My Stint in President Johnson's Great Society

By Rosalind Inslicht Edelstein

As Head Start comes under scrutiny by President Bush I cannot help but reflect about my own experience with the offshoot of Head Start, the Parent Child Center Program, a dramatic part of Johnson's War on Poverty, that further emphasized how early intervention in different parts of the family system impacts dramatically on children. In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson appointed a task force on early childhood education because children of the very poor had serious defects in health, cognitive development and verbal usage when they entered school, despite the important work of the Head Start Program which was open only to children aged four and five years old. Recognizing that Head Start did not go far enough, nor did it begin early enough, the task force recommended that Parent Child Centers (PCC) be set up for demonstration and research which could include whole families with at least one child under the age of three. It was left to the discretion of the directors as to how extended the involvement of the families would be.

Whitfield County in Northwest Georgia was awarded a grant for a PCC when I returned to Dalton, Georgia, carpet center of the world, ( so they called it) with my family I was appointed director at the end of September 1968 with the charge of setting up the center in four large halls, classrooms in the formerly black segregated junior high school. The rest of the formerly dilapidated classrooms in that building were recently renovated and carpeted to prepare for the newly integrated school system. Integration of the schools had finally been initiated that year and these rooms were donated for the PCC They were to be renovated to install a kitchen , play rooms and meeting rooms for the various activities.

I immediately hired a trained clinical social worker and a licensed nurse as specified in the guidelines. Meanwhile we had to look up at dirty ceilings, faded aqua walls, and holes in the floors where we watched mice flit in and out, while I reflected on the civil rights wars and the opportunity to combine activism with working with family systems. What a revolutionary concept in that town and at that point in time! What a challenge!

Whitfield County was probably the most affluent county in Georgia at the time, with a large population of white Appalachian poor who had come down from the . mountains to work in the carpet mills, and a small African American population who were finally beginning to be hired in the mills. The divide between rich and poor was evident when one of the volunteers admitted later that she was surprised that there were really poor people in the county.

I learned very early that we were dependent on and subject to the decisions of a variety of agencies, (state and fed) individuals, and researchers in addition to our own local board. For instance money for renovations, salaries, and all other expenses came through a Community Action Program Agency in Lafayette, Georgia, that had no clue as to what our program was all about, and followed very rigid interpretation of the federal guidelines The CAP agency required constant interpretation of the concept that involvement of the participants was the core of t he program. For five months we wrangled with that agency in Lafayette before we were permitted to begin renovations or to purchase a van to pick up the mothers and children in a town lacking public transportation.

Meanwhile we brought in our own card tables to use as desks, stared at the mice scurrying through the holes, and used our cars to recruit mothers. I drove through the mountains frequently for meetings to get permission to hire a nutritionist, child development teachers, a male leader who recruited fathers into the program and encouraged them to be involved with their children. I hired low income untrained staff to help recruit and to teach mothers to read to their children. The social worker and I met separately with mothers as a group in a kind of community therapy format. The self esteem of these shy mothers grew when they voted all the parents to be on the board of our program. Community leader board members took notice of their assertiveness and the change in how they felt about themselves.

The crises multiplied day by day, and the social worker, Johnnie Bakkum, would describe ourselves as two battered women as we tackled our various crises; such as battered mothers, mothers who withdrew because their backwoods preachers warned them about the mixing of the races, or were worried about losing their credibility with women who became "too smart." And then there were the crises with the PAC in Lafayette.

We did not lack for volunteers in the community who generously contributed time and energy, and often just taking time and energy to supervise them, was overwhelming. Churches in the community offered free placements for the four and five year olds. After the renovations the parents painted the facilities, and the carpet plants donated carpeting.

At the beginning there was uncertainty by the community as to how we would shape up. I learnt to be political. We needed food for the breakfast and lunches the mothers were to prepare for themselves and the children, as they learned about nutrition.. I had to apply to the local commissioner who distributed federal surplus food. When I walked into the office of the local commissioner, good ol boy, he looked at me suspiciously wondering what this Yankee lady from that foreign outfit was wanting.

I knew I needed all the charm and political savvy I could muster. As I introduced myself, it hit me that he might know Otto, my husband who was well liked and trusted in the local community. So I was not the professional this time. I introduced myself as "Otto's wife .You know Otto, don't you?'

His demeanor changed rapidly as he extended his hand warmly, "Oh, Otto's wife? Oh we know Otto. Just saw him at the Oakwood Café." I could have all the food we needed.

Present day feminists would not agree with me that I hid behind my husband's mantle, but I needed the food. I wanted this program to empower women and for them to help their children.

All manner of agencies, federal and state, researchers and community organizers descended upon us from time to time, usually unannounced. Each had a different agenda. Each looked at us through a different set of lenses For instance the early child development consultant from Washington wanted to get rid of the first child development teacher because she was too rigid. She was right. But for political reasons I had to bide my time

One day a tall African American walked into the Center and told me he was from one of the alphabetical federal agencies in Atlanta. He sauntered into the kitchen where mothers were preparing food for lunch, quickly bounded outside and yelled to his colleague getting out of the car, "Hey Ernie .They're cooking together, black and white."

I had not thought the integration was unique. It had fallen into place naturally as we assumed that was the way it would be and mothers found they had much in common with each other, white or black. We had been too busy, The man said that in Georgia it was unique.

The power conflicts with the CAP agency continued and attempts to usurp the rights of the PCC Policy Advisory Committee (the local board) culminated in the refusal of the CAP to meet payroll or bills for the remaining three months of the second year grant. The center closed for three months as we negotiated with the Washington agencies and the other alphabetical agencies in Atlanta. The 36 Parent Child Centers endured all kinds of crises that such a program evoked at that time. . No wonder only four of us directors survived only four years of the program.

Finally pressure from the federal and state agencies who had visited us and liked what they saw, advocated for our continuation. The grant was transferred to another grantee, Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Berry College and its representative fully supported our program and so we could really work at what we were there for. The parents developed even greater strengths as a result of learning how much their decisions counted. Parents and staff continued with further momentum

When my family left Dalton and I had to leave the program in 1972 I realized many transformations had taken place. Children who had previously been sipping coca cola out of a bottle were now asking for orange juice out of a glass. Mothers were reading to their children and playing with their children who were now better prepared to progress when they entered school. And mothers who had graduated from the program returned to work there.

Rosalind Edelstein is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia.