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Bond, Ruth Clement The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Program Foreign Service Spouse Series RUTH CLEMENT BOND Interviewed by: Jewell Fenzi Initial interview date: November 12, 1992 TABLE OF CONTENTS Haiti was first post, with Good Neighbor Policy Max Bond, husband, was Chief of Party, team of 6 or 7, two were women, sent to teach languages, home ma(ing, science. Ruth Bond was "on the team" as volunteer, taught English. English was her field, she had previously taught at .entuc(y State. Max had found scholarship for a young Haitian to study in /S, however, the scholarship insufficient to support family, young man could not afford to give up his teaching job. Ruth taught his classes, gave the salary to the young Haitian, enabling him to study in /.S. Max Bond had scholarship to /niversity of Southern California Ruth had baby, began studying for her PhD Child care arrangement was disastrous Ruth felt child more important and decided to stay home, never found opportunity to pursue her degree Max went with T1A 2Tennessee 1alley Authority3 Ruth organi4ed wives of dam wor(ers, who had previously had no cash income, were wives of former sharecroppers, etc. Government built housing for families, Bonds lived in one of the cottages 2Max always encouraged Ruth to get involved3 Ruth began house beautification program, each cottage had its "T1A room5" Drapes from dyed flour sac(s from the commissary. Rugs woven by hand 6uilts stitched from Ruth7s designs Ruth designed and cut pattern for "Blac( Power" 8uilt, signifying economic power for women that resulted from T1A. Interns from blac( colleges li(ed term, later revived it during civil rights movement in the 1960s. 2Julian Bond, Atlanta-based activist, is nephew3 One Blac( Power 8uilt was given to David Lilienthal, head of T1A Ruth voices ob0ection to Smithsonian selling /.S. 8uilt patterns to China for cheap reproduction. Grandmothers of T1A women had passed on the tradition of slave 8uilting In Haiti, Ruth translated 2from English to French3 for /.S. potter setting up cottage industries Also tutored English Spouse of AEP Orme Wilson actively interested in RuthAs wor( in Port au Prince Max sent to Liberia to establish the university at re8uest of President William Tubman Discussion of student stri(e Max sided with students5 transportation, food availability inade8uate Ruth taught at university in Liberia Other teachers, librarians, sent out under Point I1 2AID3 Ruth leafs through yearboo( during this portion of interview Discussion of family accomplishments Mother was first blac( woman chosen "Mother of America" Father was a bishop in the AME 2African Methodist Episcopal3 Bion Church Home was a 20-room mansion in Louisville Owner made home available to Bishop Clement, who had to house all visitors to .entuc(y because of segregation Mother was fearless, father very fair complexion, sometimes mista(en for white Bishop Clement too( children along on his travels Community service mandatory for Clement offspring Ruth loved reading, would hide in powder room with a boo( to escape community meetings Ruth believes she was only American woman accepted in Afghan homes in mid-1950s Describes visits, also Afghan visits to Bond7s home AEP was Angus Ward, (nown in FS for eccentricity Mrs. Ward, foreign born, very protocol conscious, "don7t step toward her unless she too( a step toward you" Ruth "organi4ed a little something" everywhere Max was posted Sewing for Tunisian children Relief for Algerian refugees who had fled to Tunisia Convoy of embassy women too( food, clothing, etc. to refugees, embassy official too( credit Taught English at EWCA in Sierra Leone Tutored professor7s children at university Max always encouraged her to get out and use her s(ills Ruth had dear friends in every country she lived in Max too( boo(s upcountry in Sierra Leone, Max, Ruth and missionaries had to unload them, local people refused to do "heavy lifting" Ruth out of country during much of Civil Rights Haitians expected Max to return as AEP But he spo(e out against powerful sugar industry Further discussion of wor( with women in Afghanistan5 sewing, coo(ing, home ma(ing In Washington, became AAFSW vice president As 1P, formed a nucleus of blac( and white women to wor( with the Eastern Branch Boys and Girls Club in southeast Washington Pays tribute to FS women involved in AAFSW5 Polly Jones June Byrne Spencer Lesley Dorman Pamela Moffat Both Ruth and Max helped with AAFSW Boo( Fair annual fund raiser for scholarship monies Extensive discussion of her family Accomplishments Listings in "Who7s Who", etc. Huge home in Louisville Mother was a friend of Marian Anderson Addenda5 ChildrenAs achievements INTERVIEW Q: Jewell Fenzi on Thursday, November 12, 1992. I am interviewin Ruth Clement Bond at her home in Washin ton, DC. I was struck immediately, when I saw your husband(s bio raphic information in an old [Department of ,tate Bio raphic- Re ister, by the fact that when you first went overseas, to .aiti, you tau ht En lish0 then in Liberia you tau ht at the university. ,uddenly there was a transition0 when you went to Kabul you were a 3housewife.4 What accounts for this difference5 BO D5 At the first post, Haiti, my husband was director of the education program in a team of six or seven people, two of whom were women, sent out for the /.S. GovernmentAs Good eighbor Policy in Latin America, which Nelson Roc(efeller headed up. They taught languages, science, homema(ing in some of the schools. My husband was called chief of party. Although I wasnAt one of the team, I taught English, in the Fcole normal, and also started wor(ing on my doctorate there, but after I had a baby I gave up that effort. I began teaching English when my husband wanted to send one young man, an English teacher, to the /nited States to study. Max got a scholarship for him, but he said, GDr. Bond, I can7t ta(e it because I can7t support my family on that, because I will have to give up this job.H So Max as(ed me, GRuth, how would you li(e to teach English at the Fcole normalIH And I said, GWhy not.H So the government paid him the salary and I did the wor(. He could go to America and have the two salaries coming in, the two sources. I was head of the English Department at .entuc(y State College when we got married in 1931. My field was English and I had gotten my degree at orthwestern. My new husband got a scholarship to the /niversity of Southern California, so I went West with him and started on my doctorate there. /nfortunately... I started to say Gunfortunately I became pregnant.H ThatAs not what I mean, but it was unfortunate for me because I was really en0oying my studies so much. I had to ma(e a decision. I went to school as long as I could, and then I too( time out to have the baby. Started bac( to school and left my baby with a woman who lived in one of those little Ksouthern CaliforniaL cottages, we lived in a cottage too. It was just a nice little neighborhood, a semicircle of houses with English, .orean and blac( American families, and of course we were blac( American too. A blac( American woman who lived in bac( of us, off the street, said, GWell, Mrs. Bond, IAll (eep your baby for you.H So I said, GAll right.H I thought I had a solution. But about two days after I had started bac( to school I had to come home unexpectedly for something. I had my hours when I would come bac( regularly. I would leave the baby clothes, and a bottle with her, she (new when I was coming bac(. And then I came bac( unexpectedly. My baby was on her dirty (itchen floor, filthy, suc(ing on a piece of bacon and had an asafoetidic bag Ka bitter resin with an obnoxious odor, thought to ward off diseaseL around her nec(. So I began to thin(5 which is more important to me, the health of my child or getting a PhD. I was ma(ing straight GAHs, I must say. I had even tal(ed over with my advisor what my topic was going to be. I decided at that time that maybe I had better stay home with my baby. So I just gave up on my PhD, and thought I would do it later. When my husband was called bac( to head a mission the Government was sending to the Tennessee 1alley Authority, I found there was no college down there that I could attend to continue wor(ing on the PhD, so instead I set about organi4ing the women whose husbands were wor(ing on the T1A dam and who, for really the first time, were getting a lot of cash. Some of the wor(ers had been sharecroppers. The Government built four houses for men who would move in with their families, the rest of the wor(ers lived in big dormitories in a compound. We lived in one of the cottages that had been built as an experiment for people living there -- because my husband thought that living outside the town provided me a chance to wor( with the women and show them what opportunities existed -- they were buying pianos with cash, and they couldn7t get them into their cottagesM These country women were buying things they didnAt need, yet werenAt fixing up their houses.
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