Page 4
A p ril 25. 2012
Fighting for Social Justice
c o n t i n u e d f r o m page 3
talking, and then she looked at me
and asked, ‘Are you Klamath, did
1 see you on TV?’”
Following their talk of the
elections, the woman said, ‘you
might know my husband.’
“And I did,” said Williams.
“He was the CPS worker when
I got my children taken away,”
she said. “While I didn’t appre
ciate him in 1993, he is respon
sible for me walking around
with these pins (made for her
campaign) today.”
“Sometimes when you look
at people, you feel like they
were part of a divine interven
tion for you, but you just didn't
feel it at that time,” she said.
Williams added there have
been several members of both
the Native American and Afri
can American community who
have helped her become the
strong woman she is today.
"These people in this commu-
nity watch over you, and they
have watched me grow,” she
said.
Today, Williams is a known
advocate for com munities of
color and low income commu
nities in the workplace. She has
also been educating students on
Environmental Justice issues for
over 10 years through speaking
engagements, conferences and
teaching a senior capstone class
at Portland State University for
five years.
At the Office of Neighbor
hood Involvement, she manages
Diversity Leadership Programs.
Williams said her current pas
sion is on the cleanup of the
Willamette River. “If you spent
50-years on that river as a fac
tory polluting that river, then
you should spend the next 50-
years cleaning it up because it is
our children’s legacy,” she said.
"We need to create green jobs
off that river, clean up and re
store that river with schools
teeming with fish you can eat,”
she said.
In Native American ways
we plan for several generations,
not just five years, she said.
Williams, who founded the
organization Survivor to Survi
vor, also a d v o c a te s for
survivor’s rights, and the group
helped in the creation of the
new seven bed shelter for com-
A photograph o f her grand
children is a keepsake for
City Council candidate Jeri
Williams, 51, a mother and
grandmother o f eight.
Williams said Portland
needs to do a better jo b o f
representing communities o f
color in government to help
lead the way for a more ju s t
future for minority youth in
the city.
photo by M indy C ooper /
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6
mercially sexually exploited chil
dren, as well as aided in the
development of the last six
human trafficking legislation
over the last three years.
“For me as a woman in Port
land, I don’t want to see women
get the short end of the stick,”
she said. “We have a lot of jobs
for women that provide no
w o rk ers c o m p e n sa tio n , no
health insurance and no unem
ployment benefits, and that is
treating women as second class
c itiz e n s — m any w hom are
young m others and deserve
much better.”
Knowing first-hand what it is
like for a minority working single
mother, Williams said she wants
to see women be empowered in
Portland and be able to be the
head of the household and also
make a living wage.
She said the barriers for many
residents living in Portland need
to be addressed through collec
tive action.
“My little tag line for my
campaign is ‘opening doors,” ’
she said, a message for people
who have been h isto rically
underrepresented.
If you want government to
be smaller, you actually have to
make community larger, which
requires an increase in mean
ingful community involvement,
she said.
“But it is exciting,” said Wil
liams. “To shift what you once
believed was unshiftable.”
For more information on Jeri
W illia m s,
v isit
jeriforportland.com .