Name: Clifford R. Montiero
Age: 62
Position: President, NAACP, Providence Chapter
Background: Since 1980 Montiero has been a Providence County Deputy Sheriff. Before that he was president of CRM Services, Inc., an investigation and security firm, and executive vice president of Citizens United Renewal Enterprises, Inc., a nonprofit real estate development corporation. He was also a community contact officer for the R.I. State Council of Churches and a Providence Police patrolman. Montiero presently sits on the Governor’s Council on Aging and the Minorities Task Force for the Department of Elderly Affairs.
Education: University of Rhode Island, Urban Training Center, Chicago
Family: Married, four children
CLIFFORD R. MONTIERO: ‘I’ve seen some progress, but not enough.
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PBN: I read last year about your reaction to artifacts from the JFK Library in Boston that portrayed the urgency of the civil rights movement. You referred to yourself as having been an “angry young man” in the 60s. Are you still angry?
MONTIERO: No, I’m more committed. I think that anger is an illustration of hurt. I’m still hurt that America has not addressed this issue since 1865. I think we made feeble attempts to include a whole segment of our society into this society, and I think we’ve given lip service to it. I’ve seen some progress but I don’t see enough progress. But I’m committed to making sure that as long as I live, that it’s done.
You participated in the battles in Mississippi and Alabama. How did you become involved in working for civil rights?
I got involved because of the NAACP, [which] was talking about opening the golf courses in the ’50s, and voter registration. B. Albert Ford who was president at that time was very active in the 3rd ward, which was the East Side of Providence. Dixie Matthews and Sidney Flanagan were having me do voter registration and transportation on election time. Then I joined what was called the United Nations club when I was at Nathan Bishop Junior High School, which gave me exposure to the whole world. Dr. Ralph Bunche became a hero, Joe Louis became a hero, Jesse Owens was a hero and Jim Thorpe was a hero, because part of me is Native American, also.
Did you grow up in Providence?
Born and raised here. But my father was born in the Cape Verde Islands. He was classified as white or other, because the Cape Verdean community did not become an independent country until 1975. My father [who died in 1968] was in all probability one of the most brilliant persons, but the person that got me involved in social issues, social problems, was my mother. My mother is a very outgoing, loving caring person who would do anything to help anybody. Anybody who knows my mother knows that my mother loves the world and has done everything to make the world a better place. I respected my father’s great intelligence, he was brilliant, but my mother was a people person. Know the song, ‘People who need people?’ That’s my mother.
The founding of Rhode Island was based on an individual’s right to freedom. What do you see as the economic and social barriers to freedom facing Rhode Island’s minority community today?
The freedom that Rhode Island established was for white men who owned property. It wasn’t for all people – that was limited freedom. Let’s see how white America’s treated white women. I was a Providence policeman from 1959 to 1962 and there was not one white policewoman. If we look at white women in law enforcement across this state, in so many areas, they’re not in upper management positions. They’re in lower positions. And even though I think it’s 50 percent of all the lawyers in Rhode Island are females, [when] we look at the judgeships, there’s male domination. So there’s a sexism and a racism and religious bigotry that needs to be dealt with. So yes, Rhode Island needs to do more and this country needs to do more. And I hope that they will take it very seriously. And do it in a non-violent fashion.
When did the Providence NAACP chapter start?
In November of 1914. The national organization started Feb. 12, 1909. Providence started with the Beneficent church, the church where we are based now, and the first target they took on was the YMCA, which was a Christian organization that didn’t [include] black people in it in 1914. So even religion has been discriminatory. Basically it started with Dr. Julius Robinson, who’s my daughter’s great grandfather. He was a medical doctor in Rhode Island. He was also active in starting the Urban League of Rhode Island. So we had people who felt the need of dealing with racism, poverty and the causes and effects of slavery. This was a volunteer organization then, and this is a volunteer organization now. Nobody in Rhode Island NAACP gets paid.
What are your current goals with the Providence NAACP?
I need to still bring it into the 21st century, because we need to have a paid staff in order to be effective. You can’t function today without a paid staff and someone committed to long-range planning and short-range planning. This is a highly emotional situation. I’ve heard complaints I can’t even deal with because I’m going and going, from meetings, public relations, phone calls. Sometimes the phone rings 30 times a day. People call the office, they want to sit down, they want to talk to you. They want to know what you’re going to do about their problem, and how are you going to address their problem, and why can’t you get it done quicker.
What about the fact that many communities in Rhode Island, especially more rural areas like South County, are predominately white? It would seem segregation is alive and well.
Federal funds are diversified federal funds. Lily-white South County takes federal funds. If you say those funds are from diversified people, then they should have diversified employment opportunities. The state of Rhode Island is diversified tax dollars. And South County takes state dollars. So if that the concept is followed through, every place should be diversified. There needs to be a commitment to where the money’s coming from and a commitment to diversity. Now there are many basketball programs that didn’t have African Americans play basketball in the ’60s. And those lily-white schools may still be lily white, but their basketball team is African American. And it’s amazing how we can qualify African Americans when there’s a direct benefit. So we need to find a way to make those lily-white communities more responsive to the American way of life.
What do you see as the most important racial issue facing Rhode Island today?
Employment parity. We need to get people jobs. See if you call me Mister and I’m unemployed, I can’t fight you. If you call me idiot, and I’m working, I can sue you. I can bring charges against you, harassment. But I have to have resources to do that. You need to have people who have a hope. It’s like those five children who are charged with killing those two college students, how can you lose so much hope and faith in yourself at 19, 21-years-old? What did our society do to cause these people to be so self destructive, so full of self-hate? You know, you can’t hate people unless you hate yourself. We need to look at our society and say how are we going to make people feel that that they can fulfill their dreams, how can we give people a future, and I think jobs are very critical to that. It’s important that we train people in the field of computers. There’s not going to be a future for you if you don’t know computers. The new slavery is going to be those people who are excluded from the field of technology.
Is Rhode Island a racist state?
Yes. I think it’s a racist state when you look at the lack of exposure, like now, the State Police of Rhode Island have a graduate class of 22 state police candidates. There was not one minority there. I’m happy to see that there were two white females in the class. They had two men over 40 years of age. But they couldn’t find [qualified] minorities, [so] there’s something wrong with that selection process. If you look across the jobs of state government, we’re not there. If you look at the cities and towns, we’re not there. As I pointed out, we take diversified federal funds. I think that the minority community has to raise Cain in order for the majority community to pay attention. I think the majority community has not paid attention. The fights of the Sixties have made some doors open, but if you look at the African American college population, it’s decreasing, not increasing. Yes, racism is alive and well in Rhode Island.
What are some overt and some subtle forms of racism?
There are TV stations in Rhode Island that do not have any minorities on camera. There are radio stations in Rhode Island that do not have any minorities on [air]. There are businesses in Rhode Island who may have 100 employees and don’t have any minorities at work. In Providence, minority populations are increasing, because the white population’s moving. You can’t have availability of housing unless you have white flight. I think that there’s a need of saying that integration can work.
Under law, in order to receive certain federal and state funds, efforts should be made to hire at least 10 percent black contractors. But those quotas are never met, an issue raised again during construction of Providence Place.
And they blame the minorities for not being available and being qualified. I think that the real issue is that they hire people who don’t communicate with the minority community. How are you going to hire a male to reach out to white females? And how are you going to take a black person from Mississippi and bring them to Rhode Island to hire Rhode Island minorities. You need to get someone from the Rhode Island community who knows the Rhode Island minority community who’s very aggressive to reach out and touch someone.
There is a definite lack of minorities represented in professional fields and thus a lack of role models for children of color. What really needs to be done to get more of these kids on a career path, to securing upward mobility and success for minorities?
There are two black doctors who graduated from Brown University who left Rhode Island and moved to Atlanta, Ga. There are black people who are graduating from colleges and leave Rhode Island because they don’t see Rhode Island as a land of opportunity. And what I’m hoping to do is to bring into Rhode Island people who are high up in the computer field who will live in Rhode Island. I think that there are so many outstanding black professionals who are here, and I’m hoping that this organization will attract those people. Like Beverly Scott who’s head of RIPTA. There’s a golden opportunity. She’s a hero, but many of the people in the minority community may not be able to touch her, because she’s staying so busy.
What is the current Providence chapter membership?
The NAACP Providence branch has a diversified membership. We have professionals from the white community, black community. We’re not supposed to discuss the actual number for security reasons but we’re greater than 300 members in Providence. Now we’re trying to start a college chapter at Johnson & Wales, Rhode Island College, and Bryant College.
What’s your job like?
This is a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week job, and the structure of the NAACP is that the only spokesman is the president. It’s a volunteer organization. There are three NAACPs in Rhode Island – one in Woonsocket, which is in a state of limbo, and a very active one in Newport. We’re trying to develop new leadership because basically, many people are looking not to volunteer anymore. I’m a part of the Democratic Compact, which is trying to get more people out to register to vote, because in 1996, less than 50 percent of the eligible voters voted. The future leaders of tomorrow don’t understand that democracy only works by you participating. People have died in this country, just to get the right to vote.
What do you say to someone who’s afraid of minorities based on economic reasons?
People have understood and accepted that there are parts of our freedom that will cause us to have fear, but we’re not going to put a fence around our freedom.
Basically I think we need to educate people as to their responsibility. People need to register to vote. People need to register for the draft. People need to be talking about that war on poverty, the war on drugs is not done. There are so many things that we can do as human beings to make human life more important instead of being negative about the negative people, we need to do more positive things to make sure that negative people don’t dominate and control our society. Now how much of the potato famine are you aware of?
Not much.
Well, I think you should know that history. If the Irish community knows what struggles they had – the Irish need not apply signs, and all of the employment and the racism that came to the Irish when they came to this country from the English, as they are having in Ireland today – then there would be more sensitivity. And if the Italians and all the other ethnic groups knew their history, my feeling is that there would be more sensitivity to the minority community.
Do you think such increased sensitivity would increase business and financial opportunities for minorities?
I would hope so. But many white females have been able to get to where they are because of the Civil Rights movement. And then they get where they are and they forget the minority community, they suddenly got where they are because they were qualified. Many people forget their history. Like Clarence Thomas, he used Affirmative Action to get through school, and now, he’s anti-affirmative action. He’s a Supreme Court justice. I don’t know how he voted. I would love to know how he voted on the abortion issue, how he voted on anything to deal with minorities. He’s forgotten his roots.
