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KATHRYN NASSTROM:

Except for more that I'm interested in what the dynamic was related to civil rights in each community. It might have varied widely. So, actually I'd be curious now about this 1968 period, because that, if I'm right, launched your interest, at least formally, in electoral politics.

EVA CLAYTON:

Yeah, well, my being in congress, is a result of my activism in voting registration. I had four, maybe three or four years, prior to that, [when] my husband and I had helped voter registration workshops throughout the county. And my husband had run.

KATHRYN NASSTROM:

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. When did he run?

EVA CLAYTON:

He ran for the state house in 1964, probably '65, because you don't run even years. So it was probably '65 and '67, or either '63 and '65, but he had run twice. In fact the first time he ran he was able to call for a runoff. He wasn't a leading candidate, but out of that effort and that participation, I was encouraged to run for Congress. Now I didn't expect to win, but I obviously you run to win. In fact I did considerably better than I ever thought I would have, and probably if I knew all that I know now I probably wouldn't have run. [Laughter] I was really interested in voter registration and they really needed someone, a candidate, to focus that, to get people excited, why wouldn't you take the next step, if you're really committed to voter registration? I learned an awful lot in that process. I think I learned how important symbols were to people. Voter registration in Warren County increased by 25 percent. Voter registration in the second district increased by some 12 percent. It was the highest significant registration increase they've ever had in either the county or the district, even since then. But that still wasn't sufficient enough to get blacks at a local level, or blacks substantially at a regional level. I wasn't alone in running. I indicated there was Reginald Hawkins running for governor, there were persons running for county commissioners in our county and other surrounding counties, [also] school boards. So there was an emerging recognition that political participation was the way if you're going to have equality, that you had to have people in positions to make the decision. Now some of that was successful, some of it wasn't, but I think there was a commitment by the leadership and people did take the risk——yes, I'll be a candidate. Even when you knew there was a possibility that you wouldn't be. I think that was there. There was, in places like Warren County prior to my running and prior to my coming to the county, just a great outward migration for very good reasons. There's a book called Chickenbone Special. It was about the trek from the south to the North for people to find jobs and a better way of life. The event of our running, or other people running, the community found just an outpouring of people expressing hope that one day their communities would be the kind of community where they could come back home. Now, all that hasn't materialized, but the sense of pride that something happened somewhere. So I think, those were some of the expectations and the feelings that were going on during that time. After the 1968 involvement, I indicated earlier that I had to learn a lot and I had gotten involved. My involvement, my desire to want to be a missionary, is continued not in terms of being a missionary, but my involvement in church. I received substantial support both from several interdenominational [groups], as well as some foundations. Groups said they'd help in voter registration. There were sources out there available, there was a need, and we organized something called Eastern North Carolina Development Corporation, I think it's called, EDC, yeah, EDC, Economic Development Corporation, Eastern North Carolina Development Corporation. Out of that we established day cares throughout eastern North Carolina, and some of those day cares are still there. In fact, there's an Eastern North Carolina Day Care Association headed by Alice Ballance and one done in Bertie County and Ahoskie, Battleboro, which grew out of that process, which foundations had given. That was the social end of that. It was harder to get a handle on the economics of it, but that's truly where it is. Politics is the road to improve the economics. That has not happened in the main, but why participate in politics if you're not trying to improve the economics and liveability of the people who are there? Surely there needed to be efforts, and there still need to be efforts in working with ecomomic development in that area. I think that's sufficient response to that question.