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Biography

Born and raised in Iowa, Deacon Leo Griggs has lived through some of the most exciting times in the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Movement. He tenaciously fought the standard practice of refusing service to blacks in restaurants, and the stolid determination of Wilson Foods to keep him as a laborer rather than use his talents and intelligence, which finally became apparent, as an engineer. He has found strength among the community and within the church.

Transcript

Date of Interview: April 25, 2009

Shawndell Young: Hello, my name is Shawndell Young. I spell my name as S-H-A-W-N-D-E-L-L. I will be interviewing today Deacon Leo Griggs. So, let’s get started.

Deacon Leo Griggs: Let’s get it started then.

Shawndell: My first question is, where were you born?

Deacon Griggs: I was born in Waterloo, Iowa.

Shawndell: And where do you live now?

Deacon Griggs: I live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Shawndell: How long have you lived in Iowa?

Deacon Griggs: The major part of my life. I had a, year or so I went to school in Kansas, for a brief while.

Shawndell: And where did you go to school, all the schools that you ever went to, what, which places have you gone to?

Deacon Griggs: Oh, I went to Grant School in Waterloo, Junior High, East Junior High. I dropped out of East Junior High. I finished my schooling at Kirkwood. I got a graduation diploma; I graduated from Kirkwood, I got the courses I lacked at Kirkwood. So, times were different, you know, when I was coming up. In the industrial years when the nation was being mechanized, I guess you you might say, and there were plenty of jobs and young men were enticed to go into industry, into labor. There was the war going on, etcetera, etcetera. It was a good opportunity for boys my age, fifteen, sixteen seventeen, to go into industry making more money than they ever dreamed of in factories.

Shawndell: Were you involved in any like Civil Rights Movement stuff or anything related to it?

Deacon Griggs: The Civil Rights Movement? Yes, we were involved. We used to have locally, here in the city, in Cedar Rapids, we used to have demonstrations or the times we used to go up to Ross’s Steak House and have sit-ins, and places about town that we were going, part of the local ministry, Mrs. Viola Gibson, and wherever there was, they had a couple other restaurants up the street which they didn’t serve blacks that we would sit in. Let them know we were present. Most places, many of them, didn’t serve blacks in that day such as Bishop’s, couldn’t eat at Bishop’s and any other of those places that you couldn’t get meals at. Maybe the hamburger stands or the Coney Island’s, used to have a couple downtown, so that’s basically where we went for an outing or A & W, these were the places that you could respect how they had those hamburger houses around town. That was it.

Shawndell: You were talking about like, sit-ins. What did you guys talk about during those sit-ins, or speak about?

Deacon Griggs: Well, the conversation just went on between the people there. Normal, we just had normal conversations, not anything particular. The purpose was to bring attention to the fact that we were black, so they say, and we couldn’t get a meal at downtown restaurants. You could work all day down there, but you couldn’t get a meal there. This is what they wanted to be noted.

Shawndell: So how did the Civil Rights Movement affect you in your life?

Deacon Griggs: Well, the Civil Rights Movement. When I first came here, the Civil Rights was moving then. My brother-in-law, which is, he was a civilian at that time, but he wanted to swim in Ellis Park. They forbid him to swim. This called for an organizing of a NAACP. This was organized under Miss Viola Gibson. They began, but before they could resolve the issue, he was drafted into the service. The issue was later taken up with one of the local ministers. At that time, I think his name was Reverend Parks. His daughter, he had a daughter named Mary Ann, Mary Lou Parks, I think, at any rate, they denied her the same privilege then, they took it to the NAACP. The chapter pursued it. Till they relented in their desires to let blacks swim. So she became the first to be a participant of the Ellis pool.

Shawndell: So, what, a little bit more about desegregation and stuff like that. What was segregation like, in like, in that time when you were a little kid? And then also kind of describe your role of being an African American person during that time, just plain being an African American person.

Deacon Griggs: Oh, African Americans basically had their own little cultures; I guess that we kind of catered to. The grown ups had their clubs, like Criterion. Mostly our function was through the church or through the Masonic Lodge, or through your local church. Then there was a restaurant or two, restaurant that blacks owned down on Third Street. There was a pool hall, so forth. All of our activities mostly centered by community because of the kind of treatment you got. Many places would serve you but with such a negative attitude; it wasn’t sound to be caught at the wrong time, especially if you drank or something like that.

Shawndell: What did you do back then for entertainment? I know they didn’t have really a lot of things to really do besides helping around the farms and things like that. But what did you do for entertainment?

Deacon Griggs: They had the Jane Boyd Community House was the main source of athletic entertainment, physical entertainment. They had ball teams, and golden gloves. These was some of the activities they had in the sports area. The basics otherwise was put on by the lodges. We’d see the Elks Lodge would put on some entertainment; some types of entertainment, so the entire city could be involved. It may be something running through the Masonic Lodge which they did. They had little groups that kind of fell by the wayside as things got better. And many times they would gather and go to Iowa City too, because they brought in a lot of live things there that they didn’t have here. So a lot of our entertainment was between betwixt the two cities. It being a college town, there was much more, much better, treatment for students and everything. There were greater, they made us welcome in the area than in there was in ours. But we didn’t have a lot going on besides that. Sometimes they would bring in big bands. It all depends on what you liked. Everyone didn’t like bands so we, in the community they brought these in but the churches brought in a bunch of activities. And the most variety was brought in by the churches. But, they brought in things like, one of the bands, let’s see I can’t think of his name, they would have him here. It wasn’t just black but the entertainment was, but they brought many black artists in the city. Nat King Cole they brought in locally. Before he was, received a big name, but he couldn’t stay at the hotel. He had to stay in the black community. Never wanted the blacks back then, they had to stay in the black community because they weren’t permitted to stay at the hotels or eat in many of them.

Shawndell: So speaking of churches, so you’ve been a deacon. How long have you been a deacon?

Deacon Griggs: Oh, since the forties? Now that I think about that, 1950.

Shawndell: When did you decide that you wanted to get involved in the church movement, church active things?

Deacon Griggs: Oh, my wife belonged to the church. We were brought up as Methodists but on coming here she wanted to go to a church that was closer to home and a friend, Mary, she lived close to a church. It was a good church for our community and Mrs. Viola Gibson, she was the minister at that church at the time. We found favor with a church close to home, and we joined it back in the forties, I guess you may say.

Shawndell: Okie Dokey. Talking about like churches and things, so what do you say you have accomplished during this long time of being a deacon and also what have you have accomplished and what are your favorite, the things you have done in your life, what was one of the big accomplishments?

Deacon Griggs: Accomplishments, disappointments, I don’t know how you want to say it. I think one of the great things was being a part of a church, being a church member, it takes you out of the street and puts you in the church and that’s a greatest accomplishment leading a saved life in Christ rather than a life in the streets. So I didn’t have to go through the world for my fun, I found my pride, joy, and praise all in the church. And this is the greatest thing that ever happened in my life is that I found the Lord, and the Lord found me and I no longer had the need or desire to frequent those places, the clubs, and the places where you seek local entertainment. You found most of our entertainment in the church. We gave activities throughout the year, picnics, and get-togethers and etcetera in the local church. So, during that time I guess you’d have to say the greatest accomplishment would be me finding the Lord and finding joy and peace in the world but out of the world.

Shawndell: If you could change anything in your life that has happened, in the past or what has happened in the future, what would those things be?

Deacon Griggs: I don’t know. I don’t have any answer on that, because so many things depend on the circumstances, under the circumstances that they were made, I probably would have done the same things, so just leave that thought. Things we do according to the circumstance of the particular time and based upon what is happening at the time we did them I probably would have done the same things. But had it been upon different circumstances, there are probably some things that I would have done, would not have done that I did do. So I can’t really say that that would be part of it.

Shawndell: Do you have anything that you think I have missed or that you think that would be good for people to know about you, or your life, or who you are today?

Deacon Griggs: You know, some of the things that happened like the Civil Rights. I was the president of the NAACP for maybe four years I think, four or six years. I had a great struggle on my job. The company I worked for, by the way, I worked for Wilson Food for maybe thirty-five years. I did have a confrontation then because I worked in the kill, the processing part. You know, they have the nastiest job in the kill, the hog kill, the beef kill. I desired to go to, my desire was to go to the mechanical game where I could work in behalf of a craft or a trade. They had little training programs all along for pipe fitters. My desire was to be an engineer, of course and their desire was to keep me as an employee. It took me ten, fifteen years to get on the level with the company whereby they would even let me have a job worth pursuing. We had a union and the union said that you could transfer throughout the plant. So the company had to put up some stops that everybody couldn’t trade. So they designed tests, they say, they designed a test so if you could pass the test then you could go to one of the mechanical departments. The test consisted of sort of foolish things, but again you might say they could go either way. Like one of the questions I remember very plain. They’d say: from an airplane, which one could you see the best, black and white cow or black and brown cow? And they gave maybe three answers. Upon taking this test, I think we wrestled with that thing for a number of years because they would always say that I would miss enough to not be permitted but they wouldn’t tell me how many. So after a period of time, we wrestled with them for years, finally they said I got everything right but I was a half a point short. Just rationed then to get a chance just to go, it’s not a mechanical job, it’s still a job, but rationed it with them to where they finally relented at least where they could give me the job. So I had training in boiler maintenance, refrigeration, and low steam pressure. That’s where I‘ve been for the last twenty, twenty five years of my labor. I was an engineer for steam. We pushed all the steam throughout the company and then all the refrigeration for the company. That we wrestled with but the main thing was that I was black and they didn’t want any blacks in the lily white department. This came to, we fought a number of years over this thing here. We went to court and brought the NAACP in and brought fair and formal practice in on the company before they relented to let blacks work throughout the plant like anyone else without some other bridge you’d have to go over before you could get to the job. The job you desired to have, they’d put a bridge to keep you from it. You had to defeat the bridge or break the barrier and this is what we did there. We worked a number of years and brought the NAACP in and finally brought the company to a position where they relented to have blacks throughout the company.

Shawndell: Thank you.