Interview with Jean Reid, February 12, 2016

RBRL418GAA-003_Reid

JOHN CRUICKSHANK: I'm John Cruikshank. It's Friday, February the 12th, 2:20 p.m., and today I am interviewing --

JEAN W. REID:Jean W. Reid.

CRUICKSHANK:And I have with me -- joining with me today in the interview is --

ART CAIN:Art Cain.

JEWEL WALKER-HARPS:Jewel Walker-Harps, president of the Griffin Branch NAACP.

CRUICKSHANK:So let's begin by just finding out a little bit about your background. Where were you born? And where did you grow up?

REID:I was born right here, in Griffin, Georgia.

CRUICKSHANK:And what year were you born?

REID:Let me -- I am 80 years old. I don't mind telling my age, because I am proud to be 80. And I seem to be able to do most anything. And that's why I am proud to tell people my age. They all will say, "No, you're not!" I say, "Yes, I am." But I am so glad that Ms. Harps asked me to do this. But the most important thing that I want to talk about us the workout that we did over in what we call Pomona Product. Along that time, we called it the Pepper Plant. So 00:02:00it were back there in 1965. We boycotted Pomona product. My coworker and I were putting meat in the pork and beans cans. My back was turned from the water fountain. She stopped working because she saw the foreman there firing the young black men drinking from the white water fountain. We left, and I called Gary Reid on his job, and told him what happened. We went to his chapel 00:03:00church and met with Reverend Sharpshire and the community people. We went back to work and formed a union, which was the AFL-CIO Union. We organized and changed working conditions. After this, all of the canneries from other towns, like Zeblin, they all had canneries. And so before they would change their policies, they closed the plant down. This was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement here in Griffin, Georgia. After that, we boycotted the 00:04:00grocery stores, because no black cashiers were allowed to work in them. That was at the A and P store, the Big Apple Store, Claud's Supermarket. And also then, we called McClenna that ten-cent store during that time. It was McClenna's Dime Store, and Woolworth Dime Store. At McClenna store, they were serving meals there. No blacks were allowed to be served there. So we boycotted that place. So finally, they start serving blacks. So we did the same 00:05:00thing at Woolworth. They start hiring blacks at Woolworth. In other words, through our boycotting, we accomplished a whole lot of things. I could go on and on. It was so many things that we accomplished during that time, back there in 1965. That's it.

CAIN:That's going to be awesome.

REID:I'm ready.

WALKER-HARPS:Tell us a little bit about your family life here. Tell us a little bit about your family life with Gary. You have two children, right?

REID:Yeah, I have two children. My daughter is the oldest, her name is Gail Elizabeth, Gail Hackbart, that we call her Gail. My son is Gary Wesley. A lot of people think he's a junior, but he's not a junior. So he got my husband, his father, first name, Gary and my father middle name, Wesley. So that's where the Gary Wesley came in it. And my daughter went to Georgia Tech here. 00:07:00She chose to major in architecture. She got a bachelor degree in architecture. So she decided that she would make more money if she went into another field, so she chose to take up civil engineer. So she got a bachelor of science degree as a civil engineer. And right now, she with the -- she works for the AA --

WALKER-HARPS:FAA, isn't it?

REID:Uh-huh. AA, in Collegeport. But while she was at Georgia Tech, she organized a black sorority, because before she got there, there 00:08:00wasn't a such thing as a black sorority. So she organized the AKA at Georgia Tech.

WALKER-HARPS:Chapter. The chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha.

REID:Uh-huh. Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter at Georgia Tech, while she was there. And she was just a tiny little somethin'. And when I would go visit her, all her little classmates would tell me, "Ms. Reid, you got sure enough a tiny little girl here, but she is a big somethin'!" What they meant by that, she was very smart, especially when she organized that chapter. And that's just 00:09:00the way she is. So my son, he start going to -- down to schools in Florida, so he start working when he was just a little child, around 11 or 12 years old. A barber here took up with him and start teaching him how to cut hair. He started very young. So he start being a barber. So after years and years of cutting hair, he decided he wanted to be a farmer. So now, he can do them both. He can cut hair sometimes, and his profession now is a farmer. So I am very 00:10:00proud of my children. And they took on after their father, by participating in things in the community. And I'm very proud of them. So there's many things I could tell you about them, but right now, I think I've said enough about my children.

WALKER-HARPS:Now, your family, the Werthers, right?

REID:Yeah.

WALKER-HARPS:Your family, the Worthers, had an attachment to a white family here right? They formed a relationship?

REID:Now my father, he really worked at a textile mill because he 00:11:00went into the Army, to the Navy, after he got out he continued to work at the mill. But he start working for the Cheethams. You know, the Cheethams, all the textile mills. So he start working for them when he was just a child, going around nine years old, and he continued to work for them for years and years. And they tell me that my father, when he was going to school, elementary school, that Mrs. Cheetham -- we called her the Old Lady Cheetham, couldn't touch him. If they did, Ms. Cheetham went to the school to get all the teachers about my father. So that how much they cared for him. So my father, 00:12:00well, they say you're supposed to love all your children the same. But they say I was my father chosen child, I guess because I seem to have a understanding about appreciating the way he took care of my mother, because they'd live to enjoy their 50th wedding anniversary. At this wedding anniversary, I had a big 50th anniversary wedding occasion at the American Legion Club, where 00:13:00my father really participated at this club. And at this affair, I had all of the grandchildren, the great grandchildren and all participating, now. And this made my mother and my father very happy. And this was last Christmas, during that time was the last Christmas that my mother lived. And she -- I made her so happy then. But I get so happy when I think about how happy I made my mother. She was so happy. And my father told her he wanted me to have everything 00:14:00he had. And I said, "What do we have?" So I found out after he passed what he had. He did have money, because he wasn't tempted with his money. (laughter) He kept it hidden in the safe deposit box. That's why I was saying, "Mama, what money?" So while he was living with me, at least before he started staying with me, I had my brother-in-law, Glenn Reid, that was my husband's 00:15:00twin brother, and I had another brother of my husband's staying with me. So my father came to visit me. He said, "Jean," I said, "What is it, dad?" He says, "Save some room for me." What he was trying to tell me, I got everybody staying in the house with me, save some room for him. So the day did come that I had to save some room for my father. Now, I could go on and on and on , but it pays to be good because God watches over us in everything we do. And this is 00:16:00one reason why I am so happy I was good to my father. WALKER-HARPS:What were your school days like? You were a Fairmont High majorette, I understand. REID:Oh my goodness. You know, I don't even think about that. But since you done reminded me, when I was goin' to the high school, it was Fairmont High School, I started out as bein' a cheerleader. So one day, we were having cheerleading practice, we were practicing hard, doing little steps, and 00:17:00cheerleader had to holler and cheer. And they had about four or five little majorettes that they had chosen to be majorettes. And one of my friends was out there with us, and they were Connie Smith. We used to be together a lot, and we used to practice being majorettes and all. But she knew what I could do, so she said, "Jean, come and show these girls how to march." I said, "No, no, no, no, I can't do that." I said, "Don't -- no." So Miss Lightfoot got a telephone call. She had to go inside the school to answer the phone. She said, 00:18:00"Okay, Jean, come on and show them now." I said, "But tell me when Mrs. Lightfoot comes back, because I don't want her to see this." They said, "Come on now," they start beating their hands, pretending they're making music. So I get a stick, pretend I had a baton. And next thing I know, I was going down on my back, coming up with the little stick. They didn't even tell me the ladies were coming. And she said, "Jean, where you learn to do that?" I said, "Washington High School, they would-- used to come down here." And I learned it from them. So they decided one morning to go into the gym, and they were going to use all the majorettes to march, like, compete with each other. So 00:19:00by the time they got to me, they just turned this place up. And the band director said, "Jean, where did you learn that?" I said, "I just be knowing it." He said, "We gonna get a high school band, and you're going to be the drum majorette." So we got that band. I became the high school first drum majorette. During that time, people in Griffin, they wasn't used to the bands and all. So it would be so many people downtown, where Fairmont were parading, until it would be some of everybody downtown. Folks just weren't used to the 00:20:00band. So one of the school teachers told me, he said, "Jean," said, "You know, you step just like a horse." So it was just fun. I was just drum majorette, in dramatics, cheerleader. I was just an all-around student. But --

WALKER-HARPS:Were those years of Rufus Tucker as band director? Or was that Brown?

REID:Huh-uh. Huh-uh.

WALKER-HARPS:That was before his time?

REID:That was before his time.

WALKER-HARPS:That was before his time.

REID:Mm-hmm. Lucy Patton were my band director. Mm-hmm.

WALKER-HARPS:The rumor has it that along the parade route was always a little short, fiery, dumpy boy running along the side the drum line.

REID:What?

WALKER-HARPS:Rumor has it that always, when the bands were marching, the bands were playing and the majorettes were marching, there was a certain young man who ran along the sides of --

REID:Oh.

WALKER-HARPS:You have some idea? Brings back memories?

REID:Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, because Gary's niece, Vera, from Detroit, she came down when we had our family reunion. So she brought that up. She said, "Aunt Jean, you be out there stepping, and I told you, I said, 'Aunt Jean, here 00:21:00come Arthur Gandler.'" And said, "You looked back and saw him, and you really got to steppin' then." I said, "What?" I said, "Oh," but she would always tease me about that.

WALKER-HARPS:Those were supposedly the glory days of the Fairmont High blue and white.

REID:Yeah. Yeah, we had -- when we wore white them days.

WALKER-HARPS:Yeah. Now there was also a band at Griffin High, right?

REID:Yeah.

WALKER-HARPS:Yeah, okay.

REID:They always had one when we didn't.

WALKER-HARPS:Oh, okay. Now I understand, okay, that you didn't have -- that was a product of segregation. Tell us a little bit about Gary's early political life. I understand that Gary and Glenn were little fireballs; small in stature, but giant men in terms of their accomplishments. And tell us about 00:22:00the story how he became -- how he really became introduced to public life, and the impact that Reverend J. Shropshire might have had on his life.

REID:Okay. Glenn and Gary both, they worked that textile mill, but yet still during the Civil Rights movement it was just like they were out of town working. They didn't seem to bother about getting fired. When they saw things going wrong, they did everything they did everything they could to get it straightened out. They would go to Reverend Shropshire, president of the NAACP, they would have meetings. And everything that Reverend Shropshire suggested that they do, they did it. They didn't worry about their jobs, they didn't seem to care. Only thing they wanted was to get things done for the black brothers and sisters. So they did things so well, and they was out there fighting for the NAACP for their rights, until they gave up their jobs in Griffin and started working in Atlanta.

WALKER-HARPS:Was that result the pressure from locals? Okay.

REID:So, okay. So they didn't seem to care, only thing they cared about was making things better for the white people here in Griffin. So they did their jobs so well in Community Affairs, then when the president of the NAACP, Reverend Shropshire, found out that he had to leave, he came to my house and told me to tell Gary and Glenn, because they wasn't there, they was working, that he would feel comfortable if they would take over the job that he was doing. It means that one of them would take over being president of the 00:23:00NAACP. So we chose Glenn. But Glenn left and moved to North Carolina. And then Gary took over. Gary was a person that really stuck in they got, and he stuck in they got. So that's when somebody came into -- we had a package store, and Gary was in there, him and Isaiah Miller. And a group of guys came in to rob the 00:24:00store, and they shot in the store. And that's when Isaiah didn't pass right then, but a week or two later, he passed. And I think that hurt Gary so, until he took it really, really awful hard. And Isaiah was his best friend. But after that, other things went on, I don't know, even during that time too. The Ku Klux and things start riling up again, and everything got fouled up with 00:25:00the Ku Klux, and all. But Gary wasn't afraid of anything.

WALKER-HARPS:How was Gary's financial life and the economic lifestyle affected by his activities in the community, with the Civil Rights organizations? Did that have any impact, good or bad, on what he was able to accomplish for himself? Were his business ventures profitable, well-supported, growing? Or was there a lack of appreciation for his service?

REID:I don't know, because during that time, we had two stores there, was about two blocks down the street from us. And but it started out pretty good. But then, you start slacking up some, then until it came to a point that Gary decided to go on back to Atlanta and start working. So to me, his working with the NAACP kind of slacked up things some. But he finally start 00:27:00working in Ellenwood, fixing on trucks and things. But I would say it came out to be okay. So he wouldn't give up. But he just loved the NAACP, so that he just couldn't stand to see people get stepped on. He would always -- 00:28:00that is why Reverend Shropshire wanted him and Glenn to take over, because he wasn't scared of his job. So that's the kind of person he was. Well, when my daughter was goin' to Georgia Tech, she started having a problem with one of the teachers. And he went there to Georgia Tech and got on the teacher. But the teacher, whatever was doing at the time wrong, but Gary got it 00:29:00straightened out.

WALKER-HARPS:Now, Gary was the first African American to be elected to the Spalding County Board of Commissioners. Am I right?

REID:Yeah. Yeah, he was the first one. Mm-hmm.

WALKER-HARPS:That didn't just happen --

REID:Was it him or Mary?

WALKER-HARPS:No, Mary served on the school board.

REID:Oh, that's --

WALKER-HARPS:And Gary was able to do this because of a lawsuit which the NAACP filed, if I'm correct in my reading.

REID:Oh, dear.

WALKER-HARPS:Yes. So you remember now when we had a large voting --

REID:Uh-huh.

WALKER-HARPS:-- and consequently we were not able to elect African Americans, and Gary took the lead to make -- I would consider that to be one of his most significant contributions, because of the change that came for all of us. Now the political picture today was nothing as it was prior to the coming of the great Gary Reid. He severely put his neck out on the line. But it was --

REID:He sure would.

WALKER-HARPS:But it was productive. He had many encounters with the Ku Klux Klan.

REID:Now you see why Reverend Shropshire suggested that, him or Glenn take over, because Reverend Shropshire saw something that was in Glenn and Gary that nobody else would do. He know -- they wouldn't mind sticking their neck out. So that's --

WALKER-HARPS:So that answered this question.

REID:-- then. Yeah, so that's why he came to the house and told me, tell them what he wanted them to do, take over his job, because he know he didn't have anything to worry about, with them twins was in charge.

CAIN:I'm interested in why you think Gary didn't have really any fears when he was facing adversity, and started going out on faith. He didn't know what was coming when you decided to boycott the production company. He didn't know what was coming when he did a lot of things to try to advance Civil Rights here in Griffin. What do you think was -- I mean, was it something that was 00:30:00innate? Was it something that was learned, he got from his family? Was it -- what gave him the courage to do what he did?

REID:I would say he was just a smart man. He was interested in everything that was going on. He kept his head in the news, you know, what's going on everywhere. He kept his head in the news. The no news come on, 11:00 at night, he got to listen to the news. He got to listen to what's going on in the world. Well, watching things like that, he saw stuff that other people made , you know, in Civil Rights. So that gave him the courage that build him up. That 00:31:00gave him the energy to do more for his people. So I say that's where it came from.

WALKER-HARPS:Had there been earlier experiences in his life that may have also contributed to his growing up in the environment in which he grew up? Or -- I don't know.

REID:Yeah, because the way they came up, they was staying in this house, I say we're down in the ditch, like, you know. So his brother got his mama and his sister and nieces and all, and moved them to Detroit, Michigan, to thinking that would be a better life for the whole family, which it was. And so 00:32:00he got them there, and start going to the American Legion, and different places. Gary just always have been a person that tried to better himself, and everybody in the -- he just always have stuck his neck out, and didn't mind doing anything. Hmm-mm.

WALKER-HARPS:Do you remember that there were some prominent whites who worked in Civil Rights movement here? Perhaps that accounts for the smoothness of it, if you could consider it to be smooth. Or do you remember any other where 00:33:00you were -- I remember Mrs. Clausfield. I don't remember too many more. Matter or fact, there was a small integrated group that kind of paved the way for the transition here.

REID:I'm trying to remember.

WALKER-HARPS:We'll come back to it. Gary was always very fond of Solomon, and recognized the fact that we couldn't do it all by ourselves. Were you around when the Ku Klux Klan burned the cross on Chappell Street?

REID:I don't know where I was then. What, the cross?

WALKER-HARPS:Yes. Remember as I read , I go back to the success of the Head brothers in particular. And that was the reaction to their prosperity.

REID:Was that at Raymond's house or Otis' house?

WALKER-HARPS:I'm not sure. Otis' house on Chappell Street. It was at Otis' house.

REID:Yeah, Otis stayed on Chappell Street.

WALKER-HARPS:Mm-hmm. But I understand that's not the only -- is that the only situation with the Klan here? Was that -- or did they not burn a house somewhere in the neighborhood? Perhaps my research has taken me beyond where your memory is taking you. But looking back, Jean, what would you consider to be the most -- to have had the most impact on your life in Griffin? If you had to pull out one event or one phase of your life, what would it be? Other than the marriage to Gary?

REID:To me, it would be during the time when we boycotted Pomona Products. Pomona Products, that was a big plant along them days. So to me, that was the most important thing that really happened.

WALKER-HARPS:Did many of us work at the Pepper Plant?

REID:Mm-hmm. It was -- that was the only place where even the school children, kids that went to college, some of them, they would come home they would end up going to what they called the Pepper Plant during that time and 00:36:00work, to make money to go to school. And come during that time, I went over there to Pomona Product when I came home from Detroit, because we stayed in Detroit for about two years. And I said, when I get home, I'm going over to Pomona Products. And when I went over there, people said, "Jean, where are you going?" I said, "I'm going to work." They hired me the first day they saw me. And then they started using me what they call "straw boss" I would be on the night shift, I was in charge of all the employees on the night shift. 00:37:00So I worked there for about 11 years. Because after I left there, I think I went out to Brightwell Nursing Home. Then I took up -- I became a certified CNA at that place for about 22 years. But like I still said, most important thing was the boycott over there at Pomona Products.

WALKER-HARPS:What other businesses were there for African American women to work, other than the Pepper Plant or the Pomona Products?

REID:Tell you the truth, there was no businesses. Not when everybody flocked over there, especially every summer. But I was working year round.

WALKER-HARPS:Are you tired?

REID:Hmm-mm. Yeah, I worked year round. We canned pork and beans, turnip greens, (inaudible) . And they started night shift, so the foreman got me to be the little boss on the night shift.

WALKER-HARPS:Mm-hmm. Have we left out anything that you would like to share with us that you think is important? Art has 

CAIN:Yeah, I have another question about the boycott Pomona Products. It got started because you couldn't share water fountains, and --

REID:Yeah, that was the main reason.

CAIN:Mm-hmm?

REID:Okay, that was main reason that we boycotted.

CAIN:Mm-hmm?

REID:It was so bad over there -- I know I used to hear people talking about it. I said, "What?" Now they couldn't do that over there. You couldn't even go to the drink machine to buy your own drink. You had to send one of the men that worked over there to go get it for you. Sometime I think people just brought a lot of that stuff on themselves. Okay, because what I did before all 00:39:00this happened, I say, I'm not going to send nobody get me no drink out of that machine. I'm going to get my own drink. So I did. Nobody said anything to me. I took it on myself. I say, I'm going to get my own Coke. That's what I did. Because sometimes we make things just bad on ourself. That ain't bothering me, going to the drink machine. And so I think when I got started everybody else, because that place had been over there for years and years and years. But when I went over there, I just took it on myself that I wasn't going to do 00:40:00like the rest of them. I'm going to go and get my own stuff. And sometime I think we bring it on ourself.

CAIN:So after you initiated it, how much longer after that did other people start to do it, and the barrier started to come down?

REID:They start doing it slowly, slowly. But I don't know whether it was because I was a lady doing it, or -- I don't know why I had to make such a difference. I just say, I'm going to get my own -- and that's what I did. So they slowly start going themselves.

CAIN:Now you mentioned that you called Gary at one point and Gary called Reverend Shropshire, and they met at the church, and there was a strategy, maybe. Was there a strategy that came out of the church in those sessions to help with that?

REID:Mm-hmm. So I think that same night, after we talked and everything I think we decided to go ahead and try to get a union. And then again, that helped. It helped, in one way. Yeah, it helped them. And then again, it didn't. Because they figure the other plants, like in Zebulon, Molena -- all the little towns that had a plant, they decided before they go through everything 00:41:00they did at Pomona Product, they just closed it down. They closed it down. So they left people out of a job. They don't have no Pomona Product no more. So before they would do what they had to do, maybe just close the plants now. They closed them down.

WALKER-HARPS:What about the textile --was that the time that the Pepper Plant was in operation, the textile mills, you weren't allowed to work in there?

REID:The textile mills , you could go to -- they went to the textile mills, when some of them left the Pepper Plant. Well, some of them found out 00:42:00they couldn't do that. They find out they couldn't do the textile work. But I had put in the application at the textile mill. They never did call me. You know why? Jean Reid boycotted Pomona Products, she ain't coming down here! I know what happened. They were saying, Jean Reid, no, we don't want her here at textile mill. That's exactly what happened. And my daddy worked at the textile mill, too. And they don't want me in that mill -- hmm-mm. They said 00:43:00they don't want me inside that textile mill. But because the way they did in Griffin, they did allow other business to come in Griffin. So when the textile mills left, that's it, because they decided they didn't want anything else to come in Griffin.

WALKER-HARPS:At that time, what was transportation like in Griffin? There were no busses, right? There were dirt streets, paved streets?

REID:When they start paving streets -- can't think we had, what dirt streets. But they finally start paving streets. Well, what was that, they did on my -- the county Griffin?

WALKER-HARPS:I75 Interstate highway.

REID:Yes, Interstate, uh-huh. And when they didn't do that, we in a standstill. Everybody seem to be doing good business, except Griffin. Places like McDonough, Georgia, McDonough not the same place anymore. It used to be the 00:44:00country. It's not the country anymore.

CAIN:You mentioned hiring, or not having many, or any, clerks in things like Woolworth's, and various retail kind of stores. What do you remember about all that broke down, the barriers for all that? How did it happen that you, at some point, started to get some folks hired in there?

REID:Okay, NAACP started that. Our family did and went and talked to the people there to manage them stores. And they start hiring people. That's what happened. That's exactly what happened.

CAIN:So it was pressure from the NAACP that actually did it?

REID:Mm-hmm. It started happening.

CAIN:Mm-hmm.

WALKER-HARPS:Does that apply to public service people too, like, policemen and fireman?

REID:Mm-hmm.

WALKER-HARPS:Wow.

REID:Yeah, policemen and firemen, started hiring every which way.

CRUSHANK:So the NAACP would have threatened --

REID:The NAACP -- yeah.

CRUSHANK:They were threatening boycotts, and that sort of thing?

REID:Mm-hmm.

CRUSHANK:Mm-hmm.

CAIN:Yeah, I noticed in the article it talked about what could be imminent if some things didn't happen.

REID:Now one thing Reverend Shropshire said, I won't forget. He said, "Integration is fine." He said, "But we're gonna lose our culture." Remember that?

WALKER-HARPS:Yes. There myself.

REID:And I understand. I understand. I said, "Oh, that's what Reverend Shropshire was saying," that he was saying integration is fine, but we have lost some of our culture, things that we used to do is not -- so we lost something. Gained a whole lot, but lost, too. Mm-hmm.

CAIN:Well, I know it's always the case, it seems like, you know, when you had, say, Fairmont, and you had teachers there who kind of pushed the kids, and that kind of thing --

REID:Uh-huh?

CAIN:Do you see differences between how kids turned out coming out of, say, Fairmont, or versus what you see now in the integrated setting?

REID:Mm-hmm. I'm trying to think. Just like Griffin High?

CAIN:Or even just more businesses. Are there more or less businesses, you think, that serve that community, or black businesses? Are there less black businesses or more black businesses these days?

REID:No, not really black businesses. I can't think of --

WALKER-HARPS:There were, or there weren't?

REID:Huh?

WALKER-HARPS:There were, or there weren't? Many black businesses?

REID:Coming clear, we're on the end of -- too late.

WALKER-HARPS:I suppose perhaps that with those businesses that serve particularly black people.

CAIN:Yeah.

WALKER-HARPS: Theater homes--

CAIN:Yeah, because you couldn't go certain places. So you had to --

WALKER-HARPS:Yes.

REID:Because I noticed -- I know years ago when the two lakes -- let me see. Like now, 8th Street and Rock Street, I know I came through there, I think it was with my nephew. And I said, "Griffin is really dead now." But years ago, it was -- they had places like CleanWell, let me see, CleanWell, 00:48:00and different businesses on Rock Street. So you don't see anybody downtown now on the weekend.

WALKER-HARPS:But those were places that blacks could attend. They were there for that reason, that was the only place that they had to --

REID:Uh-huh. They don't even have the department stores now.

WALKER-HARPS:Well, you've told us a lot. Is there anything else that you might think that your grandchildren and great grandchildren and the generations to come might be interested in knowing? It's probably that you cannot think of everything at this particular time. They give you some idea as to the story to tell.

REID:But you know, when you tell the children now, the one that is about 10 years old, about how it used to be. They say, "No, it wasn't." I say, "Yes, that's the way it used to be right here in Griffin." "What?" I said, "Huh-uh. At the time, it sang," I said, "but we still got a long ways to go." They didn't believe that we couldn't go in these different places and be served. "What?" I said, "That's true. We had to go to the back, though. Or send somebody in there," you know. They don't believe that. And then when you think of it, it hadn't been all that long. Hmm-um.

CAIN:Do you think things will be getting better and will continue to get better? Or do you think they'll get worse?

REID:Well, I think, the way I see it, I don't think it's going to get -- it seems like some things trying to get back like it used to be.

CAIN:Mm-hmm.

REID:Hmm-mm.

CAIN: Hmm. Do you think that's the way they'll go?

REID:I think they trying to get back that way. But we can't afford to let that happen.

CAIN:Mm-hmm.

REID:Because some things I see that's going on, that they're trying to get back like it used to be. But we can't let it get that way.

CAIN:I do have another question regarding voting.

REID:Mm-hmm?

CAIN:Do you remember what voting was like in Griffin? Were there any impediments to voting when you were first eligible to vote?

REID:I'm trying to think now about when I was -- first got registered to vote. It's something we're going to have to really look into, because they're trying to put us back, keep us from voting, because you got old people that don't have any kind of ID. Now that's really bad. They're trying to come up with all kind of ways to keep people from voting.

CAIN:Yeah, it used to be literacy tests that you had to pass in some places.

REID:Uh-huh. Sure did, because, you know, because when I first started voting, you know, you had to put some kind of paper in front of them, and you got to read it. Just think, some people can't even read. And they're trying to get us back that way, where we can't vote.

WALKER-HARPS:What do you think makes your children so successful? Do you have a special technique for rearing children that makes them turn out the 00:52:00way they do, and Gary that you can share with us?

REID:You have to encourage your children. You got to encourage them. You really got to encourage, I encourage Gail. She did exactly what I told her, and she --

WALKER-HARPS:I wonder why that doesn't happen today.

REID:When she was a teenager. (laughs)

WALKER-HARPS:Oh. Oh.

REID:Mm-hmm.

WALKER-HARPS:Well --?

CRUSHANK:Well, thank you.

REID:Because I -- excuse me -- it was one teacher, she stayed over there on Hill Street. And that were Miss Helen, Miss Helen, white lady. She sent 00:53:00me a note, Gail was about -- I think she was in the fourth or fifth grade. She said, "Gail could do better." She had made 40 in something. I said, "Gail? I'll talk to her." But the lady, she (inaudible). (laughs) Because she stayed down on Hill Street, , and I started going back, and later I was talking to -- well, anyway, after that little conversation, Gail got better. She just start 00:54:00making A's. That's the main thing. You've got to encourage them, and talk to them.

CAIN:There's high admission standards to get into Georgia Tech, so she had to be doing something right, and you had to be doing something right.

REID:She had made up her mind. You know kids, she did have to make up her mind when she in -- long time while she was in high school, what she was going to do, what she wanted to do. Made up her mind she wanted to go to Georgia Tech. That what she did.

WALKER-HARPS:Now Gail was a product of integration. Wherein you were a product of a segregated school system.

REID:Uh-huh.

WALKER-HARPS:And exposure certainly was different.

CAIN: Mm-hmm.

CRUSHANK:So what year did she graduate from Georgia Tech?

REID:I forget.

CRUSHANK:Roughly, what time? When?

REID:Shoot, I'm going to say that was '70-something, '70-something when she graduated high school.

WALKER-HARPS:It probably was in the '70s.

CAIN:Mm-hmm.

REID:Uh-huh.

WALKER-HARPS:But that's a -- I taught some of them in the '60s.

REID:Because she went to school for four year. She decided to go four more. Because Mildred Hayes said, "How come she gone back to school?" I said, 00:55:00"She said she wanted to get -- start making more money." So we say, well, that's a good way, to stay in school. I said, "Uh-huh." That's what Head said. I said, "Now she want to go back and get another degree."

WALKER-HARPS:And it has paid off. Well, it looks like we've concluded today's session.

CAIN:I want to personally thank you, because I learned a lot. And thank you for all the contribution, you and your family, to moving things in Griffin forward, things in the African American community forward, and for giving your time to tell us about it.

CRUSHANK:Thank you.

WALKER-HARPS:Thank you. This is part of my family. Gary adopted me, so I've been a part of the Reid family for quite some time. And I do appreciate Jean sharing, and she has other documents and photos, and what have you that. As time passes, we will get in and get them scanned and make valuable use of them.

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