Nancy Bray (revisited)
January 2007: As a kid growing up in Lane County, Nancy Bray earned
summer spending money picking beans in area farm fields. "I became
aware that there were families out there picking for their basic
needs," she says. Bray volunteered with the Migrant Ministry while in
high school, and later, at the UO, she boycotted the EMU for serving
non-UFW union lettuce. Since graduation, she has taught in Springfield
schools for 30 years. When she began teaching English Language Learners
in the mid-90s, one of her first bilingual assistants was Guadalupe
Moreno, recently arrived from Baja California. "I had two years of
English classes at LCC," says Moreno. "I was lucky to get the job and
help the Latino community." Since 2003, Bray and Moreno have worked
together as director and coordinator of the Lane Education Service
District's Migrant Education Program, providing educational and social
service support to children of migrant workers.
2022 update: After retirement from Springfield
schools in 2009, then four years working in University of Oregon
Education Studies, Nancy Bray joined the board of her neighborhood
association, Friendly Area Neighbors (FAN). "I was a founding member of
the FAN Equity Action Team," she notes. "We were concerned about
increasing racist graffiti and vandalism. Our first project was a yard
sign: 'All are Welcome Here - Honoring Diversity and Human Rights.' The
signs are popular in the neighborhood." Then, in 2017, Friendly area
neighbor Dr.Edwin Coleman II died. A UO professor of English who taught
African American literature, a acoustic bassist who toured with jazz
bands, a civil rights activist and a UO track and field official,
Coleman was recognized by the Eugene City Council, who renamed the
Westmoreland Park Community Center in his honor. "Our team decided to
put a mural on the building," Bray reports. "We applied for a grant
from the city and easily raised matching funds. We interviewed Ed's
wife Charmaine and others, and hired muralist Jessilyn Brinkerhoff, who
designed the mural and finished it in 2019." The mural depicts Coleman
as a musician and an English professor. It was so successful that the
team landed a larger grant for two additional murals. "It used to be a
drab building," Bray raves, "and now it's gorgeous!" View the murals
online at the FAN website.
happening people
photograph and story by Paul Neevel
Eugene Weekly / 16 June 2022
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