Floyd Griffin (Finding Aid)

Floyd Griffin

1944 -

Favorite Color: Purple and gold, blue

Favorite Food: Steak, turkey and dressing

Favorite Time of Year: Fall

Favorite Vacation Spot: Exotic places, Europe

Interview Length: 130 minutes

Interview Date(s): March 20, 2002

Interview Location(s): Milledgeville, Georgia

Abstract

Retired Army officer and politician Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. talks about his family background and recalls growing up in Milledgeville, Georgia, during the 1940s and 1950s. He talks about experiencing segregation and discrimination in public accomodations and schools and racism in encounters with whites. Griffin describes in detail a black community in which poverty was common but so was mutual aid; he fondly recalls community events such as church homecomings. Retired Army officer and politician Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. talks about his school experiences growing up in Milledgeville, Georgia, and his years as a student at Tuskegee Institute. In addition to his academic work and participation in ROTC, Griffin was active in the civil rights movement and he discusses programs such as the Tuskegee Institute Community Education Project and the experience of having white students from northern schools working as summer volunteers alongside black students in impoverished Alabama communities. Retired Army officer and politician Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. looks back over his twenty-two years as an officer in the U.S. Army, including combat service in Vietnam, jobs at the Pentagon, with ROTC programs at Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University, as chief of branch of the Corps of Engineers, and his last assignment, heading a billion-dollar construction program with projects in many countries. Politician and retired Army officer Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. talks about his retirement from the military in 1990 and his subsequent political career, as a Georgia State Senator and then as mayor of his home town, Milledgeville, Georgia. He also touches on the history of Milledgeville, known as the antebellum capital of Georgia. Politician and retired Army officer Floyd L. Griffin, Jr. discusses various issues including an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor, his family's funeral home business, his hopes for the black community and his legacy.

37 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)