Interview with Beverly Watts, September 11, 2014

Partial Transcript: This is Betty Baye. I'm interviewing Beverly Watts. The date is 9-11-2014 and we're in Louisville, Kentucky. This is a project of the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame Oral History Project.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about growing up in Hopewell, Tennessee. She describes her grandparents, her community and attending segregated elementary and high school. She talks about her extended family and where her parents worked. Watts talks about her cloistered childhood and being oblivious to segregation issues.

Keywords: Age; Children; Church; Drugstores; Families; Fathers; Grandfather; Grandmother; Grandparents; Hopewell, Tennessee; Jobs; Ministers; Mothers; Nashville, Tennessee; Nurses; Old Hickory, Tennessee; Parents; Segregated schools; Segregation; Sisters; The Secrets of the Hopewell Box by Jim Squires; Veterans

Subjects: African American families.; African American parents; African Americans—Segregation--Tennessee.; Davidson County (Tenn.); Segregation in education.

Partial Transcript: Could you try on clothes, and--in the department stores? Or shoes?

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about the beginning of desegregation in Tennessee. She describes her experience attending Tennessee State University and then at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She talks about living in Cairo, Illinois, and her civil rights advocacy there. [The interview is paused during the segment.]

Keywords: Advocacy; Black Panther Party; Carbondale, Illinois; Charles Koen; College; Education; Fisk University; Race issues; School; Social life; Sociology

Subjects: African American women civil rights workers; African Americans—Segregation--Tennessee.; Cairo (Ill.); Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Tennessee State University

Partial Transcript: So Carbondale was interesting. I was in Cabondale from July of 1969 to April of 1970, I think, April is--it was April or May. It coincides with the issues at Kent State, and the deaths there.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about the impact of the Kent State shooting, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale closing as a result. She talks more about her advocacy as a student at SIU, and visits from prominent civil rights leaders, including Kenneth and Mamie Clark. She talks about private black universities requiring a photograph with applications, while public universities did not, and the role of skin color in determining acceptance.

Keywords: Brown paper bag test; Carbondale, Illinois; Demonstrations; Doll experiments; Fisk University; Howard University; Kenneth Bancroft Clark; Kent State University; Mamie Phipps Clark; May 4 massacre; Protests; Shootings; Southern Illinois University; Vietnam War

Subjects: African American political activists.; African American women civil rights workers; Civil rights movement; Civil rights workers; Physical-appearance-based bias.; Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

Partial Transcript: Well, when the school closed in May, and I'm almost certain it was May of 1970, I decided I wasn't going back to Nashville. At this point my parents are saying, "Well when are you coming home?"

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about not accepting a job offer arranged by her father after college, and traveling to Chicago instead and working as a teacher. She describes her efforts to get students interested in reading. Watts talks about her belief that all people are capable of learning, despite their circumstances. She describes working with immigrant children and teaching Chicago history.

Keywords: Attorney; Avon Williams; Bethune Elementary School; Chicago, Illinois; Cooley Vocational High School; Discipline; Fathers; Immigrant children; Jobs; The Spoken Word; Zephaniah Alexander Looby

Subjects: African American teachers--Illinois--Chicago.; Immigrant children--Education.

Partial Transcript: And then I went to work for the, for the, for the City Head Start Program, where I trained mothers on leadership skills for head start. Because, again, I didn't want to teach. This was a two-year time period.

Segment Synopsis: Watts describes working with the Chicago Head Start Program, and how this work allowed her to get to know civil rights advocates and prominent politicians. She talks about her employment with the Office for Civil Rights. She describes advocating for fairness for women in school sports and other women's issues, and later working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service.

Keywords: Bread basket meeting; Children; Englewood, Chicago, Illinois; Head Start program; Jobs; Midwest Region; Mothers; Oak Hills Garden, Chicago, Illinois; Office for Civil Rights; Title IX United States Education Amendments of 1972; Women's issues

Subjects: Civil rights workers; Head Start programs--Illinois--Chicago.; Sex discrimination against women.; United States. Department of Education. Office for Civil Rights; United States. Food and Nutrition Service

Partial Transcript: Chicago is where I--I grew up in Chicago, professionally. And in a lot of ways. If you notice, all of this is policy stuff, this is government. This is how do you make government work and how do you make the rules, and apply the rules, so people have access.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about the advocacy groups she was involved with in Chicago. She talks about other female advocacy leaders in Chicago. She describes becoming the spokesperson for the 1992 Chicago World's Fair and working with Chicago's Minority and Women-Owned Business Certification Program.

Keywords: Advocacy; Chicago Forum; Chicago's Minority and Women-Owned Business Certification Program; Civil rights organizations; Developed community; Governors; Jane Byrne; Joyce Hughes; Leadership; Minority issues; NAACP; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Women's issues

Subjects: African American women civil rights workers; Civil rights workers--Illinois--Chicago.; Illinois--Politics and government.; Women civil rights workers

Partial Transcript: Let me ask you this, um, Beverly. You're doing all these things. What was it, do you think, about you, and your experience that tapped you for leadership?

Segment Synopsis: Watts cites taking the minutes for meetings, volunteering, and the town she grew up in as her reasons for becoming a leader. She talks about learning about the Executive Director position for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights while on her way to California. She describes interviewing for the position and being on the front page of the Courier-Journal. [The interview is paused during segment.]

Keywords: Church; Experience; Jobs; Kentucky; Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; Leaders; Los Angeles, California; Meetings; Mothers; Police; Rodney King; Trust; Volunteers; Work ethic

Subjects: African American leaders; African American women civil rights workers; Kentucky Commission on Human Rights

Partial Transcript: So I came in to an organization, and my first charge from the--from the commission body was you need to clear up and clean up this thing. Three things was going on. One, they didn't have quorums to do business as a commission body.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about the first challenges as executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. She explains the mission of the organization and describes an incident of sex discrimination against a woman employed in London, Kentucky. She describes incidents of race discrimination in Paducah, Ashland, and Russellville. She talks about incidents where the Commission did not win their case, or could not persuade people to file a complaint.

Keywords: Controversy; Discrimination; Kentucky Civil Rights Act; Lawyers; London, Kentucky; Paducah Human Rights Commission; Paducah, Kentucky; Procedures; Russellville, Kentucky; Settlement; Tasks; Wal-Mart

Subjects: Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; Race discrimination--Kentucky.; Sex discrimination against women--Kentucky.

Partial Transcript: And so, along the way, I surrounded myself with people, or got to know people who were doing things in other states. I got involved with the National, uh, Association of Human Rights Workers called NAHRW.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about establishing relationships with human rights organizations in other states. She talks about reducing the time it takes to settle cases, and issues with housing discrimination and equal opportunity employment. She talks about serving on major policy bodies in addition to her work with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. She talks about creating the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2000, and adjustments to the voting process. She discusses how the Hall of Fame has grown, and being inducted herself in 2005. She talks about the purpose of the Hall of Fame and how nominees reacted when they were inducted. She describes similar efforts with the Tennessee Human Rights Commission.

Keywords: Anne Braden; Carla Wallace; Committee; Darryl Owens; Diane Nash; Employment discrimination; Galen Martin; Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians; Gerald Neil; History; Housing discrimination; Jobs; John Johnson; John Lewis; Legacy; National Diversity Council; Nominations; Reverend Louis Coleman; Significance; Votes

Subjects: African American women civil rights workers; Discrimination in housing.; Human rights advocacy.; Kentucky Commission on Human Rights

Partial Transcript: As we wrap this up, Beverly, just to say, in some ways, you were born in '48. Some of the people we've interviewed are ten years older than you. You, you were the beneficiary of somethi--the work that you were able to do on the Civil Rights Acts, because somebody created an environment for there to be a Civil Rights Act.

Segment Synopsis: Watts talks about being both a beneficiary of civil rights activists, as well as a "keeper of the flame." She discusses the ongoing problem of racial discrimination as well as other human rights issues. She talks about attending the UN World Conference on Racism in 2011, and discusses the September 11 attacks. She talks about how she has been a teacher throughout her life. The interview is concluded. [The interview is stopped and restarted during segment.]

Keywords: Discrimination; Education; Equality; Ferguson, Missouri; Immigrants; Marches; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Race; Sexual orientation discrimination; Teaching; Training; World Conference on Racism

Subjects: African American teachers.; African American women civil rights workers; Civil rights movement; Human rights advocacy.; Race discrimination.; September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001.