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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1979)
Portland Observer O ctober 18.1979 Page 3 Affirmative Action officer tours China by Katberyn H. Bogle * W ith her thoughts still swirling with memories o f a friendly people, exciting excursions in to beautiful country landscapes and a rare ex perience for her historian self to feel the sweep o f an ancient historic past. Pearl Spears Gray has but recently returned to her post in C orvallis, Oregon. Here, as its Director o f A f firm ative Action, she picks up the well known avenues o f her place in the academic world o f Oregon State University. Pearl Spears Gray is at home from Jeijing, China. But then, Ms. Spears Gray is often returning home from some in teresting fa r-o ff place. Born, not long ago, in Selma, Alabam a, Ms. Spears Gray was brought up in W ashington, D.C. where she was graduated from the Spingarn Senior High School and was quickly enrolled at Wilberforce where she won her B .A . degree, majoring in Sociology. Her interest in history, American History and Afro-American History, and her pursuit o f a teaching career led her next ot A n tioch -P u tne y Graduate School o f Education, and here Pearl Spears Gray was awarded the M A T . Degree in June o f 1970. She is now at the disser tation stage towards acquiring her Ph.d. from Oregon State University. For five years, with apparent joy, Pearl Spears Gray taught History, Black H is to ry , A fro -A m e rica n H is to ry, Race and Racism, and Political Problems in Black Com munities as well as Government and Sociology to high school students o f Washington, D.C. Foo Dog at the Sum m er Palace in Peking. Always there had been an abiding interest in A frica and in 1969 and 1970, in the company o f other educators, she visited A fric a . She traveled to Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Dahomey.She studied at the University College o f Cape Coast in Ghana and at the U nive rsity o f Ibadan in Nigeria. Here, she drank in the culture and the history, and learned the geography and economics o f Africa first hand. The year o f 1971 found Spears Gray in Rhode Island as Executive L .E .A . Assistant C oo rd ina to r o f the Teacher Corps P roject, and in 1973 she came to P ortland as Associate Director in the Portland Urban Teacher Education Program (PUTEP). From Portland to Corvallis, it was a short, but im p orta nt step - to Oregon State University and to her present position. Embroidered panel in Sum m er Palace of Empress Tsu Hsi in Peking STOP LOOKING BUY TOMORROW'S SECURITY FOR YOUR FAMILY TODAY Pearl Spears Gray now advises the U n ive rsity president and the executive officers o f that institution regarding U niversity policies and procedures concerning affirm a tive action. Among other duties she has is the charge to provide liaison with Corvallis comm unity organizations regarding em ploym ent and educational opportunities for women and minorités. Perhaps one o f the most important functions o f her o f fice is to coordinate and m onitor U nive rsity a ffirm a tiv e action recruitment and placement efforts. The trip to China was in a tour w ith the U .S .-C hina Friendship Study T o u r program w ith , p rin c ip a lly , educators. Thre were 48 people in the party, five o f whom were Black and one Chicano mem ber. The F riendship H o te l, the modern section o f this huge com plex, was the headquarters for their party in Peijung. A lth o u g h the p arty had been briefed carefully in Los Angeles (or maybe, because they had been) the C hinese national guide assigned to them left ample free time for the in dividuals in the group to shop or go walking alone. With their guides they saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden C ity and M a o ’ s Museum. Small shops offered supplies o f jades and silks and small a rtifa cts to those tourists with sufficient purchasing power. The party moved on to Changsha, the beautiful city that was the birth place ol Chairman Mao and the site o f his early revolutionary period, but Spears Gray was stricken by a bac teria that she had harbored in her system before leaving home. She had to be hospitalized and isolated in a foreign hospital where she did not know the language. The prospect was frightening but Pearl says o f her experience now: “ I f I were to become ill here and now, I could not think o f a better place to be ill! ” J he care was modern, efficient, at tentive -- and inexpensive. The patient saw her room washed down every day, had excellent nursing, medication prescribed and agreed upon by a battery o f physicians assigned to her case and who visited her individually and as a team each day. M any o f the doctors spoke English and the Chief o f Staff had been trained in Minnesota! Socialized medicine as practiced in Changsha took care o f the bill and left only medication and x-rays for Ms. Spears Gray to pay. Ms. Spears Gray is enthusiastic about the eight-hour train ride from C hangsha to Kiveilin, where the very modern tra in glided through beautiful green mountainous areas to reach th eir destination. The tour group was assigned in this city to an air conditioned flo o r o f a moder nized hotel, and, for sightseeing they rode in air-conditioned busses. A visit to Guangzhou (Canton) gave the touring party an o pp or tunity to get acquainted with families Notice X vT ',*’?' / i„ . „ » „ ie wwnuui mmiry rooms in Vancouver close to 1-5 and 8 minutes from Interstate bridge. 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Panel members for the two-hour program w ill be: Jim Lazar, Economist on u tility rate structures representing FERN (Fair Elecltric Rates Now); John Lobdell, Public U tility Com m issioner o f Oregon, recently appointed by G overnor Atiyeh; Robert M a .ritz, the C oor dinator fo r the Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee, and Doug Scott, Northwest represen tative o f the Sierra Club. living in communes. Here they heard lectures on the history o f peasants before and following the revolution and heard a great deal about Mao. Lasting impressions o f China come quickly to Ms. Spears Gray. The great friendliness o f the Chinese people, their happiness over their improved level o f living, the non existent crime are evident. Hong Kong now has as commer cial a flavor as New Y ork. Hong Kona w ill be remembered now by Ms. Spears Gray as the city where Mercedes cars and Jaguars are at nearly every corner, where there is not only a Hilton to house you, but a McDonalds to feed you. But, by the way, too, a hamburger just might cost $5.00 American! On the trip Pearl took few pictures but relied on the camera and exper tise o f a friend, Dorothy Ehrichs, a photo-journalist in the party. Ms. Ehrichs gave us permission to print two from her portfolio. What is next on the agenda for Pearl Spears Gray? Well, first the Doctoral degree -- and then who knows.’ Probably college teaching -- or a college presidency? who knows? "here? An educated guess might be - Africa. Pearl Spears Gray, Dirctor of Affirm ative Action, Oregon State University. 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