Oral history with Mrs. Clara Watson

              Oral history with Mrs. Clara Watson
F341.5 . M57 vol. 747, pt. 2
Funding for this project provided by The Mississippi State Legislature, The Mississippi Humanities Council, The Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This transcription of an oral history by the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage of The University of Southern Mississippi may not be reproduced or published in any form except that quotation of short excerpts of unrestricted transcripts and the associated tape recordings is permissible providing written consent is obtained from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. When literary rights have been retained by the interviewee, written permission to use the material must be obtained from both the interviewee and the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on October 15, 1933, to William Griffin and Lodie Brookes Griffin, Mrs. Clara Griffin Watson is the oldest of nine children. Her parents valued education, and they sent Mrs. Watson to Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic School. She spent many summers in Florida with her cousins, and she remembers her childhood as a happy time, although definitely a time of segregation. During the 1960s, Mrs. Watson helped the COFO workers in Mississippi, marched on the Federal Building, and housed some of the civil rights activists in the area for Freedom Summer, 1964.
Mrs. Watson is married to Leon B. Watson. They have thirteen children of their own, including Angela Sartin, who conducted this interview.
Table of Contents
I. Midwives
II. Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic School
III. Family background
IV. Race relations, Mississippi Gulf Coast
V. French and Creole communities
VI. Childhood
VII. Motherhood
VIII. Black businesses
IX. Civil Rights Movement
X. Mississippi Gulf Coast wade- in
XI. Family of procreation
XII. Shreveport, Louisiana
XIII. Children
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