Community Conscience

Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2000 | 9:05 a.m.

Social activist/local radio host Pat Cunningham remembers when her life took its most dramatic turn.

It happened in 1993.

After 26 years in various counseling positions, she was working as a psychiatric assessment counselor for the mentally ill at an agency in Las Vegas.

Upon returning from a week's vacation she learned that the FBI had been by her office. They wanted to ask her about one of her clients.

"I remembered him very well. He didn't seem like the rest of my clients. He seemed well educated and dressed better," the 52-year-old Cunningham remembered. "He was the type of person who, if he needed a ride to an appointment, I would have given it to him without thinking. He had been in to see me many times."

Agents dropped by in person to question her about the man.

"They told me he was one of the most violent criminals Washington state had ever seen. He had killed a man in full view of his wife and mutilated him," Cunningham said.

The agents continued talking to her, but her mind drifted off as she thought about how close she may have come to being a victim.

"I felt it was time to change directions. It was a combination of burnout and irrational fear," she said.

The Gorman High School graduate quit her job at the counseling center and since then has devoted her life to a wide variety of pursuits -- most of them related to social causes that include racial issues, education and other problems facing the nation.

Growing up in the '60s, she developed a social awareness that has never left her. It was the reason she got her degree in social work. "My father wanted me to be a lawyer. But I felt I had a moral obligation (to go into social work)," she said.

Cunningham has always been a social activist. In 1990 she was named the Distinguished Woman of Nevada for her work as a civil rights and children's advocate.

Most prominent among her activities have been radio talk programs she has hosted. "After 26 years as a counselor, I realized I could accomplish a lot more in talk radio," she said.

Before quitting her counseling job she had been a volunteer at KCEP 88.1-FM, where she learned everything she could about the broadcasting business.

She became the all-black station's first newscaster, which led to her current job as a reporter for the American Urban Radio Network, based in Pittsburgh. The network syndicates black-oriented programming to more than 200 stations across the country.

Cunningham continues to work at KCEP, hosting "The People's Forum" every Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon and acting as a public relations person and remote announcer.

Her talk program has no limits on the issues it covers.

Last Saturday's call-in show was about Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy at the center of a raging controversy in Florida. Gonzalez' mother drowned when she fled Cuba with her son. The boy was rescued and is now is caught in a tug-of-war between Cuban nationals living in Florida and the Fidel Castro regime.

Most callers felt the child should be returned to his father. But many felt he should stay with his relatives in Florida. "My closing comment was: 'What if that was an American boy in Cuba?' " said Cunningham, who favors sending the boy to his father.

She has hosted other radio and television programs and sits on a number of boards for community organizations. In October she formed the Alliance for Social Justice, an organization that works in the interest of the local black and Hispanic communities.

Cunningham said that there has been a lot of progress in race relations during the past 30 years.

"It's a disservice not to recognize the progress," she said. "But there is still a long way to go. We won't change our bureaucracy till we change society."

Cunningham added that people are still not comfortable discussing race relations. "They are not comfortable with what others' perception will be of their feelings," she said. "People aren't ready to reveal their raw emotions. But you and I don't have to agree on every issue. It doesn't make you a racist to disagree."

Cunningham jumps into many causes, either through her radio program, her Alliance -- or by simply showing up at a meeting.

Two years ago she was one of the most outspoken protesters objecting to alleged racist and sexist comments made by UNLV Athletic Director Charles Cavagnaro. Last year she lead a charge to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights over the new high school graduation exam.

"I was concerned that students were not ready for the new test," she said. "We support higher standards as much as anyone in the state Legislature but we have the responsibility of assuring that our children's rights are protected."

Most recently, she's been watching the Clark County School Board search for a new school superintendent. "A lot of things that could go wrong in the search did go wrong," she said about the failed attempt to hire someone during the first search that saw the top three candidates withdraw their names at the last moment.

Cunningham said that the search committee must honor the wishes of the school board, but that the school board needs to get its act together. "There is no cohesion on the board," she said. "If they can work with each other, put their differences aside and make peace, then we are going to see some progress."

She said added that the board members are dedicated to doing the best for the children, but until they work more closely together the children are going to suffer the consequences.

Education is one of Cunningham's major concerns.

If there is any accomplishment she is most proud if, it is her three children: Che, 28, a coach and a student at Ohio State University; Kwasi, 24, a rap musician in Las Vegas; and Anika, 16, whose special interest is in classical music.

They have excelled in education and, she said, they are positive, compassionate and loving people.

Schools are where much of racial education begins, she adds, and it is where many parents and teachers fail.

"You have a lot of burned-out, angry teachers, many of whom don't expect much from our children," she said. "But the ultimate responsibility is with the parents.

"Parents of color need to get involved in their child's education. But the problem is, if they've had negative experiences in their own education, they are going to be reluctant to go back and become involved."

She criticized those who expect less of black people than they do others. This, she said, tends to lead to an unequal education, adding that the type of education you get depends on the area in which you live.

Children in one area of town are going to have more educational opportunities and be exposed to a wider variety of things, such as the arts, than children in other parts of town.

"There is not equal access to education," Cunningham said, adding that the importance of education is not being stressed early enough in children's lives. "More needs to be done in the primary grades," she said. "Too often we are preaching the importance of education in the seventh and eighth grades. It needs to be done sooner.

"We need to make sure everyone is getting the most they can out of education."

One of the reasons that Cunningham created the Alliance for Social Justice was to empower parents to become more involved in the education of their children. "There is a multicultural committee at each school, but I'm concerned about what some of them do. At one meeting it was proposed to sponsor a national food fair.

"Kids can go to Taco Bell for cultural food. Something more needs to be done."

PTAs, she noted, need to take a harder look at themselves to determine if they are doing enough. "Are they making everyone welcome?" she asked.

Black History Month, which continues through February, is still a part of the racial education process. "You would think there would no longer be a need for it, but there is," she said.

But the problem with focusing on one race, she said, is that it alienates members of other groups, adding that Cimarron-Memorial High School -- where her daughter, Anika, is a junior -- has the right idea: It focuses on different cultures each month.

"Students need to see people of accomplishment (who) look like themselves," she said.

It helps their self-esteem, she noted, to have role models they can pattern their lives after -- and the models should not just be superstars and famous people such as authors and artists.

Black people in the community also need to be recognized -- successful people whom the students can see and talk to.

"The storybook figures," she said, "are not nearly as important as the real people."

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