Guion Griffis Johnson:
Well, I think that there were perhaps two motivations, which I had. The first was my mother's teaching, I said that I learned from my mother that women are competent and should be self-supporting and should be recognized as intellectual human beings comparable to their husband in every way. That, perhaps, was probably the most profound influence which I had. And the second was that my family was opposed to my marrying because Guy was not very well. He had had a streptococcic infection and this terrible flu in the 1917-1918 epidemic. And almost died as a result and so he was still thin and frail and my parents felt that he would not live very long, and they investigated — sent my uncle to his doctor in Caddo Mills, a little town not far away, to find out just what the status of his health was, and his doctor had said that he would not live ten years. And, of course, they didn't want me to marry someone who would be dead in ten years. And they told me, as a way of trying to persuade me. So, I did not tell Guy. I did not want Guy to know that he was supposed to die in ten years. [laughter] And so, I felt that I wanted children, at least two, and I had to be prepared to support them and give them a college education. And I felt that if I neglected my work to take care of my child, then this would harm me professionally. I think that these were the two major motivations.

Interviewer:
And then if you had to support the children, you wouldn't be able to.

Guion Griffis Johnson:
That's right.

Interviewer:
And you had to be able to.

Guion Griffis Johnson:
I had to be able to support the children and give them an education, which I wanted them to have.

Interviewer:
That was a pretty fierce reason for continuing, that was...

Guion Griffis Johnson:
Yes it was.

Interviewer:
So, it was all related to economic status.

Guion Griffis Johnson:
Yes, indeed.

- Guion Griffis Johnson, historian and sociologist at UNC's Institute for Research in Social Science

Interview with Guion Griffis Johnson by Mary Fredrickson, May 17, 1974, Interview G-0029-2, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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