Elfbrandt, Barbara

Part 1 of 4 was recorded on June 4th, 2019 at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

b. 1933 

  • Childhood in Spokane, WA. Marriage to husband Verne and move to Tucson in 1957. 

  • Teaching high school at Amphitheater. Involvement with American Friends Service Committee. 

  • McCarthyism. 

  • Learning about the State of Arizona “Loyalty Oath” in the early 1960s. A visit to the State Legislature with high school students and witnessing pro-oath protests. 

  • Elfbrandt’s refusal to sign the loyalty oath and her lawsuit against the State of Arizona represented by lawyer Ed Morgan. 

  • Five years of legal proceedings with County, State, and Federal courts. Elfbrandt’s continued teaching at Amphi without pay. Community support. Co-plaintiff and fundraiser Clyde Appleton. FBI surveillance. 

  • Elfbrandt’s victory at the US Supreme Court in 1966. 

  • Generational differences in Tucson’s activist community. A conversation with Pete Seger about blacklists. Experience of George Miller and other activists. 

  • Inability to find another high school history teaching job after the lawsuit. Social experience with colleagues while teaching at Amphi during lawsuit. Public response during and after lawsuit: Tucson’s merciful indifference. 

  • Experience of a plaintiff at the Supreme Court. Moment of learning the case’s outcome. State court ruling to reimburse plaintiffs for years spent teaching without salary. 

  • Life in the immediate aftermath of the lawsuit. 

Part 2 of 4 was recorded on June 11th, 2019 at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Husband Verne Elfbrandt’s life: activism, teaching, role in Loyalty Oath lawsuit, teachers union involvement. 

  • Barbara’s first impressions of Tucson—seeing the Santa Cruz River. 

  • Early activism in human rights, Tucson’s political atmosphere, and the Tucson Folksingers. 

  • Involvement in the American Friends Service Committee and a description of Tucson’s Quaker community in the late 1950s and 1960s. 

  • First visit to the Tohono O’odham nation, working with TO students at the UA, taking a class from Amphitheater to visit peers on the reservation. History of Quaker connections with American Indians. 

  • Dynamic between American Federation of Teachers and Tucson Education Association.  

  • Impressions of the Amphitheater School District in the late 1950s. 

  • Teaching social studies on the late 1950s. 

  • Anti-nuclear protests during the late 1950s. Dealing with undercover Tucson Police agents. 

  • Folk music and the activism of the Silent Generation versus the Boomer generation. 

Part 3 of 4 was recorded on June 18th, 2019 at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona and it covers the following themes: 

  • Civil rights in Tucson during the late 1950s. Picketing stores, lunch counters, and the Pickwick Inn. Public accommodations laws. Process of desegregation in Tucson and work of Elfbrant’s second husband Ed Morgan. 

  • The Vietnam War. Protests and working with Ed Morgan to run the Tucson Draft Counselling Service from 1968 to 1973. Cases of draft card and flag burning. Reflections upon the Vietnam War. 

  • Elfbrant’s transition between teaching and legal careers. 

  • Experience at the University of Arizona law school in 1968. 

  • Law practice. 

  • Opening the American Friends Service Committee office in Tucson. 

  • The Sanctuary movement in Tucson and AFSC involvement. 

  • Other AFSC work in 1980s Tucson. 

Part 4 of 4 was recorded on June 25th, 2019 at the base of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona and covers the following themes:

  • Elfbrandt’s work on an immigration lawsuit for the American Friends Service Committee. 

  • Working at the Quaker United Nations office from 1988 to 1993. Role of the office. Nongovernmental Development Committee, environmental groups, women’s commission. 

  • Creating informal spaces for UN delegates to speak candidly and negotiate. 

  • Thoughts on the United Nations and American role in the organization. 

  • A survey of the A Mountain Neighborhood from the late 1950s to present. Community, integration, demographics, parks and community center. 

Aengus Anderson