DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Ernest Rodriguez' "Impressions," 1960s-1980s | ""The Year 1970"" by Ernest Rodriguez Page 8

Transcribe
Translate

Ernest Rodriguez' "Impressions," 1960s-1980s

""The Year 1970"" by Ernest Rodriguez Page 8

or less let Alan know I knew what was happening and was interested in taking the job. He said he’s confer with the steward at Oscar Mayer where I worked explaining the need of an organizer who spoke Spanish and English to undertake such as organizing campaign in order that they wouldn’t have any hard feelings of someone who was neither a steward or union official getting such a gravy job.
	I didn’t have any high hopes that I would go to work for the union and I honestly was a little bit doubtful of my own ability to organize the people at the Louis Rich plant. But even with these misgivings I felt determined to give it a try if it meant in some way helping La Raza.
	I was also a member of the Human Relations Commission in Davenport and through my position on this commission had become involved in the setting up of a Police Community Relations Program. The program brought citizens and police officers both municipal and county sheriff deputies together in open discussions of any differences with the idea of bringing about mutual understanding and an easing of racial tensions which were running hot that summer. Me and Henry Vergas has saved the program from being abandoned at one point when NAACP officials and the Police Chief couldn’t agree on where the meetings would be held. There had been some verbal clashes between police officers and some young blacks who had stormed out of the first meeting in anger over some incidents. The young blacks charged the police officers with discriminating harassment and demanded the chief to fire them. Other incidents followed where a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a policeman’s house and the NAACP’s president’ landscaping office was shot up. All of these involvements plus my activity with Lulac kept me pretty busy and I didn’t really

Saving...

or less let Alan know I knew what was happening and was interested in taking the job. He said he’s confer with the steward at Oscar Mayer where I worked explaining the need of an organizer who spoke Spanish and English to undertake such as organizing campaign in order that they wouldn’t have any hard feelings of someone who was neither a steward or union official getting such a gravy job. I didn’t have any high hopes that I would go to work for the union and I honestly was a little bit doubtful of my own ability to organize the people at the Louis Rich plant. But even with these misgivings I felt determined to give it a try if it meant in some way helping La Raza. I was also a member of the Human Relations Commission in Davenport and through my position on this commission had become involved in the setting up of a Police Community Relations Program. The program brought citizens and police officers both municipal and county sheriff deputies together in open discussions of any differences with the idea of bringing about mutual understanding and an easing of racial tensions which were running hot that summer. Me and Henry Vergas has saved the program from being abandoned at one point when NAACP officials and the Police Chief couldn’t agree on where the meetings would be held. There had been some verbal clashes between police officers and some young blacks who had stormed out of the first meeting in anger over some incidents. The young blacks charged the police officers with discriminating harassment and demanded the chief to fire them. Other incidents followed where a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a policeman’s house and the NAACP’s president’ landscaping office was shot up. All of these involvements plus my activity with Lulac kept me pretty busy and I didn’t really