WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Speaker1: [inaudible]. That's it now put it off now. Now I'll ask you a question. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Davis: Do you want it off or on? 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:16.000 Speaker1: Just want it on. Want it on. I want it on. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Speaker1: We'll begin. Would you state your name, please? 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.000 Davis: My name is John D. Davis. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Speaker1: Your age sir? 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Davis: 67. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:29.000 Davis: Warrenton, North Carolina. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000 Speaker1: Warrenton, North Carolina. Warrenton, North Carolina. All right. Do you happen to recall the maiden name of your mother? 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.000 Davis: Yes. [inaudible] Grymes Wilson. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:45.000 Speaker1: [inaudible] Wilson. Do you know anything about your mother's family? 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.000 Davis: Oh, I knew all of her brothers and sisters and Gran and brother and father. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:57.000 Speaker1: Is that so. What was, what was the name for Mother? Her Father? What was her family name? 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:58.000 Davis: Wilson. 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:07.000 Speaker1: Wilson. All right. And they, they were American blacks? 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Davis: Yes. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Speaker1: What was your occupation? What was your major occupation in life? 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:28.000 Davis: Well, I worked for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:29.000 Speaker1: How many years? 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Davis: 34 years. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.000 Speaker1: 34 years. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Speaker1: What good you. . . [inaudible] 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.000 Davis: Uh, I'm a Baptist. Rodman Street Baptist Church. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:44.000 Speaker1: Rodman Street Baptist Church. How long have you been there, sir? 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 Davis: I've been a member there for 54 years. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 54 years. Very good. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:58.000 Speaker1: Politics, about politics, you've been very much involved in politics in Pittsburgh? 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:11.000 Davis: No, I haven't. Other than being registered and voting every time we have. . .[inaudible] 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:12.000 Speaker1: Never run for office? 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Davis: No, never run for office. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Speaker1: And how long have you lived in the Pittsburgh area? 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000 Davis: No, never any fraternal organizations. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Speaker1: Uh, you, this is about your family history once again. You do remember your grandparents? 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:47.000 Davis: Yes, I do. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:48.000 Speaker1: On both sides? 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:49.000 Davis: Both sides. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.000 Speaker1: On your, on your father's side? What about your father's side? 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.000 Davis: I remember my grandparents on my father's side, too. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:57.000 Speaker1: They native North Carolinians? 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:02.000 Davis: They were native North Carolinians. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:10.000 Speaker1: Do you remember anything, particular about your grandparents? 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:36.000 Davis: I knew remember them well because I lived with them for years between the two grandparents. Most of the time with my mother's people but after my father died and prolonged visits to the grandparents. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 Speaker1: They were. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Speaker1: Your family moved to Pittsburgh or did you come alone? 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:51.000 Davis: [inaudble] I was just about 3 or 4 years old. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.000 Speaker1: Can you recall the year you were? 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:56.000 Davis: 1913. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:07.000 Speaker1: 1913 very good, very good. And you came directly here from North Carolina? 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:14.000 Speaker1: What neighborhood do the parents? 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Speaker1: Was easily able to then. It was East Liberty, then? 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:24.000 Davis: Yes. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:37.000 Speaker1: And you know, what? As you were, you were very young. What kind of neighbors were. . . 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.000 Speaker1: White? 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Davis: mixed. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:41.000 Speaker1: Mixed, mixed neighborhood. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Davis: Yes. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.000 Speaker1: What did your father do? 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Davis: My father worked for the Pittsburgh Ice Company. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:59.000 Speaker1: Pittsburgh Ice Company? David: Yes. Speaker1: Does your mother work outside? 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.000 Davis: Never worked outside of the home. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.000 Speaker1: Was your father's only income in the house? 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:07.000 Davis: Yes. That was the only income. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:09.000 Speaker1: How many brothers and sisters did you have? 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:13.000 Davis: I have three brothers, no sisters. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:16.000 Speaker1: Three brothers, are they living? 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Davis: All of them are living. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.000 Speaker1: Jill did, did he buy the home he lived in East Liberty? 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.000 Davis: No. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.000 Speaker1: Was it, was it a [inadiuble] kind of home? 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.000 Davis: No it was a rented home. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:41.000 Speaker1: A rented home alright. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:42.000 Davis: I have two boys. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:57.000 Speaker1: Two boys. How old are they? 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.000 Speaker1: What kind of education did you receive? 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:24.000 Davis: Oh, I had my [cutoff] in East Liberty at the [cutoff] 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:28.000 Davis: Grocery stores. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Speaker1: About how old were you then? 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:35.000 Davis: About 12 years old. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:42.000 Speaker1: And what when you when did you start working at Westinghouse? 00:06:42.000 --> 00:07:14.000 Davis: Well I worked there on two different occasions. I worked there in the summer of 26, and I quit to go to high school, and then I went back in 1936 and the flood right after the flood and business became slow and I went to work at the Yellow Cab Company. Then in 1940, I went back to Westinghouse, and there I stayed until I retired. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:21.000 Speaker1: All right. Was that the, I take it that was your best job? Westinghouse? 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:27.000 Davis: Yes. I worked there continuously for 34 years. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 Speaker1: What part of Westinghouse did you work? 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.000 Davis: [inaudible] 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.000 Speaker1: Transportation. Did you happen to know a Matthew Jones? 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:41.000 Davis: Yes, I do. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:42.000 Speaker1: All right. 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:49.000 Davis: He worked in the same department. Very good. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.000 Speaker1: Very good. And so you got there in 36 again. That's right after the depression. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.000 Davis: Right after the flood in 36. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Speaker1: Flood in 36. Why did your parents come to Pittsburgh area? 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:31.000 Davis: Well, I presume it was because of a crop failure when the boll weevil went through North Carolina. And my father came here and worked a year in order to pay for the farm he had contracted to buy. And then he made good and he brought the rest of his family there and just rented the farm out after that. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Speaker1: Good. Um, did, do you, when you were growing up, did you recount any family encounter, any basic problem of being from the South, moving to East Liberty? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:56.000 Davis: No, we never faced any problem if you're referring to racial problems or anything like that, never encountered that. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:20.000 Speaker1: Right. In Pittsburgh, being young, you grew up in Pittsburgh. Davis: That's right. Speaker1: That's being young. So you wouldn't have any of those problems that perhaps many older people would come into the community. So you grew up in Pittsburgh. Davis: Right. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.000 Speaker3: [background] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Speaker1: And you had, growing up, you had no you had no difficult problems being black? 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:57.000 Davis: No. So far as racial relationships were concerned, some of my most likeable friends were from both races but I think the majority of them were from the white race. 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:06.000 Speaker1: Did you, what was the first organization you joined? That you can remember, outside your home? 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Davis: Oh, the first organization I joined was the church. Speaker1: The church. Davis: And some of the church organizations. That was my first organization outside of the home. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:28.000 Speaker1: Yeah you were a deacon, you a deacon in church now? 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:55.000 Davis: Yes, I was president of the Junior [inaduble] for six years. I was president of the senior BYPU for six years. I am presently a deacon and have been a deacon since 1956. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Speaker1: So your friends and you consider your basic friendships have grown up inside the church? 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Davis: Well, I have, due to my various interests I have [cutoff] 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Davis: Church. Which would be the most numerous, I couldn't at the present time say. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:27.000 Speaker1: But you don't meet them in terms of an organization. Is there some kind of organization that. . . 00:11:27.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Davis: I have a number of friends in the scouting movement in which I am involved. Have a number of friends and that have developed out of community organizations. And there are a number of friends that I have met and created just by having a common interest and various interests in the community and in the church and outside of the church. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:10.000 Speaker1: Have you ever belonged to a labor union? 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Davis: Yes. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 Speaker1: What labor union? 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:23.000 Davis: I think it was the uh 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Speaker1: CIO? 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.000 Davis CIO. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Speaker1: Uh, you were active in a union. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:46.000 Davis: Just a slight period of activity. And because we had a differences of opinion on certain issues, I got out of it. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:49.000 Speaker1: But how long were you in the union? 00:12:49.000 --> 00:13:00.000 Davis: Well, I imagine about 8 or 9 years. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:15.000 Speaker1: All right. One of the great traumatic experience in American history was the Great Depression. There it is [cutoff] Do you recall anything about the Great Depression [inaudible]? 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:47.000 Davis: Fortunately, my father was working and fortunately I was working at the time too. So, so far, economically and that sort of thing. We had no, uh, bad effects so far as the Great Depression was concerned and uh we owned our home at the time so actually there, we were very fortunate to be in that position. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:14:01.000 Speaker1: Mm. Very good. Do you keep? What contact did your family maintain with your grandparents in the Carolinas? 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Davis: Oh, the periodic visits that practically every summer. I have gone back on a number of occasions since I was married. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:28.000 Speaker1: Did you ever have, such thing, ever have family reunions? Do you does your family engage in that? 00:14:28.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Davis: Well, no. But everyone that has ever lived there has continued to maintain a close connection by annual visits back and forth. I can only remember one, you could call it a family reunion and I think this is simply because so many of the grandchildren of my parents just happened to be there at the same time. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:12.000 Speaker1: Right. You mentioned church membership before. Would you once again tell me that you start out you were president of the. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:30.000 Davis: Junior training department. Speaker 1: All right. Davis: And then I was there six years, and then I became president of the senior training department, which at the time was known as the Baptist Young People's Union and that was the senior department. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.000 Speaker1: Now you've been deemed deacon. . . 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:44.000 Davis: I was a superintendent of the Sunday School for two years. Now I'm a deacon in the church. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:57.000 Speaker1: What did your church do? When World War, World War II, what activity were you involved the church in World War II? 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:21.000 Davis: During World War II the church was actively involved in distributing food and clothing whenever the opportunity arose. It was actually a distribution center for monies as well as food and clothing. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:41.000 Speaker1: Very good. All right. And uh did your church, was your church real active during the 1950s when the integration struggle began in the South and. . . 00:16:41.000 --> 00:17:29.000 Davis: No. As of this time, there was no integration problem so far as this particular church was concerned. We still had a good working relationship with neighbors and with the in the neighborhood, such as the choir is coming from the different Harris schools and singing there and having interracial debates and discussions, panel discussions. So when this. Uh, idea of becoming, uh, integrated. Uh, his church has always been involved by activity and not by just talking about it. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:38.000 Speaker1: Very good. And, um, uh, we know the Baptist church was one of the fundamental movers of the civil rights movement in the South. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Davis: Yes, that's true. Speaker1: And, uh, Davis: And well, we were actually very much involved in the integration movement, not by name, but by activity. And I directed the choir there for six years. And we would visit white churches on a regular basis and sing for them, and our pastors would exchange pulpits. The choirs would exchange choir stands for church service and all this sort of thing. So we have really been the way out front so far as integration was concerned. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:22.000 Speaker1: Okay. Um. Did the church have someone like, uh, a credit union or something at the time for. . .? 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:41.000 Davis: Never a credit union. Never been involved in the economic field at all, if you would call it such and except for the distribution of food and clothing during the Great Depression. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:50.000 Speaker1: Um. Is your wife from Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh? 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.000 Davis: No, she's a native of Virginian. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:03.000 Speaker1: Virginia. Did uh, when did you and she get married? 00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:05.000 Davis: March 1940. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:13.000 Speaker1: 1940. Davis: Yes. Speaker1: You know anything about her family? 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:20.000 Davis: I knew her father well. I knew her sister well. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:30.000 Speaker1: They were native Virginians? Davis: Yes. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:38.000 Davis: Coincidentally, my wife and I met while she was in Pittsburgh, not in Virginia. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Speaker1: But she was she here visiting or working? 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:55.000 Davis: She came here to work, I presume, because her mother or sister was here working. And this was during the Depression. So I presume she came here to work. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:14.000 Speaker1: All right. In East Liberty, what, what group would you say it was? Lower class, middle class or upper class neighborhood? 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:53.000 Davis: Well, where I lived was a general mixture of a few lower class people, but the majority of them were middle class. If you were to consider on the basis of [cutoff] few people who were not economically able to take care of themselves and build as good as the average middle class person lived at the time. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:02.000 Speaker1: Today um. [cutoff] 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:15.000 Speaker1: What do you remember about. The. You mentioned something [cutoff] 00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:23.000 Speaker1: Elaborate on that. What you remember that about that? 00:21:23.000 --> 00:22:18.000 Davis: Very will. I was working where I had worked for all during the Great Depression, and the flood came along just as this was becoming to beginning to change. And I remember going around and visiting the river on different sites just to see exactly how great the damage was. So visit up to Highland Park to walk down [cutoff] the water had come all the way into the city and observe the activity of the water while it was in flood. I remember it very well. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.000 Speaker1: Just after that, you got, you went back to. . . 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Davis: Well right after the flood is when Westinghouse started calling its former employees back. And they called me back to work. And that's when I went back. And it lasted, oh, about 9 or 10 months. And then things began to go bad again. And I was laid off. That's when I worked at Yellow cab and I worked at Yellow Cab four years. And then they called me back in 1940 and that's where I stayed till I retired. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:23:13.000 Speaker1: All right. Once you. Well, you've answered this particular. Your parents were staunch churchgoers. Davis: Yep. Speaker1: And when they got to Pittsburgh, they went to meet [inaudible] 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:15.000 Davis: Joined the church. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:33.000 Speaker1: Your dad had been here a year before, so I guess he had already been to church. Do you recall your parents ever mentioned anything about color? People, different color? 00:23:33.000 --> 00:25:08.000 Davis: Oh yes. But it was only to identify someone who was [inaudible] some kind of [inaudible] or who had done something. But it was not on the basis of trying to get the races together or to separate the races it was just a matter of identification. That's all. I was never, uh. Pressured or told to not associate with this group or that group. We were at liberty to choose our own friends in any race at any time that we chose to do so. And in fact, most of the visitors into my home were white children, friends more so than Negroes. They seemed to pick me out for some reason or other, but they were always welcome in the home and I was always welcome in theirs. So I was never told to consider people because of their race. I was told to choose friends because of their qualifications as friends, not on a racial basis. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:14.000 Speaker1: What do you remember about, were you here in 1919? 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.000 Davis: No, I was in North Carolina in 1919. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:32.000 Speaker1: So you don't know anything about the strikes. Do you remember anything about racial disturbances during the 40s? Driving a cab? 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:41.000 Davis: No, I don't Remember any disturbances so far as Cabs were concerned because I was working for the Yellow Cab Company. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:43.000 Speaker1: Any disturbances or any of that nature. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Davis: No, no disturbances were. . . [inaudible] 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:00.000 Speaker1: Do you, um. What year did you come, your family come to Pittsburgh you said? 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:01.000 Davis: 1913. 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:30.000 Speaker1: 1913. 19 and the 1960s was a period where a lot of movement in the nation concerned about civil rights and Martin Luther King. What did you feel about that movement? 00:26:30.000 --> 00:27:14.000 Davis: Well, I was in sympathy with the movement up to a point. But not totally. It seemed to be a movement on to make the white race totally aware of how the Negro race was living. And to, and to change that concept. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Speaker1 Push the button. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.000 Davis: Its still on. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:28:19.000 Speaker1: Push the button all the way off. Good. Good. They got that.
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