[TAPE 1, SIDE A]

[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That's all right I have got plenty of tapes. At the University of North Carolina library has the papers of the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Do they?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

And they want copies of the materials that I gather as well including the interviews that I do. But I will need to send you a release form to sign for that. First of all, I would like just a little bit of information about yourself, where you were born.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, I was born in Nashville.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

In Nashville?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

You are a native Nashvillian. You went to college here as well?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No, I really didn't grow up here. I grew up in a number of different cities, and most of them southern except for one, staying in Cincinatti.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Oh, what did you father do?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

He was a Good Year toured over the country man.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

So he moved around a lot. And your mother was just a homemaker? Just a homemaker?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That's right. She was dragged around. That is what it amounted to.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you recall when you first got connected to the Fellowship?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, I think now that it was in Ridgeburg, North Carolina. Did they have a group?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Okay. I didn't know that I had got attached to some group there, that was interested in desegration which was my first experience with anything like this and the way. And I know the way that I got involved in that was because I had a little part time job with a Quaker Minister there.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Oh, who there?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

See, I don't remember a thing. It is marvelous.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

There were several Quakers there who were related to the Fellowship.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes, and this was a middle aged man and all I remember was that after several years I left there, he transfered to California or some place.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That wasn't Tarp Bell was it?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No, I remember that name, but it wasn' him. And anyway I think it was through him that and the churches philosophy that I got connected with that little group. That is all I can remember.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

You were a Quaker then?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No, I don't remember how I had come in to get the job. Maybe it was advertised or something. It was part time, church secretary.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What denomination were you?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

At that time I was Baptist. I have been several since if you are interested in that.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Go ahead. Well, not particularly. I am more interested in that time period.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That was sort of the breaking away point once I got interested in the Quakers. I have never been a Quaker.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

They are interesting people.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh yes, goodness.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Did your husband teach at the college there?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes, you know he is an American Historic.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Right.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

And he taught there at U.N.C., Greensbourgh.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

About what year was this, that?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

It must have been about 1948. We were there for two years. Now wait a minute let me see, 1949, 1950, 1951, something like that for two years, two academic years.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What did the Greensbourgh group do? Did they meet together in the Fellowship group?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

They met and I don't recall any details. I just sort of remember getting together and once or twice we must of had some dinners together, maybe a pot luck dinners together. I think it was at that church that we met.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

At the Quaker Fellowship?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I don't remember any other place that we could have met.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That was my next question, where you would have. And then from Greensbourgh you moved to here?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Here, yes.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

And you picked up your activity with the Fellowship group here?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, and the reason and I think the connection was the Fusons. We had met them maybe through that group in North Carolina. They didn't live there, but I can't remember how it was that we met. But anyhow when we came here we made contact with them, and then through them got involved in the group here.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That would have been in the early fifties then.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, we came here in '52. So that is how I kind of tried to date that Greensbourgh.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Right, and the Nashville group, where has it met or did it meet?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, it met some. It must have met some. I guess it must have been in your black church or at Fisk (because that is where the Fusons were). And that is the only two places. I don't know what black church, because I just can't remember where else, it was difficult to find places to meet with integrated groups then.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes, I went to Divinity School in Vanderbilt.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, did you?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

In the late fifties.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, okay. And see this was early fifties.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Right, and it hadn't changed much by sixty when I finished.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Did the group in Nashville do anything other than get together occasionally? That you recall?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That's, no I am sure there were other things but I just can't remember. I guess one of the ideas must have been being a small group in the start and make some kind of connections with each other and then try to expand that in some way. But I don't remember what specific ways they had in mind.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

You were probably a member of a lot of other things in Nashville.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Where would you place the Fellowship in the context of those other memberships? How important was it to you?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, it was very important to me. I mean I felt it was something different, I mean it had an exciting aspect to it because I felt it was something new that you know would have a real impact at some point in the desegregation process. And you know it was really exciting to me to be involved in something like that. It sort of ran on the forefront.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you have any idea about how many people would get together?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

It was fairly small, twenty, a hundred.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you remember any of the names?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Fusons, and Wilson Welch for some strange reason I remember him. I don't know you know the names I gave you over the phone, I don't know if any of those were involved in that or not. Like the Comptons. This sounds real peculiar, but there is a man who lives across the street from us whose name I cannot, he is a retired man, and he moved in some time after we did, and it seems to me that that man must had been a member of that group. But I have never, you know all we do is nod and smile at each other, but I am just as sure as I am sitting here almost that that man was one of those. And if you wanted to be brave and go knock on his door and ask him I am sure he would be very friendly. I don't even know what his name is. His first name is Oscar, and I can't remember…

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Oscar?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah. And see you know his name is not on his mail box.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I have got a list of membership.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

You have got a list of names.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

A list of membership of different time periods. I think around then all I had was 1957, there were no real records kept between '50 and '57 that I have been able to locate.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No even, have you been able to talk with Pearson's?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I talked with him long distance for a few minutes last week.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

And he doesn't have any records?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

No, what he has is here in Nashville.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes, and there is not way to get to them?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

No, I will have to get in touch with him when he gets back here.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I would expect you would get more from them than almost anybody else. Because they are always, they were sort of the leaders in things like this. Not just this but other things church related.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Would you react to some names for me? Some of them you may never heard of. That is fine, that is an impression too.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Okay. I'll remember.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Nelle Morton?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I don't know.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Warren Ashby?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What kind of person was he?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Now, we knew him in Greensbourgh, and that may be another connection I

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had in getting into the group then because he was teaching at Greensbourgh. And they lived fairly close to us. And she worked at the Y I remember, and I would see her.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What kind of person was Warren?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, he was, I felt a marvelous person; you know getting involved in this kind of work and all this. I just remember him giving talks and being very impressed by him, that's it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Harold Wilkinson?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I think he is President of Greensboro now.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Is he?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

But he was elsewhere in North Carolina at the time. Charles Jones?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What about Scotty Cowan. Have you ever run into him?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, I heard the name but that is it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Buck Kester?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes. I have heard a lot about him because he was here at, was here at Scaret. And it seems to me that he was fairly close to the Fusons, so I guess I have really heard it more second hand than first, from them talking about it, having a lot of contact.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Did you ever run into A. D. Vitel?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

At one time he was Pastor of College Side Congregational Church here. I don't know if it still exists even.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Never heard of it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I need to check that out. That he was later President of Taladeka College and Guildford College and such.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

My feeling is that a lot of these names you have mentioned Dewey would know something about. Even though he was not terribly active in those things, those names would mean something.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Everett Tilson?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes. But I can't remember. I can't remember, but that name is very familiar.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

He was on the faculty at the Divinity School at Vanderbilt.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, is he involved in it?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes, those conferences in 1957 held at Bethany Hills…

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

In 1957?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes, on human relations and race, and Everett was in charge of that. He was the chair of getting it organized and everything.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I remember going to some conference in Bethany Hills, but it may not have been that one.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Martin Luther King was the midline speaker.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, well no, then I wasn't there for that.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That was back at Baker, that was about the last thing the Fellowship did as a total organization. The last major conference they held and all.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Was it? I see. There was a year or two that we were away and that always, that always interfered with my continuity of thought and action and memory.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you know which two years? About?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Which year? Let's see, it must have been '54-'55 we were away, '55-'56. And about that time it must have been a '60 something.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Okay. That just gives me an awareness of years the gathering might be.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I can tell you one thing about the time that we were away in the sixties. It was a time when the Human Relations Committee or Conference was formed here. Now you have probably heard of that. It got some, but that one thing does stick in my mind because when we came we were in California then we came back and somebody told me about it and said, ‘Don't, are you sure you want to be a member?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am going to be a member.’ And so that, I can place that thing in that year. Do you have the date of when it formed?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

No, but I can get it.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, anyway, that is where… and I guess that other had just sort of faded out by that time.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

The Fellowship?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Are you familiar with the Committee of Southern Churchmen?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, yes I have heard of that because Will Campbell was in that. And ever since I have known Will Campbell I have heard of that.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

How long have you known Will?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well I guess I met him during those early years in the Fellowship of

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Southern Churchmen.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

It is just here.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Julian Fryer? Is that a name?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Okay. Yes, he was active. Very active.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

In fact, Eddie Greensboro was in it at that time.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Greensboro?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

No, he wasn't in Greensboro he was in Nashville. And now he is in Knoxville.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That's right.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I interviewed him about a year ago. And he is still connected with the Committee of Southern Churchmen.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Is he?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes. He was the Chairman or President of it until this current year. So he is sort of the continuous between the two groups. Why don't we react to Will Campbell? What was Will Campbell like?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh, he is a delightful person, that is what Will is like. Because he is so, so different from anybody else that you ever met anywhere at any time.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

In what way?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, first is his, you know, in his religious orientation is so different. And then I think he has got tremendous influence in among the people that he moves. And you know this commitment I guess you would call it to what he calls the "redneck" group. You know where else do you find anybody else like that, with the liberal ideas connected to it, which makes a lot of paradox.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

It does.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

It is fascinating, you know. What is coming next? It's for the record. And you know he is really a very deep thinking person I have found. I have just recently run upon an obituary I guess you would call it that he wrote for the mother of some friends of his, and it was beautiful. I mean it was…

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Where was this?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Where did I read it?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

The family has a copy of it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Oh, the family has a copy of it.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

The family has a copy of it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes, I talked with John, the Edgerton family. You know the Edgertons?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, it's his mother.

Yes. Oh, John Ed's mother.

Yes, and Will wrote this beautiful eulogy, that is what it would be a eulogy of John's mother after she died that was read at the funeral service. And it was beautiful. And you know it just really shows so much of Will, and him thinking and appreciating the good things in people and how he can express it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

He has a way.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

And I have read a couple of his books too.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Sure. Brother Turn Around?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, that one.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yeah. Did you ever know Alice Kester?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

No, just heard of her. Isn't that Buck's wife?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Buck's wife.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes, I just sort of remember hearing about her, I don't remember anything about her.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

George Mayhew?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

A slight memory of him, because he was on the faculty and then retired to go to Florida. He was sort of impressive, that is sort of what I remember. An impressive man coming from a background he did and being interested in these issues.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What kind of background?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, I guess I mean Vanderbilt professors, that's all I mean.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Okay. Right. Daughters?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I don't know anything about his family.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What about Alba Taylor?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That sort of sounds familiar, but I don't know.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

He is another Vanderbilt faculty member, but Vanderbilt fired him.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Particularly over this issue.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Was he? Over what?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Primarily his labor positions.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

It wasn't at the time of the big flare up of Jim Lawson?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

In the sixties, no.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Earlier.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

No, much earlier than that. I think late forties, early fifties. Did you ever catch a note of socialism in the Fellowship? Or was it primarily concerned with race?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, it may have been. I suppose there was an element of socialism. I have never given it much thought but I think it probably was in there. It depends upon what your definition of socialism is, I guess.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Well, yes there's a socialism, but in terms of better distribution.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Probably, I just don't remember that as a definite issue. I just think it may have been kind of a underlining.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Well, the context of that is that when the Fellowship was first organized in 1934.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Excuse me.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Sure.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I was too naive too, but whatever.

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Well, by the fifties.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

It had changed. We were trying to see how much it had changed.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, if I had been more sharp I would have probably picked up more of that. But I was just sort of interested in the other aspects.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you know of any relationship between the Fellowship and the sit-in movement in the sixties, in 1960?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, I always assumed there was some connection, but I can't put my finger on it.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

You don't know any of the people in it who actually participated in it or anything like that?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Participated in?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Sit-ins.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Oh well, yeah, I saw a lot of the people here that we talked about were involved in the sit-ins. I think so because I always thought it was more or less the same group of people.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

They were the kind of folks that would do that kind of thing.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, right. And I was involved in them, so to a sort of fringe extent if you are talking about, let me think about dates here, you are talking

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about around 1960.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes, February 1960, Jim Lawson.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yes, well it seems to me that a little bit after that there was some other sit-ins. And I think was the ones that I was somewhere in there.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

I left here in the sixties, so I am familiar with what went on in Nashville.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Lunch counter sit-ins that is what I am talking about.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yeah, that's the ones I am talking about. A lot…

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Yeah, I was involved in that and my memory is of these people that we talked about were involved in it to.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

What do you think was the significance of the Fellowship?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well for me, I will just have to speak for me, because I am sure a lot of things just passed over my head. For me, it was getting involved in some kind of desegregation movement, where you know we had contact crossed radical lines as well as economic lines, that's what.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Do you think it had an impact on the South?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

That's really hard for me to say, since I'm white. I remember the only place I knew about were Greensboro and here and so I don't think I can speak for being just here and Greensboro.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Is there anything else I ought to be aware of about it?

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Gathering all of the people I can think of that were involved I don't know if there are others that…Well the question was are there other things you ought to know about it. There probably are other things but I don't know what they are. But I just feel that there are some people that were involved in this that have a much deeper understanding of what was going on and a much greater memory of what was going on.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

That's true with anything. But I am…

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Like Gideon Fryer.

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Sure, Nell Morton was the head of it for five years before Buck Kester in the fifties. For example I spent a couple of days with her hoping…

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Well, surely, did you get a lot of information?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Oh, yes, yes.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I would think so. Was Ann Queen's name brought up?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

Okay. Well, her name is just widespread isn't it—over so many things?

DALLAS BLANCHARD:

Yes. I haven't had a chance to interview her yet, but I am going to shortly.

VIRGINIA GRANTHAM:

I guess she is sort of…