursday night meetings And whatever we did on Thursday night, then on Monday night it had to be ratified by the people which coincided with how I was raised. 4:30 Patton speaks about how by allowing the people ratify the decisions and accept the direction, then this broke up the cliques that was present in Montgomery

10 5:20 Patton talks on the less crime and how there was more church involvement and community. There was more sense of unity, belonging, purpose and mission. Summer of 56 was out of sight. 5:47 My philosophy- the movement is wherever you are It is not extra-curricular. It is your mindset. It is your lifestyle. 6:30 [The movement] it is forever evolving. She talks of wherever a person fights injustice, unfairness, and disrespect there is movement going on. You have to work out a way that is resolution oriented and you always have a result, epistemological so a movement is wherever you are, but a movement is not one person that is egotistical then or you want to play God, I don t believe in icons. 8:20 Patton discusses having no children, but choosing to call children she has taken care of, as her kids. She has taken care of children whose mothers went to prison. You don t wear a t-shirt that has Michael Jackson on it. You don t wear a t-shirt that has Rosa Parks on it, because I don t believe in icons you have faith in yourself and your family. These are important people true enough. No movement is one person. 9:18 conversation Patton had with Rosa Parks. Patton discusses the bus driver s action towards Rosa Parks was, the straw that broke Jim Crow s back. It was not the spark, because you had people through the years insulted by the bus, people through the years who took a stand, people through the years who were thrown in jail. More importantly for young people, you had Claudette Colvin who was arrested March of She was a teenager at fifteen years old. She attended Booker T. Washington. There was Mary Louise Smith- she was fifteen and had an altercation on a bus. There was Lucille Times. Patton s family did not ride buses, her family had cars... but every day there was something, fooling around with racist bus drivers, and Jim Crow s stupid laws. So Rosa Parks was not the spark, it was the last straw. It was enough and that was something, I think is historically noteworthy But to be the icon, it doesn t run, my brain doesn t think that way. 11:05 You know nothing is spontaneous. It is developmental. I just came from a whole different school of thought. So when I learned about Claudette Colvin, I almost died. I had to find her, and the way I learned about her was through her sister in Birmingham, who was a dear friend of mine. I want to go to heaven and if I know this- the world s got to know this. A fifteen year oldbeaten like a dog. Then they claim she was pregnant and she was not. She got pregnant the following summer, but she was not pregnant at that time. Plus it was her lawsuit, plus Mrs. Parks knew her cause she was in the NAACP Youth Group and Mrs. Parks was the chaperone. Fred Gray knew her, because he was the lawyer, it was her case with Ms. Aurelia Browder. That structurally through the law broke down segregation on the bus. It was historical in relationship to Plessy vs. Ferguson- if you know that case. So I could not rest.

11 13:30 I don t believe in Icons. I just can t. People believe I don t have respect for quote unquote authority. 13:58 Patton talks about attending a tea party at a friend s home and meeting Rosa Parks and Elaine Steel. Also how in later years, Rosa Parks asked Patton for Claudette Colvin s phone number and how the two of them finally had a conversation together. 16:30 Patton talks of the pathology of the need for people have someone be inferior, so they can feel their own humanity 17:45 Patton talks about teaching and being frustrated her students only want As. 18:23 wondering why everything is reduced to cliques and the social 19:00 participant on her belief that all children deserve quality education 22:00 Montgomery Tuskegee Times; participant wrote articles; Just Be Simple alluding to Langston Hughes Jess B. Semple 23:00 anecdote relating to her resistance to joining AEA (Alabama Education Association) 27:00 anecdote about the CIA and FBI; participant getting married 30:00 anecdote behind why participant collects cans 32:00 participant would rather be a hermit and keep her values than be a leader and be controlled