Session: 1234567891011121314         Page 109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142 of 763

Northside has been involved in that rather delicate diplomatic problem of trying to put the needs of our children and their families ahead of the vested interests of any particular profession or group of professions -- and it ain't easy.

A couple of thoughts come to my mind here. First of all, in the historical context of the times when you first sensed the need for a Northside type of operation --

-- Mamie. When Mamie first sensed it.

Your wife sended it. First of all, half that decade was World War II, when there were some breakthroughs as far as civil rights went, because of the need in the armed forces for manpower.

That's right.

Then after the war, there was a retrogression of these rights. What I'm trying to work around to is: when you went to work in the field, did you sense the impact of this retrogression among both the parents and subsequently the children you'd have to deal with?

Not directly. I guess Mamie and I did sense a passivity, you know, that our task was not just to develop an agency but to educate a community; that this approach offered relief. The community tended at that time, more so than now, to look upon any psychological or psychiatric service as, ipso facto, a stigma. But I'm not sure that that was related to civil rights problems so much as it was to general passivity. You know, accommodation to what is.