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
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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
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Local news commentator, Floyd
M cKay, w ill moderate a lively
discussion o f the Northwest Regional
Energy Bill, Thursday, October 25,
7.30 p.m . at the W estm inister
Presbyterian C hurch, 1624 N .E
Hancock, Portland.
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.
Photos: Dorothy Ehrichs
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Portlond 97201
telephone 227-26Ô8
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