Elmer W.

Lower Oral History Project

Interview with Caroline Webb
Date of Interview: November 11th, 2015; Provo, Utah
Interviewer: Ashlyn Edwards
Transcriber: Ashlyn Edwards
Begin Tape 1, Side 1

Edwards: This is the Elmer Lower Oral History Project, session

number one with Caroline Webb on November 11th. She lives in
California so we are conducting this interview over the phone.
The interviewer is Ashlyn Edwards, Brigham Young University.

Edwards: Thank you so much for helping me with this project! I

am really looking forward to speaking with you and learning of
your experiences growing up in the Civil War era. What year
were you born?

Webb: I was born January 27, 1935 in Pima, Arizona. The first
child in my family. My father worked in real estate and
construction and my mother owned a fashion store called
Laurettes Designs

Edwards: Was your family involved in politics at the time?

Webb: My father was very much a republican. My mother wasnt

involved much but said she was a republican as well. I grew up
listening to the news on the radio every night after dinner around
the dinner table. My father would get all stirred up listening.

Edwards: Were you politically involved at this point in your life?

Webb: Yes. I was very interested in the world around me. I would
ask my father questions about current events and try to debate
himhe was an alcoholic so he didnt take it very well. It was
usually his way. My mother knew better than to argue. In any rate
I ran my own paper route. So I read the paper everyday. I
certainly had my own thoughts.

Edwards: Growing up in Arizona did you feel disconnected to the

troubles going on around the world?

Webb: Definitely not. Like I said, my father was involved in real

estate. There was an issue going on in Phoenix, Arizona during
this time known as Mississippi of the West. Basically it
segregated blacks from whites in public places. My dad had a
friend who tried to help African Americans in Phoenix move into
neighborhoods that had been previously segregated. I hate to say
that my father didnt approve of these changesbut it is true. I
was taught to be unforgiving.

Edwards: Were you scared seeing all of the hate and anger
amongst members of your own family and peers?

Webb: Yes. Well later on we moved to Lynwood, California. When I

was around thirteen, fourteen, maybe fifteen. Anyways, my father
certainly masked the villains as the skinheads, or blacks. He
said they were dangerous and we werent allowed to play on the
other side of the train tracks. You see, Lynwood California is
essentially Compton. Which, you know what Compton is like now?
Well I lived there when Compton was becoming the gang-ridden
city it is now. My dad said that if a black boy saw a whitey like
myselfthey would come for me, in blood-hungry mobs.

Edwards: What was it like moving from Pima, Arizona to Lynwood,

California? Was there any difference as far as segregation?

Webb: Well, It is still the western states so I cant say I

experienced the segregation and hate the way much of the
country experienced it. However, I can say that moving to
Lynwood was a very eye opening experience for me. I was
downright terrified sometimes because of the mobs that were
forming. Many of my neighbors started installing bars in their
windows, shops were closing down, times were not how they
used to be. People were scared. My father, essentially, was
scared. Which is why we only lived there for a short time before
moving back to Arizona.

Edwards: How many children were in your family at this point?

Webb: Myself, Lanny, and Kathy. Your mom was not quite born
yet. She was born about a year after we moved from Lynwood.

Edwards: What do you remember, specifically, when Martin

Luther King was assassinated?

Webb: I remember everything about it. The nation was in

upheaval. Everyone was scared. There were a lot of riots going on
in Lynwood. After Martin Luther King was assassinated we
watched story after story on the news of the riots going on all
around us. I was working for an adoption agency in Watts during
the time of the 1964 Watts riot.

Edwards: Can you explain the Watts riot in greater detail?

Webb: Basically, it was exactly what happened in Ferguson just

fifty years prior. It was the police against the black community. Of
course, as the daughter of an extremist white republican I
believed the blacks were out to overrun the white community.
Now I can see there are two sides to the storyand a great
reason for the black community to be bitter and angry. However,
with that said, we were scared. The rioters were ruthless. Just as
the white KKK extremists were ruthless, the black rioters were

hateful and scary just the same. It was a terrible time for our
country.

Edwards: Would you say that the media portrayed the Watts riot
accurately? Was there bias? And if so, is there more or less bias in
the media today?

Webb: Much as it is todayit depended a lot on the newspaper

you read and the reporters you followed. My family had just
recently gotten a television set around 1956 and it changed our
lifestyle. First of all, instead of sitting around listening to the
radio, we watched television. The pictures and moving images
brought the issues to life. We could actually watch what was
going on in Selma and Birmingham.

Edwards: Would you say television helped or hurt the civil rights
movement?

Webb: Television brought the inequalities of Southern blacks to

the attention of the entire nation. Like I said earlier, growing up in
Arizona and California I didnt experience racism to a tenth

degree of how it was experienced in the southern states. I think

the media brought a lot of attention to the brutalities going on in
the South. The racism and the beatings were brought to life. M
mother would cry watching the stories and the riots. My mother
believed everyone had the right to vote.

Edwards: Did your father agree?

Webb: He did. He believed everyone had the same right to vote.

He was morally opposed to slavery. I think as a little girl I thought
my dad hated blacks. In reality, he was trying to protect us. He
was scared of the angry, black rioters across the country. He
would tell us to be cautious, so I assumed they were bad people.

Edwards: Do you think newspapers were as helpful to the Civil

Rights cause?

Webb: I dont. I think a lot of journalists were still biased at this

stage. I also believe that television was so helpful because it was
so realistic. It was impossible not to be hurt by the pain these
black families were feeling.