4 Portland Observer Thursday. November 23, 1978
LIFE, HEALTH, GROUP INSURANCE.
ANNUITIES. PENSION PLANS
Behind the wall
Larry Baker 135021,
O.S.P. Correspondent
GLADYS McCOY . . .
A BLACK WOMAN
by Larry Baker
It was important net only because
it put me when 1 wanted to be —
back in the struggle — but also
because o f the meaning it would have
fo r all the sisters and brothers who
had fought fo r my freedom.
I f 1 could not be satisfied with my
freedom alone, they could not be
satisfied either.
Angela Davis
February 25, 1971
A Black woman for Multnomah
County Commissioner?
Impossible.
Ridiculous.
"You Jivin.”
T hose were the words many
people living in Portland, Oregon a
couple of years ago would have said,
while others would have laughed
them selves silly. Even a greater
laughter would have com e from
P ortland's Black com m unity,
because the odds of having a Black
sitting in one o f the five highest
positions in Multnomah County was
remote.
During the wee hours on the morn
ing o f November 8, 1978 a Black
woman, mother o f seven, and the
wife o f Oregon's first and only Black
State Senator embraced her husband
and children in tears realizing they
had achieved the impossible. The
people of Multnomah County had
elected a Black woman to represent
them, to make their county a decent
place to live over the next four years.
Gladys McCoy, a Democrate had
won overwhelmingly, 111,165 votes
to her Republican challenger Carl
Neuy»erger's 68,305 votes.
The Gladys McCoy story is not an
easy one tis, write, because it is im
possible to chyjture the fifty year
struggle it took to unfold the dream
Gladys* parents prepared their little
girl for long ago.
Being the only daughter in a
family o f four boys, Gladys reward
ed her parents with a thirst for
education.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Gladys' father, labored many hours
in the same bakery, where he is
still working today, to provide her
with an education. Gladys was also
the first person in her family to ob
tain a college degree, majoring in
sociology and education.
Becoming a first is nothing new to
Gladys McCoy. It was part o f a life
style she had been raised by.
A fter 27 years in T ennessee,
Gladys decided to move to Portland,
where she obtained employment as a
director o f a YWCA youth program.
Shortly after she met and married
William McCoy.
W hile w orking at the YW CA
(1949-50) Gladys evolved a deep
compassion and dedicated drive to
becom ing a leader working with
p eo p le. W hatever program s she
developed were successful. After two
years Gladys had to give up that
drive for another occupation —
washing dirty diapers and chasing
babies. Seven o f them. But after the
birth o f the youngest Gladys was
able to get back into college and earn
a masters degree in social work.
In 1967, Gladys applied and was
accepted as the director o f Project
Headstart, in Vancouver, an agency
that provided training and education
for pre-school children.
In 1970, Gladys became an in
structor at Clark College in Van
couver, W ashington, w hile her
husband was taking his first steps in
to state politics.
In 1972, William McCoy was elect
ed the first Black State Represen
tative in O regon’s history, while
G ladys obtained an assistant
professorship at Pacific University in
Forest Grove, Oregon.
PEGGY JOSEPH
JuiiusD. Snowden »3*013
Poetry Editor
During this period other ‘firsts'
started popping up in the McCoy's
lives. Gladys became the first Black
wom an elected to the P ortland
School Board and in 1975 Governor
Bob Straub appointed Gladys to
become the first woman state om
budsman.
Working with people, assisting
them in solving their problem s
throughout the state was a natural
ability for Gladys, while her husband
gained the position as the state's first
Black Senator.
The McCoy children? “ I’ve got a
w hole house full o f professional
students,*’ says Gladys (Kista, nurse
aide; Paul, P .S.U . student; Mary,
com m unication student; C ecelia,
P .C .C . student; Peter, O .S .U .
student; W illiam , A rizona State
student; and Martha, Wilson High
School student).
At this point one would think that
the McCoy’s success had reached its
peak, but Gladys wasn't about to sit
around and watch those avenues
close that it took people like Martin
Luther King and other civil rights
Blacks to open for the advancement
o f Black people today. People were
her thing — no matter what side o f
the tracks they came from or what
color or creed they inherited.
In January, 1978, as the unem
ploym ent in M ultnom ah C ounty
skyrocketed among Black youth and
crime went on a rampage, Gladys
McCoy knew that decisions had to be
made — big decisions. D ecisions
which would effect all people within
the county that had given the McCoy
family their success. Now it was time
to return to her expertise — helping
people solve problems.
Loved my m any, treasured by
most, envied by some and rejected by
a few, Gladys McCoy swept through
the May primary and walked away
with the November election. Why?
Because the people needed her and
where Gladys McCoy is needed is
where Gladys McCoy wants to be.
Field Underwriter
283-5012
It was not G ladys M cC oy's
Blackness that got her where she is
today. It is her ability to care and to
use an ingredient mixed with
education and “ mama wit." Even
her own mother, Mrs. Miller, is still
very active today with such
organizations as the NAACP, Mt.
Olive Baptist Church, and the North
Portland Senior Citizen Committee.
And what do the people o f North
Portland think o f Oladys McCoy's
mother? Enough to name a park af
ter her, known as Miller A Murphy's
Square.
The New York Life agent in your
community is a good person to i
know.
nr? lEN O W 'S
i v
SHOP
FOR
B R A N D S you know
V A R IE T IE S y o u lik e
SIZES y o u w a n t
Many of our readers may wonder
about finding a story about Gladys
McCoy being written in a prison
column. It is not strange at all. The
Black elected county commissioner
has even left her footprints within
these walls. In fact just a few days
before her election you could have
seen Gladys walking around freely
am ong the prisoners, trying to
analyze why so many prisoners from
her county keep returning to prison.
Her election has brought high
hopes to a great many people and
Gladys McCoy throughout the next
four years is going to be looked upon
as the person to solve those
problems. But let us remember, she
is only one person and she is going to
need all the help she can receive.
It is lime to get fully behind this
Black woman who proudly wears her
‘natural.* People are her thing and
people she is going to need to solve
many o f the problems in Multnomah
County — especially 'grass-roots
people,’ poor people, people o f all
different shades o f color and walks
o f life , and even a few o f the
prisoners behind these w alls.
Hopefully it can be said at the end of
her four year term by all the people
w ho’s 'r o o ts’ are in M ultnomah
County that they did help — helped
Gladys McCoy, a Black woman, a
County Commissioner, to make their
communities a better place to live.
•
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041 I 9 I M ilw a u k ie
9 9 th A la e t lu m t id s
132nd A M I
O hypn
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lo m b o a l a t A r e o le y
R a le 'p h H ills P la s a
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1 4 th A S I
M o re te a n
3 3 rd A M I
H a n c a rL
3 D th A l l
D iw l e i a n
2 3 r d A W a t t B u r n s id e
t e d i e O t w o ^ o VO B A v e
•
'B in d
•
K i n g C it y
at 9 I
•
O l v i s ia n
Ooh
O ro v e
M i e t t i « m u M it t e i o k i i i
. . . UNION OR COMPANY
DENTAL INSURANCE
is a valuable asset . . .
your health
and
appearance
COMPLETE COOPERATION
ON ALI.
» E N T A I. IN S l RANCE CLAIMS
WE HANO LE ALL THE D ETAILS OF
COMPLETING V O IR C LAIM FORMS
NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED
Come in at your convenience
PARK FREE-Any Park n Shop Lot
Ku Klux Kian on the rise
Oregon lags in Black degrees
by Dean Synder •
A study just released by the U.S.
Department of Health, Education,
and Welfare shows Oregon lags far
behind Washington and slightly
behind Alabama and Mississippi in
awarding Blacks post-baccalaureate
degrees.
During the 1975-76 academic year
Blacks in Oregon received advanced
degrees at a rate slightly better than
half (52.8Vs) o f the rate for the
population as a whole. Washington’s
rate was almost twice Oregons.
The Higher Education General In
formation
Survey
(HEGIS),
preliminary date, “ Degrees and
Other Formal Awards Conferred
Between July 1, 1975 and June 30,
1976,” plus Census Bureau estimates
for July 1, 1975, show Blacks in
Oregon received 31 or .709^# o f the
4,372
advanced
degrees
and
represented
1.34 V»
of
the
population. The rate for Blacks in
Oregon was thus 52.8V# of the rate
for the general population. This was
lower than Mississippi 53.4 V»,
Alabama 60.5V», California 72. IV»
and Washington 90.2V».
Blacks did better in acquiring the
baccalaureate degree. In 1975-76
they got them in Oregon at 81 .IV» of
the rate for the general population.
O f the 10,455 degrees, Blacks re
ceived 114 or 1.09V», again repre
senting 1.34Vo o f the population.
Rates for the five states were:
C alifornia 60.6V», M ississippi
64.7V», Alabam a 68.4V», Oregon
81.1V# and Washington 97.0V#.
ST. ANDREWS CATHOLIC CHURCH
MXi N.E. Alberta Street
Reverend Bertram Griffin. Pastor
2X1-4429
Masses:
5:00 p.m Vigil - Saturday
10:00 a.m. Choir - Sunday
12:00 p.m. Folk - Sunday
ST. ANDREW CO M M UNITY SCHOOL
49,9 N.E. 9th Ave.
Norita Kelly. Principal
Phone: 2X4-1020
Grades 1 through 8
1 ou are W ekome to W orahip at
TH E ARK OF SAFETY CHURCH OF GOD PENTECOSTAL. INC.
“A warm spirit of fellowship always"
The Honorable Bishop L .V. Peteroon. 0 . 0 “The Holiness Preacher." Pa.tor
Sunday.
Sunday School
9:15 am
Morning W orahip
11:15 an,
Shower, of B k .a in g . Rroadcaat"
KGAR 1550
11 30 am 12:30 om
VPBf
6:30 pm
F.vaageUotk M orahip
8:00 pm
Tuesday-Friday
Naa» Day Frayer
Tuesday:
Bible Band/Jr. Church
Wedneaday
Choir Reliearaal
Friday:
"The Paator Speak.”
X4 NE hi 11, ng »worth
2X14(499
HOURS'
7:30 pm
7:011pm
(Continued from Page 1 Column 6)
very religious atmosphere. Then they
become intimidated or they become
supporters so they won’t lose any
popularity themselves.”
C ullm an C ounty, A labam a is
unlike most counties o f the Southern
Blackbelt. It’s 60,000 residents are
virtually all white. The land wasn’t
right for cotton in the last century, so
there were few slaves. Neither was
there much Kian activity or, in the
last decade, an active Civil Rights
movement.
But 77-year-old Willliam Matthew
Boyd, the grandson o f slaves,
remembers a sign which he says once
decorated the Cullman City limits:
“ Nigger, Read and Run. If You
Can’t Read, Run Anyhow.”
William Boyd lives in the only
Black residential community o f the
entire county, seven square miles o f
rolling hills and dirt roads to the
southwest called “ The Colony.” The
children o f the C olony attend a
daycare facility at the C o lo n y ’s
community center.
“ 1 think people are just sort o f sit
ting back and looking at it,” center
director Joyce Watts said. “ I don’t
sense any real fear. The Black people
are disappointed because naturally
we don’t like to see this kind o f
thing. H opefully it will end very
soon. But as o f yet I don’t think it
has produced any fear.”
At a Kian rally between Cullman
and Hanceville, a 17-year-old high
school junior from Birmingham ap
peared nervous as he addressed the
crowd. He was there to ask Kian
support for a youth group he and
others had formed at his sixty per
cent Black high school.
“ You could say, maybe, w e’re
working close with the Kian.” he
admitted. “ I believe the things we
learned in history class about the
Supreme Court’s old separate but
equal ruling. I believe that Blacks
should go to their own schools and
that whites should go to their own
schools and be able to stay away
from the Blacks if they want to.”
As the rally drew to an end, about
forty Klansmen in full regalia took
up positions around the cross with
flaming torches. They saluted the
burlap-wrapped cross and marched
in to ignite it at the base Thirty feet
o f flam e eruped into the cold
7:30 pm
Dr. Jeffrey BRADY,
Alabama night air.
(Boyd Lewis reports on the KKK
and other p o litica l issues f o r
National Public Radio and WABE
— Atlanta, as well as fo r several
Southern publications.)
E
" rekday» K:30a.m. to 5 p.m
Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dentist
S .W .3R D A Y A M H IL L ST.. PORTLAND. OREGON
TAKE. ELEVATOR TO 2ND FLOOR 3RD ST. ENTRANCE
X
!f 'fiféa&J&en
O
D
U
S
aeu/
f i eet/ee
1518 N E KILLINGSWORTH
PORTLAND. OREGON 97211
284-7997
FACTS OF IMPORTANCE
VOLUME VI
NOVEMBER 1978
SERIES I
In keeping with Exodus Community Service
Policy, Exodus will host a Symposium on
Alcohol and Substance Abuse Problems.
Exodus will do this in coordination with other
agencies providing similar services.
The General Public is invited. The Symposium
will be held at:
EXODUS DAY TREATMENT
1223 N.E. Alberta
Portland, Oregon
284-1247
The meeting will be from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, November 15, 1978 while there is
no charge for the general meeting, a small
donation for lunch will be appreciated.
The elephant »brew of Africa
weighs |utt six ounces'
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