Minority & Small Business Week
October 2. 2013
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Page 27
photo by D onovan M .S mith /T he P ortland O bserver
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Roy Joy, 66, works out of his office on Northeast Fremont Street in the Beaumont Neighborhood. The native Portlander known for his long list of business and civic
engagements has no plans on slowing down, but he does look forward to seeing a new generation of Portlanders pass through some of the many doors he has left
open for them.
Let’s Get Down
to Business
c o n t i n u e d f r o m fron t
and center supporter of a proposed
Portland Convention Center head
quarters hotel that would generate
an estimated 3,000 union construc
tion and hotel jobs, primarily in
north and northeast Portland.
He recently was bestow ed a
‘Bending Tow ard Justice’ award
from U.S. Sen. Jeff M erkley of
O regon for his efforts to help
others break dow n barriers to
em ploym ent, housing and other
opportunities. Clean Slate, a non
profit project he launched w ith
out pay in 2005, has helped thou
sands o f people erase delinquent
traffic tickets and other m inor
crim inal or civil judgm ents by
fulfilling public service require
m ents and paying fines.
D uring its inaugural year, he
was able to get the various judges,
D istrict A ttorney, and Portland
Police Bureau to partner with
Project Clean Slate to effectively
m o v e th e e n tire M u ltn o m a h
County C ircuit Courthouse to a
m eeting space at Portland C om
munity C ollege’s Cascade C am
pus in north Portland.
For the past four years, he has
hosted ‘Spam and V elveeta’ holi
day open houses for local chari
ties. Last year he held a benefit
w ith M a ry W ilso n o f T h e
Suprem es in front o f nearly one
thousand people at the Oregon
Convention Center. He plans to
bring “Hitsville the M otown Re
view ” for a benefit event in D e
cem ber. (Tickets go on sale after
O ct. 15 o r v isit his w e b site
ro y jay .co m .).
Jay realizes that the struggle to
succeed is indeed a difficult one
because of his own tribulations.
From hearing the whispers of doubt
from his own community to even
physical threats of violence against
him, he’s been no stranger to the
trials of achievement. Even-so, the
Portland Daily Journal o f Com
merce tw o-tim e N ew sm aker of
the Year has managed to persist,
and serve as an inspiration for
those both inside and outside of the
black community.
A lthough an early career stop
fo r Ja y w as h o s tin g o n e o f
Portland’s prem ier radio shows,
he sees too m any young people
looking to be professional enter
tainers and sports players as op
posed to ow ning their own busi
nesses. Jay is not com pletely
against sports and entertainm ent,
but despises the im plications that
can com e from pursuing them
for young m inorities.
“W hite folks have told me,
look, we pay you guys to enter
tain us,” he laments,
Instead, Jay is a staunch advo
cate for education as a feasible
pathw ay to a successful life.
“It’s up to you, not me, new
generation, to re-plant a seed out
there to do some more shops, retail,
flowers, service business, comput
ers, housing, and all the rest of that
stuff,” Jay says. “We aren’t at the
table ‘cause somebody told us, oh no
you can’t do that.”
He has participated in a multi
tude o f fundraisers over the years
for traditional schools with a high
percentage o f minority students,
such as Jefferson High School and
his 1965 alma mater Roosevelt. He
says it’s all about giving back to the
place that raised him.
“As m y m other said, never
forget w here you com e from .
They can pat you on the back and
give you all the accolades and
stuff like that; at the end o f the
day baby y o u ’re still black, and
you still have an obligation to your
fam ily, your neighborhood, your
people,” he says.
And though Jay rem ains one o f
the prem ier players in city politics
and is a leader who was once
co n sid ered a top p ro sp ect for daddy and your grandparents and
running for m ayor, he knows his everybody else. So you realize,
ever-aging body will not allow look, it's time for us to get some
him to attend to every civic issue new folks in here,”
or concern forever.
He warns with an alm ost abso
“Baby, after a while you start lute certainty that the next gen
slowing. You start coughing and eration “has to be ready” or the
w heezing and hackin’ like your city will leave them behind.
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