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Transcript of full Lucius Ware interview

BY JENNIFER BARRIOS | jennifer.barrios@newsday.com

[Lucius Ware is 74 and was born in Ohio]

I've probably been in activism forever In growing up, my father always was involved in the NAACP. The NAACP at that time in our little community was like second nature to belonging to the church. It kind of went hand in glove, a close association. And the needs, having experienced different things during what's considered the height of the civil-rights movement and other things before and after certainly has kept me engaged and involved

[What were your first practical steps toward activism?]

I was always involved in the NAACP, it seems. And many of the same issues were present at that time as are today, in terms of housing, education, employment, diversification of work forces and so on.

So there came a point in time when I was told when I was in college that if I wanted to go back and be the first teacher of color in my school district, that certainly would happen. And it wasn't striking me at the time, but indeed that is exactly what happened.

I went to work in my small school district, and then worked in a couple other school districts, neighboring school districts, and became an elementary principal All of these were first steps kind of things. I continued to be involved and became involved in the NAACP as an adult at that time, became a member of the executive committee there, and always continued.

[Was there any fear or doubt in getting involved?]

Never moments of doubt. Certainly always some challenges. Where there are a small group of dedicated people, great things can be accomplished. I've found that to be true throughout the years. In terms of fear from physical violence or reprisals?

There have been some questions, but I was somewhere along the line, I learned and the statement's been attributed to others, if a person stands it's harder for somebody to be on your back. And if you don't stand, people will be on your back and keep you in a down position. So I've always felt that that has worked to a great extent, and in most cases it has worked for me on a personal basis.

[What things have you done that have given you the most satisfaction?]

Certainly career-wise, having been employed in education as both a teacher and an administrator in each of the states of Ohio, New York and New Jersey has given me great satisfaction. In terms of civil rights in the year 1999 and the year 2000, we had here, right here in the town of Southampton, we think the last civil-rights demonstration in 1999 and the first in 2000.

And those were the first of several demonstrations in the period of December, January and February of that year. And the thrust was to improve the hiring of people of color in the town of Southampton in terms of the town workforce.

So we were able to, with the help of many other people, to get the town government to number one, revisit its affirmative-action agreement of 20 years earlier, in 1979, and to begin to implement that by creating the position of affirmative-action officer and filling that position.

And at the end of that period, the beginning of that period, 1999, the workforce in the town of Southampton had about 3 percent people of color. And by the year 2003, mid-2003, that figure had climbed to 17 percent. And in most departments in the town of Southampton, you can see people of color working at all different levels and \[that's\]something that was not the case just a few years ago.

That's certainly been a high point. The work of the NAACP in establishing the, helping to establish the diversity job fair for educators, that is coordinated by the Eastern Suffolk BOCES at this time. That certainly was a notable achievement. And having worked successfully as a professional educator in several school districts, and in virtually all of those cases I was asked by school authorities to come and work in a particular district, or in their districts.

[Can you talk about some of the other struggles you were involved with?]

One of the things that we did was established a working relationship with the major school districts on the East End. And developed a report card for those school districts in terms of the disparities in educational opportunities, the disparities in doling out discipline, and we were the first in New York State to get school districts to disaggregate data on a racial and ethnic basis, and which eventually went into that being the case for all school districts in the state of New York.

[How did you achieve these successes?]

In some instances, there were protests. Not on a major level, but there were certain protests that took place. And negotiating with school officials and school boards. And that was not an easy task. Some of it, some things took place in a very austere and cold atmosphere. And we would have to bring forth a number of people to witness certain situation and with the help of the press, in many cases, we were able to shine a light on certain situations that existed and we were able to make progress.

[What was the situation in Southampton in terms of disparities?]