Face to Face with Roberta

set during the tumultuous days of the sixties and seventies as moderator of face to face roberta bird shared with the stories no one else to call or dare that man just down the city i never thought i'd be alive seventy years don't know when i started out with such a shaky beginning in life my father you know he's still his kids

and that band and so you're not by my mother that she can do anything about a black people have been doing this kind of the law or someone else will take her thats how i still live and it was a thing that white people to find out in no man's land to somebody i went to elementary school outside of tacoma all teachers were white eye you couldn't get a job in that a school district in the state of washington cleaning toilets if you're not white and just the memory of those white teachers reminds me always

all white people which would be in the state of washington and the only thing is available where prostitution are being someone's housekeeper i didn't wish to do either one site visit myself and getting a scholarship at data robert attend all black wilberforce university in ohio two marriages ended in divorce and with her two teenage sons she moved to seattle i was divorced from dr byrd and decided to return home because the east has always been a mystery to me i do not understand the eastern people at all so i came home to live with my mother which i'm sure as soon as people are now when people when their

sons and daughters return home and say oh my lord but nevertheless there i was so i thought well what is it that i really want to do that too soon after becoming a teacher roberta gained notoriety during the boycott of the schools she was one of three teachers out of five thousand in the district to join the boycott as principal of the freedoms they our purpose was to point out the need to de segregate the snow i don't think they promoted me because i struck the school's i don't know why i like to think that promoted because i was pretty good at what i do robert it ended up being the first woman and the first black to be principled of the major seattle high school she was vice principal of franklin and principal

of lincoln high and it was so it's interesting to me when this interracial group would come into my office i had an open door and you always knew when you were about to be manipulated and if they manipulated you in the direction that you already won it go it was just fine with reporters non judgment or unfair treatment of all students and her wisdom with the teachers she was soon consider to be one of the best principles and seattle's history despite her challenging jobs and education during the fifties and sixties robert i found time to make additional contributions to seattle school trolls and civic awareness in nineteen sixty one she starred in raisin in the sun and the way that pioneered in opening up jobs for black actors and brought additional attention to the multi talent

lots of that she had such a beautiful voice listened to her read the telephone book because my name is the opening program face to face and that voice and roberta had a weekly television show the first and the only local tv series in the nation to consistently cover of minorities many television viewers soon would not miss reporters fearless honesty and her empathy with individuals never before seen on television happening it's a big issue to so we're of course poverty and the programs initiated to deal with them segregated schools and vietnam

sargent shriver the right wing white community and the left wing black community are in bed together against the war on poverty what is your attitude toward this they look upon the war against poverty as an enemy of their own private and pursue objectives i hope that the vast majority of americans will stand together in support of these programs would have to test the united states senate for example then support them for the good of our country black and white rich and for yourself senator magnusson yeah as is past of all of these programs that issue throughout the various the bureaucracies in washington but what happened i would think that it would be the beginning of the end this is based upon local initiative local participation community that would wither on the vine and that would be the end of the program and so far its success as we like a war against poverty of a

program or a series of programs the number of program the part that's a way to motivate people to help themselves were trying a lot of people want to do something benefits your health will cooperate with the people haven't gotten i were trying to convince them that the people haven't gotten our good people who would work if they had a chance to i think the community action program as an idea and the concept of the new idea is a big extremely important one on al gore play a revolutionary one for changing the living conditions of people in this country as brief as sleep poverty program was i think an awful lot of us felt hopeful that this will make a difference it did not last long enough to make a difference it lasted just

long enough to raise hopes and then have them that's happening right now in the negro community they just don't want you to tear down the city because the most important san pablo marrocco didn't have you know and i'm not able to run and about the young black man is in matthew trouble in mind that an awful lot of terribly put upon the plate kids in this country and they look at everything that seems to give a nonwhite a leg up and say why do when i mean i live a horrible life and many do and you too

is it hi reese got their other blacks to end discrimination in the building trades met with strong opposition as we don't mind of lacks common in union only won the service a monoplane said we sir i served five years the race ahead six months of medicine i mean that women have the same movement knew that means they were all of that

era robert so soon mexican american there are millions of them in the

united states about five thousand are expected this summer in this gadget valley and seattle north to the canadian border a minority region is better than any other non whites including the growth in july this taken in and around the uk more mexican americans out for their housing more crowded and dilapidated the unemployment rate higher than average education level or their school dropout rate higher than any other group in the nation in washington's day the average life expectancy is thirty years i'm jacki lyden many do but increasingly they are coming to the cities and that already in the southwest almost eighty percent are the monster here in seattle we have an increasing population of this mine it

sometimes face to face programs did not go as planned bloomers delicatessen was to be an example of how well the black community was getting along with the jewish community roberta filmed at the delicatessen but the day before the program was to air she had to change plans to police raided the delicatessen and found that the brothers selling marijuana in the bagels and other drugs distances and then i called my good friend whose name i'm not commensurate and said what can we do about this because he was tourists and he somehow of a really great oh it and then the police and his lawyer came and got to fail do you remember that and it was never shown it was a very traumatic experience for me because that star although the young men went away to prison they didn't go

away right away i think the black community did get together and try to drive the start of the community and they obviously succeeded it's been a long time during the height of the civil rights movement we had a few disturbances i don't think you could call them riots as it as compared to what some are cleveland or wherever else the black panthers i were here i remember when they came to my screw at franklin and the entire faculty as i recall was frightened but i was and they were just a young black men they're trying to make a statement i wasn't afraid of them in and it was very clear that with all the people who were weak as they

you know they were very intimidating with their uniforms and their grandson ourselves in that i knew they were going to shoot me your embody else they were playing our role which they got deeply involved in the end meant that there were an accounting by the black panthers in seattle didn't do anything to anybody at any time ever make me unhappy about the new and very young men like it when we were jones poet and playwright whose work was politically charged with black nationalism came to seattle roberta to come on i think they know difference between blacks and whites and i think of that you and the grand prix goal of some clan and some unknown city up on wind common than either argue hats

with the great mass of the american people live in quite a while now and won a lot of awards you know on top of it an accomplished whether i can live with a lot of people say that even crackers and really like the people a peninsula pushes you know that you cannot play given it odd though that i think that they have the idea what part one played as a moderate ad that earned a one some very unpleasant names like uncle tom long and thomas seen an oreo and all that sort of thing and part of the program was the ceo who had been doing

things in trying to present themselves one thing really true like that set being outnumbered entirely new police and the condition for seattle police recently as thousands of students and others to seattle streets to protest an unpopular war and that

they're forced to attend university in ohio though that's not a policeman were katherine newell says thank you the founder of clearly breaking property and the public does not condone such actions that police were now facing a situation which have no don't know now public support how could they keep order one constant were clearly breaking the law if students want the freedom to demonstrate do they still have to respect the ground move and under these conditions where the ground rules and that the police job in his top of the line keep order there's not that person against the law to quote one seattle policeman i just don't understand the whole time that you were expected to do a job that everybody of brutality when we take action

that just doesn't think that the public will again the play is it too much to ask a policeman to keep his crew one pallet with bottles and rocks wastebaskets and lyrics as indeed these officers were a policeman over her to stay as long as they keep in mind was no problem and a couple of militants get them going with name calling and the fact that all you ever been hit with iraq not expecting i don't like to use at stake for london were criticized are we allowed to protect ourselves that three weeks ago use their sticks they did at the end of our tenth days of demonstrations and an evening of rock throwing and breaking may seven many believe that the tweets were out of control and using inexcusable violence around the office has received many affidavits from students who before that day on may seven were not radicals tristate

<unk> being the benefits of the things we're trying to return home or attempting to keep the peace i think the area of growth that they have a right to their basic idea that the right idea that some of them eat the right to approve that whether people realize it or not our want to realize they were in the midst of a religion zanussi says choosing seasons when they're in

i'm sharing our take on its day attack how women playing that well not entirely anymore the women's liberation movement has grown in part out most people in the general protest movements which have shaken our country in the nineteen sixties women have been active but it's been since civil rights demonstrations in poor people's campaign in nineteen sixty eight and the university protests in the end he kept an anti war activity such as they say red cross worker who climbed over protestors to bring daffodils to gen hershey this young woman who chose appliance her weapon it's quite logical about such activism women would begin questioning and their own plight particularly younger women carnival events

generation who are fertile ground for seeds that discontent concerned with overpopulation they are having fewer babies looking ahead to living longer be a thinking more about careers which aired more action and dimension than their mothers roberta went out to explore many facets of the women's liberation movement on things to face sex on campus that's because the nomination you're pregnant

well i think it was probably seven and i told my mother i'm a very question on the young black women was one of them are does not things be hello i'm the cafe and then overland

land route and lastly women why talked about themselves and the causes that they were permitted mostly black women or those who have been doing recently and earlier than themselves the toll of that convention and the carbon principles and direction in which they wish to go where it does the black women stand in the hierarchy of acceptance and he she her own woman free to pursue her own femininity goals and aspirations she still trying hard to be a copy of america's stated that women are to be white women that is america's idea woman we see on the world thanks to television film and build balance sheet is usually the land of sexy with a smile and a provocative

sexy until seven years ago when the idea of the moment you're supposed to look like the ideal right one and if she did she was acceptable this girl had done ebony magazine in nineteen fifty seven makes the point notice the light skinned caucasians reaches the mainstream why not put color in your life when in a slight change make a difference however during the past few years to an unlikely that has become an even with a girl has come a long way and a set of nineteen sixty nine and served the natural hair that i could stand and it moves the movement that discovery for that was completely natural i hope that the women's movement and a hispanic and native american all the rest of them are doing better than

we are because we really not doing well except as individuals there are many individuals black individuals who are doing well and they would not be doing well if it hadn't been for the sixties it is subject of nursing homes depressive the fall we don't like to be reminded of our own mortality be like to get how indiscriminately ill health and strikes come early and fun late question hale and hearty

to contaminated sites to them and the importance of living mark kelly and leslie part of being a human being to be a tenderness but the old who have gone well past where we are journalists make the difference and as we have seen mississippi this

is no no no