Home > Stories > Jennifer Graf

Biography

Jennifer Graf and community service go hand in hand. This mother and grandmother is chairman of the Clinton Human Rights Commission, a member of the Rotary, on the board of directors for the YWCA, and was on the now defunct Clinton Diversity Group. She is a woman on a mission to fight ignorance wherever and whenever she can.

Transcript

Date of interview: 10 Oct 08

Jaanee Lewis: My name is Jaanee and I go to Clinton High. I’m a senior and I like to play volleyball, hang out with friends, and met new people.

Monique Harris: Hello. My name is Monique Harris and I attend Lyons Middle School. I‘m in seventh grade. I like to play volleyball, softball, basketball, and watch TV.

Jennifer Graf: My name is Jennifer Graf and I’m the chairperson for the local Human Rights Commission. I’m formally a school board member here in Clinton for twelve years. I’m also on the YWCA board of directors. I’m a member of Rotary. I was involved in the Diversity Group that we had in our community which is no longer. I’m really happy to be here and share some of the information I know about our local Human Rights Group.

Monique: How long have you lived in Clinton, Iowa?

Jennifer Graf: All my life.

Jaanee: How many children do you have?

Jennifer Graf: Four children, Joe, Shelly, Steve, Charlie; I have a daughter-in-law, Candy, and I have two grandchildren, Zoe and Chloe.

Jaanee: What do they do?

Jennifer Graf: All are involved in construction mainly. My daughter’s a gymnastics coach Shelly Shawn Johnson. And our two granddaughters are in first and second grade, one here and one in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Monique: How many years have you served in all the things you’ve been in?

Jennifer Graf: On the Clinton Human Rights Group it’s been approximately ten years. It seems like I’ve been on it so long I can’t really remember when it started. But we’ve had some really interesting cases in the past.

Jaanee: Why are you on the board?

Jennifer Graf: Well, to tell you the truth, it started from a local industry had some of their employees dress up as Ku Klux Klan members for Halloween and I was furious. And I wrote a letter to, and this is the honest to God’s truth, I wrote a letter to the city and found that there was a commission that did address these kinds of issues and was later appointed to that commission and I’ve been on it since.

Monique: Do you like what you do?

Jennifer Graf: Yes, I do. I wish it wasn’t needed but as I think we all know, there is prejudices that continue on every day. I like to think that people do things out of ignorance more so than out of hatred. So that’s what we, the angle that we go for in our interviews with folks. We try to be conciliators. We try to bring people together to see a common ground that they have and teach those that are basically ignorant.

Jaanee: Has it been difficult being on the board?

Jennifer Graf: Yes, it has at times and it’s been very rewarding at times, too. We have had cases where we’ve had industries that didn’t have a proper handbook. When you get into the work force, you’ll understand that each industry or company you work for has a handbook that they operate under and that details by outline those things that are acceptable and not acceptable. There was one particular industry that didn’t even have discrimination in their handbook and we gently but firmly reminded them yes it did need to be in there. We helped them design a new handbook and they did and they are now in compliance. We haven’t had any complaints from that business since then.

Monique: What’s been the most challenging and what’s been happy times of you working with these groups?

Jennifer Graf: One that’s been very rewarding is a local case with a business. A gentleman who was very frustrated and had called me and said he’s not been offered opportunity for advancement. Others in the workforce when, and he was a man of color, when they would have a picnic or get together, they would assign him watermelon. That he’d be a good one to bring watermelon and maybe fried chicken, and folks would laugh and they’d think that was cute. So this gentleman was getting extremely frustrated. He was a large man, and I don’t think I’d want to have him frustrated in my work force, and called and said is there anything we could do for him. So we took his application of complaint, we reviewed it and we brought in several members of their business as witnesses and interviewed each one. Now when we did our interview process, we brought in each person, one at a time, and made them stay in the room with us. So the next person that came in would say answers to our questions and they all sat there and listened to what each person said. Finally, the owner of the company came in and he said absolutely not, we will not allow discrimination in our business. We asked questions, how many people of color have been into positions of administration in your company. And all the answers pointed out a glaring point that no one of color had been offered opportunities and there was no reason for this gentleman not to have those opportunities presented to him. Apologies were given and information was shared that it was not acceptable to make derogatory comments, which was seen as derogatory to this gentleman. And he’s been offered a position of administration. He’s happy; he’s still with the company. And they have made changes in who they’ve selected for administrative positions, so we’re pretty happy about that.

Jennifer Graf: I do have few facts, fact sheets, detailing when the Human Rights Commission was created in 1968. Did you realize that?

Monique: No.

Jennifer Graf: And it was, and we feel that this specifically opened the door for Barack Obama to be a candidate for President this year. Mainly because the way the selection process for President at that time was by party. Party bosses would push everything and it would’ve ultimately been Hilary Clinton had we been operating under the old nuance of how selections for president was made from a party. During this time, here are a few things that happened since 1968. Two noteworthy are when Reverend Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy was killed. I do have some brochures about the state Civil Rights, about equal housing, the local Human Rights, and no hate crimes that are expected to be maintained in every community that has a commission for local human rights. You’re welcome to have these and share with your group.

Jaanee: Are you involved in any other community groups?

Jennifer Graf: With Rotary and Rotary works a lot at a national basis, trying to eradicate diseases, globally, things like that. They’re more of a global group but they do do some local things here. There’s a new restaurant, restroom facility by the Happy Joe’s just off Riverview Drive and that was all done by Rotary International and our group. And the YW, the board I’m on there, we’re just entering into an agreement to try and build a city wide facility and combine the YW and YMCA together.

Monique: Do you like living in Clinton, Iowa? Is there any
strong points? Do you like it or is there some difficult times that you don’t like it so much?

Jennifer Graf: I really do like Clinton. I think every community has room for change and growth. I’ve seen a lot of things that have stayed the same, things that have changed and then go back to the old ways again. Clinton’s a good community; I enjoy living on the river and I think we have some great, great people within our community. And our students are really great, too.

Monique: Well, thank you for your time.

Jaanee: Thank you.

Jennifer Graf: Thank you for having me today. I enjoyed meeting you both.