Interview with Rev. Naomi Craig Craig, Naomi Reverend interviewee King, Danyelle interviewer mixed material 2008-03-12 Craig, Naomi Reverend Reverend Naomi Craig Born on April 6th, Good Friday, 1917, Reverend Naomi Craig’s life has been marked by her closeness to God and her self-described concern for others. Her connections to Fox Point reflect these interests, expanding her reach within the community through a career in social work, ministering at Sheldon Street Church, counseling minority students at Barrington College, and numerous children’s activities including leadership of the first Fox Point Elementary PTA, Girl Scouts, and Sunday School. She speaks fondly of these activities: "I look back now and it was the best part of my life, the interaction with all the mothers with all of our children growing up and learning together and from each other." Reverend Craig first moved to Fox Point following her marriage to husband Horace, right after World War 2 in 1943. They resided in the same small blue home they occupy now at 15 Dove Street. Originally from West Elmwood, Rhode Island, she regards the Fox Point neighborhood as ‘distinctive’ creating in its native population a ‘closeness’ she feels she has never shared with them, due to her African American upbringing. Yet, this has not stopped her from incorporating herself into the neighborhood activities. As she says, "I made people feel they were a part of everything…if I could help somebody, I will, and if I can help their children I will, and if I can find something they need to know and I know and can help them with it I can do that, but I was always available if anybody needed me, to speak or to do something." She feels her work in the many activities she participated with reflect a desire for social mobility for both black and immigrant populations, a task she is excited to be a part of and she feels has been recognized by the larger Rhode Island. Of her ministry, reverend Craig says, "I had a flair for the word of God, I knew the word of God. I studied; I always like God’s word." Serving as minister of Sheldon Street Church from 1985 to 1999, she had a vibrant parish and is proud of the work done there: "couldn’t get the people in the church, had to get there early to get in… people getting down there so they could get a seat." It is this same outspoken charisma that defines her experience in the neighborhood. Her own words best explain her mission: "That’s how life is: you give of yourself to somebody else and somebody else can take what they have learned from you and transpose it to somebody else and that’s how the world moves on." The Fox Point Project 48 http://dl.lib.brown.edu/foxpoint oral histories (literary works)