Davis, John, January 6, 1976, tape 1, side 1

Speaker1: [inaudible]. That's it now put it off now. Now I'll ask you a question.

Davis: Do you want it off or on?

Speaker1: Just want it on. Want it on. I want it on.

Speaker1: We'll begin. Would you state your name, please?

Davis: My name is John D. Davis.

Speaker1: Your age sir?

Davis: 67.

Davis: Warrenton, North Carolina.

Speaker1: Warrenton, North Carolina. Warrenton, North Carolina. All right. Do you happen to recall the maiden name of your mother?

Davis: Yes. [inaudible] Grymes Wilson.

Speaker1: [inaudible] Wilson. Do you know anything about your mother's family?

Davis: Oh, I knew all of her brothers and sisters and Gran and brother and father.

Speaker1: Is that so. What was, what was the name for Mother? Her Father? What was her family name?

Davis: Wilson.

Speaker1: Wilson. All right. And they, they were American blacks?

Davis: Yes.

Speaker1: What was your occupation? What was your major occupation in life?

Davis: Well, I worked for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Speaker1: How many years?

Davis: 34 years.

Speaker1: 34 years.

Speaker1: What good you. . . [inaudible]

Davis: Uh, I'm a Baptist. Rodman Street Baptist Church.

Speaker1: Rodman Street Baptist Church. How long have you been there, sir?

Davis: I've been a member there for 54 years.

54 years. Very good.

Speaker1: Politics, about politics, you've been very much involved in politics in Pittsburgh?

Davis: No, I haven't. Other than being registered and voting every time we have. . .[inaudible]

Speaker1: Never run for office?

Davis: No, never run for office.

Speaker1: And how long have you lived in the Pittsburgh area?

Davis: No, never any fraternal organizations.

Speaker1: Uh, you, this is about your family history once again. You do remember your grandparents?

Davis: Yes, I do.

Speaker1: On both sides?

Davis: Both sides.

Speaker1: On your, on your father's side? What about your father's side?

Davis: I remember my grandparents on my father's side, too.

Speaker1: They native North Carolinians?

Davis: They were native North Carolinians.

Speaker1: Do you remember anything, particular about your grandparents?

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.

Speaker1: They were.

Speaker1: Your family moved to Pittsburgh or did you come alone?

Davis: [inaudble] I was just about 3 or 4 years old.

Speaker1: Can you recall the year you were?

Davis: 1913.

Speaker1: 1913 very good, very good. And you came directly here from North Carolina?

Speaker1: What neighborhood do the parents?

Speaker1: Was easily able to then. It was East Liberty, then?

Davis: Yes.

Speaker1: And you know, what? As you were, you were very young. What kind of neighbors were. . .

Speaker1: White?

Davis: mixed.

Speaker1: Mixed, mixed neighborhood.

Davis: Yes.

Speaker1: What did your father do?

Davis: My father worked for the Pittsburgh Ice Company.

Speaker1: Pittsburgh Ice Company? David: Yes. Speaker1: Does your mother work outside?

Davis: Never worked outside of the home.

Speaker1: Was your father's only income in the house?

Davis: Yes. That was the only income.

Speaker1: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

Davis: I have three brothers, no sisters.

Speaker1: Three brothers, are they living?

Davis: All of them are living.

Speaker1: Jill did, did he buy the home he lived in East Liberty?

Davis: No.

Speaker1: Was it, was it a [inadiuble] kind of home?

Davis: No it was a rented home.

Speaker1: A rented home alright.

Davis: I have two boys.

Speaker1: Two boys. How old are they?

Speaker1: What kind of education did you receive?

Davis: Oh, I had my [cutoff] in East Liberty at the [cutoff]

Davis: Grocery stores.

Speaker1: About how old were you then?

Davis: About 12 years old.

Speaker1: And what when you when did you start working at Westinghouse?

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.

Speaker1: All right. Was that the, I take it that was your best job? Westinghouse?

Davis: Yes. I worked there continuously for 34 years.

Speaker1: What part of Westinghouse did you work?

Davis: [inaudible]

Speaker1: Transportation. Did you happen to know a Matthew Jones?

Davis: Yes, I do.

Speaker1: All right.

Davis: He worked in the same department. Very good.

Speaker1: Very good. And so you got there in 36 again. That's right after the depression.

Davis: Right after the flood in 36.

Speaker1: Flood in 36. Why did your parents come to Pittsburgh area?

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.

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?

Davis: No, we never faced any problem if you're referring to racial problems or anything like that, never encountered that.

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.

Speaker3: [background] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker1: And you had, growing up, you had no you had no difficult problems being black?

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.

Speaker1: Did you, what was the first organization you joined? That you can remember, outside your home?

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.

Speaker1: Yeah you were a deacon, you a deacon in church now?

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.

Speaker1: So your friends and you consider your basic friendships have grown up inside the church?

Davis: Well, I have, due to my various interests I have [cutoff]

Davis: Church. Which would be the most numerous, I couldn't at the present time say.

Speaker1: But you don't meet them in terms of an organization. Is there some kind of organization that. . .

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.

Speaker1: Have you ever belonged to a labor union?

Davis: Yes.

Speaker1: What labor union?

Davis: I think it was the uh

Speaker1: CIO?

Davis CIO.

Speaker1: Uh, you were active in a union.

Davis: Just a slight period of activity. And because we had a differences of opinion on certain issues, I got out of it.

Speaker1: But how long were you in the union?

Davis: Well, I imagine about 8 or 9 years.

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]?

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.

Speaker1: Mm. Very good. Do you keep? What contact did your family maintain with your grandparents in the Carolinas?

Davis: Oh, the periodic visits that practically every summer. I have gone back on a number of occasions since I was married.

Speaker1: Did you ever have, such thing, ever have family reunions? Do you does your family engage in that?

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.

Speaker1: Right. You mentioned church membership before. Would you once again tell me that you start out you were president of the.

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.

Speaker1: Now you've been deemed deacon. . .

Davis: I was a superintendent of the Sunday School for two years. Now I'm a deacon in the church.

Speaker1: What did your church do? When World War, World War II, what activity were you involved the church in World War II?

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.

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. . .

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.

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.

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.

Speaker1: Okay. Um. Did the church have someone like, uh, a credit union or something at the time for. . .?

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.

Speaker1: Um. Is your wife from Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh?

Davis: No, she's a native of Virginian.

Speaker1: Virginia. Did uh, when did you and she get married?

Davis: March 1940.

Speaker1: 1940. Davis: Yes. Speaker1: You know anything about her family?

Davis: I knew her father well. I knew her sister well.

Speaker1: They were native Virginians? Davis: Yes.

Davis: Coincidentally, my wife and I met while she was in Pittsburgh, not in Virginia.

Speaker1: But she was she here visiting or working?

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.

Speaker1: All right. In East Liberty, what, what group would you say it was? Lower class, middle class or upper class neighborhood?

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.

Speaker1: Today um. [cutoff]

Speaker1: What do you remember about. The. You mentioned something [cutoff]

Speaker1: Elaborate on that. What you remember that about that?

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.

Speaker1: Just after that, you got, you went back to. . .

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.

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]

Davis: Joined the church.

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?

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.

Speaker1: What do you remember about, were you here in 1919?

Davis: No, I was in North Carolina in 1919.

Speaker1: So you don't know anything about the strikes. Do you remember anything about racial disturbances during the 40s? Driving a cab?

Davis: No, I don't Remember any disturbances so far as Cabs were concerned because I was working for the Yellow Cab Company.

Speaker1: Any disturbances or any of that nature.

Davis: No, no disturbances were. . . [inaudible]

Speaker1: Do you, um. What year did you come, your family come to Pittsburgh you said?

Davis: 1913.

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?

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.

Speaker1 Push the button.

Davis: Its still on.

Speaker1: Push the button all the way off. Good. Good. They got that.