Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 16 January 2003 — Page 6

Page 6 • The Muncie Times • January 16, 2003

The MvRcie Time

Pass* 59

NAACP President Urges Community To Vote

Patricia Mitchell-Fields

-by Staff Writer When Patricia Mitchell-Fields enrolled at Ball State University's school of nursing in 1951, she became the first black person at the university to do so. She also was the only black girl living on campus. That distinction those days meant that she had to bear a cross. "They didn't know how to handle this black girl living in the dorms with all these white girls," she said. The prejudice she faced from members of faculty compelled her to quit and move on to other things. Ball State nursing school, however, was not to be the only time Mitchell-Fields would play an ace on the race card. She became the first black person to work at the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in Hartford City when she joined the company in 1961. Two years later she scored another first when she was employed by the Social Security Administration in Muncie where she served for 30 years.

As current president of the local NAACP she reflected on those and other experiences on the eve of the Martin Luther King holiday. "I remember in 1940 my father bought a brand new car. My mother knew never to drive the car close to where my father worked because if his employers saw it they would fire him. That is what they knew to do," Mitchell-Fields said. She is grateful to her parents for showing her how to navigate through such obstacles. "That is why I still say to all minorities, continue fighting because the struggle is not over, but at the same time be smart enough to keep your jobs," she said. Something else Mitchell-Fields recalls is when as a student at Muncie Central High School she went with her French class to a restaurant in the village to practice their vocabulary. "The people at the restaurant refused to serve me," she said. Mitchell-Fields draws on these memories not just to show how much

has changed but also to demonstrate how much more can be achieved. "I believe in always reminding people that today is better than yesterday and tomorrow should be better than today. But we should remember where we were yesterday because were it not for Martin Luther King we would not be where we are today," she said. Mitchell-Fields feels strongly that the NAACP should in the new year step up its drive to get people registered to vote. "The most important thing is to get as many people as possible to vote. In this

way we can show people what we like and what we don’t like. Our community should understand how important voting is. Most of our young people need to be appreciate that their votes count," she said. According to Mitchell-Fields the NAACP's role in fighting for jobs has diminished over the years as there are union and other company procedures that need be followed to address the issue. She pointed out, however, that a lot of NAACP work is done on a national scale, such as the boycott of certain

loan companies that discriminate against blacks and the recent class action suit against Manpower Associates over unfair hiring practices. "The main purpose of the NAACP now is to educate the community. I believe people should understand how things work before they complain about them. That is why we had the chief of police and the judge come to explain to us how their systems work. I want to stress the importance of education. Young people should go out there and prepare themselves for the

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