Danielle: Hello, my name is Danielle Grevious
I'm with Texas Christian University,
Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project.
I am here with Miss. Anne Robinson.
Did I say that correctly? -: Doctor.
Danielle: I'm sorry? -: Doctor
Danielle: I'm sorry. Dr. Anne Robinson.
And it is June
-: 14th Danielle: 14th, 2016
Danielle: So can you start with
giving me some background information about you?
-: I was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
I moved to, after graduating college
University of Pittsburgh, I moved to
Port Arthur Texas with my then husband,
cause he had a job in oil.
I got a master's in public administration
from Lamar University in Beaumont.
I moved to Austin, worked for the state health department
for four years and I've been at the Montrose Center,
which used to be called Montrose Counseling Center,
for 27 years.
And I have a PhD in public health
from UT School of Public Health in Houston.
Danielle: Okay. And can you tell me your birthday
or the year that you were born?
-: 1956
Danielle: And when did you move to-
when did you start college at Lamar?
-: 82.
Danielle: Okay. And can you speak to some
of your experiences at Lamar University?
-: Sure. Well...
Do you want Lamar? You wannna start with Port Arthur?
Danielle: Let's start with Port Arthur
-: Okay, well I moved to Port Arthur
you know when you take your tour to,
when they're courting you to move
to one of these big corporations and they take you around
they only show you the nice parts and the pretty parts
and they don't answer all your questions.
So it was kind of a shock.
And one of the first things I saw
on the news was a Klan March.
And that there was still a Klan bookstore
in Vitor, Texas, which is in Orange County.
And another big thing that was on the news
was that Beaumont still had two school districts.
And that is how they kept their high schools
and all their other schools segregated
because they were completely separate school districts.
And they had a case
in front of the Supreme court as late as
1981
to keep them separate.
And they
lost that.
And I believe the two districts were Beaumont ISD
and South park ISD.
And so they had to integrate the school districts.
So that was kind of a shock for me coming from Pittsburgh
that has a
fairly quiet
civil rights scene.
I mean, it's very quiet,
peaceful living together.
There was at least none of that in my memory.
So that was kind of a shock.
Danielle: And so you say these two school districts,
and so you moved you went to Port Arthur in 81, right?
These two school districts,
Beaumont school district was African-American? or was it?
-: I think South Park
was African-American Danielle: Okay.
-: and Beaumont was the white.
Danielle: Okay. And what about Mexican-American?
-: I don't think there was much Danielle: Okay.
-: at the time.
I mean, there may be more now
but I don't remember there being
a lot of Mexican-American
or any Latino presence. Danielle: Okay. Okay.
Danielle: And so
what was your experience like?
What people did you come into contact with?
You said your ex-husband worked for?
-: Work for what was golf refinery
turned into Chevron. Danielle: Okay.
-: I, when I worked at the Rape Crisis Center
which was very, very small agency
but we were housed in the United Way building in Beaumont.
And our territory was
Jefferson County which is Beaumont, Port Arthur,
Hardin County,
Orange County,
Chambers County
and we tried to reach to some of the other ones
but it was mostly those three
and a little bit into Chambers County.
So one of the things that I did
was to do education
in the elementary schools all the way up to high school.
And you would go to a school
and stay all day and do every class period.
And so you'd eat lunch with the teachers
and the teachers would talk to you
and they were so happy to have,
especially in Hardin County and Orange County,
to have someone who they thought was liberal
to come and be there that they could talk to.
And one teacher related to me, she said, you know,
cause we were talking to the kids about choices and consent
and that sort of thing,
and she said it was difficult because some of her
her male kids would come to her and say, you know,
that this big decision in their life
would they join their uncle's or their father's Klan group.
And I mean I just couldn't believe that
that, that was- it was still going on.
And it was that, you know, it was talked about that openly.
Danielle: Yeah, it seems like you had
an interesting perspective
because they felt like they could confide in you.
-: Well, the teachers were appalled too.
But yeah.
I mean, they felt like there was somebody
outside of the administration and their neighbors
because a lot of that area's pretty conservative.
I mean, it's pretty democratic politically
but it's a Southern Democrat.
Danielle: And so while you're working in schools
you were also attending Lamar University.
-: Yes. Yes. Danielle: Okay.
Danielle: And do you want to speak
to some of those experiences?
What was the climate like at Lamar?
And for both African-American
or for African-American populations, Mexican-American,
if you knew any people
and then LGBT, you know,
-: Okay. Danielle: People who
identified that way at school?
-: I remember it being pretty mixed classes.
I didn't notice anything unusual.
And when I went to Pitt, it was very mixed.
I mean, not only mixed African-American, Latino and Anglo
but also international students.
And so we didn't have really
the international students at Lamar,
but it felt reasonably mixed
'cause people would come in
from other areas around there to go to school.
The LGBT part, there was nothing on campus.
And while I was working at the Rape Crisis Center
we would have occasion to have
clients who were lesbian who had been sexually assaulted
and they needed counseling services.
And our agency wasn't big enough to have a counselor
on staff, but there was no one
in our catchment area that I could refer them to.
So I referred them over here to the Montrose center.
That's how I found out about it,
is I had to do some research to find a safe place
for people to get an affirming counselor
and Houston was the closest place.
And that's quite a drive to come in for counseling.
And still, we still get
clients who come in here from
not just that area,
but Victoria
and Wharton County
and even some from Louisiana.
Danielle: So since you became familiar with
these issues
and became or started working at the Monstrose Center
do you feel like more resources have developed over time
in this area? -: There's some more
-: resources in Beaumont now.
I said, they've had a pride parade
two years in a row now.
And as I understand, without incident
there's been no protests
or at least not any more than we get here.
And we had some services over there
for a while for HIV
clients that were in collaboration with
one of the primary care clinics
but we had trouble hiring a social worker
because people get that degree and they leave.
They don't wanna stay there.
So we had a lot of trouble hiring somebody
who was qualified to do the service.
But there's-
And we feel comfortable
referring people to primary care clinic
that we worked with.
But I don't know that there's,
I mean there's no gay and lesbian yellow pages over there
or a directory of things.
There's probably an underground club or bar
over there but again, things are not so visible.
When I was there
there was one guy who worked
at the regional planning commission
that everybody knew was gay
and he was kind of the poppa
of the gay community.
And if you wanted to know something, you asked him
and if he trusted you, he would talk to you.
If he didn't trust you, he wouldn't.
Because he, I mean he was sort of out, but it was unspoken.
Danielle: And so
in sum, would you say that your experience there
in the 80's
was
in terms of LGBT, the LGBT community was very quiet and
-: Oh, sure. Danielle: Okay.
Danielle: It was very hidden?
-: It was very hidden.
Like I said, I knew some small groups of people
that would gather in most
of the parties and whatever were in homes and quiet.
And I mean, there's still pockets of areas,
you know up in the Woodlands and
in other suburban
or rural areas that are still like that,
that you see, you know,
groups of people that have chosen
to live close to each other.
So they build their own little community.
But there really wasn't any
public presence
or any
publicly acknowledged services.
Danielle: Okay.