By  Dianne Anderson

The south with its dark history of oppression would stop most young people today in their tracks.

Growing up in Memphis, Tennessee under the scourge of race hate is one thing, but getting past it with strength, dignity, a determination to break the chains of poverty is quite another.

It’s in that spirit of survival that local poverty activist Lois Carson recalls and reflects on the fight for people’s rights, not with a jaundiced eye, but with determination. Somehow, the struggle only made her, and those of her generation, even stronger.

“It made you realize what you needed to do, made you strong, and my mother always said you’re going to college,” she said.

Back then, parents and community pushed their kids to achieve. Today, it’s a different world, she says, with different needs.

Now in its 27th year, through her Black Future Leaders program she pushes local youths toward solutions for this generation. She wants them to think out of the box with innovative solutions. The world needs their fresh perspective, she said.

“Examine to see where you can fit in, and see what you can do in your own community, given that you’re going to go college and you will be a future leader. We need more of that,” she said.

Sometimes it is a hard sell. Poverty is at the highest level the nation has seen in decades, and any work is hard to find. The real struggle, she says, is because the poor have few or no allies. They have no lobby to help them.

Now semi-retired, Carson has spent the better part of her life lobbying on their behalf. She knows all too well how the system works, but the process is not clear for the average person. She thinks the Occupy Movement plays a definite role in bringing the issues to the forefront.

“They will not be able to pull the wool over people’s eyes anymore. I think the Occupy Movement and the whole issue about taxes served to educate the American body politics that things are not the way we thought they were,” she said.

During the 1960s, she was teaching English when Lyndon Baines Johnson declared War on Poverty. At the time, she was already very active in the National Council of Negro Women, when they were asked as an organization to outreach to the low income community for Head Start. NCNW members hit the heavy trail on the Westside and Muscoy to get poor people to enroll.

“It was so funny that out in Muscoy, white people said to us, that’s for Negroes. I said no it’s not, it’s for the poor, and if you’re poor you need to take advantage of it,” she said.

Community Action meetings picked up speed in San Bernardino, and Ms. Carson was there, trying to get services and resources for all people. Later on, she headed Upward Bound, a War on Poverty program, and eventually found a work home for local and national advocacy as director with the Riverside Community Action Partnership.

“That’ how I got into it, and found out ultimately that I loved it,” she said. “I felt that I was born to do that.”

For some 35 years, she’ been on the same track. She tries to teach people how to control the engines of power of their lives.

But for Blacks as a whole, and not just the poor, knowledge of personal finance has been a big hurdle to self-sufficiency. Most Black families historically have not had the luxury of role modeling in finances, making it difficult to pass down generational wealth.

“We all know that there are investments out there, but how many Black folks, even educated Black folks, are investors who leave some financial legacy to their children?” she asks rhetorically. “They’ve never done it before and they don’t think about it.”

Her solution was to push hard to get local people into the CAP IDAs, Individual Development Accounts, a savings program that gives away $4,000 to participants for free. It’s one of the best programs she’s ever seen to move people out of poverty.

IDA, a two-for-one federal matching program, was just refunded by Congress. Participants commit to save $2,000 money over time and attend classes, and use their $6,000 to buy a home, or to fund college or a business.

“Once you have a home, you have an asset, you begin to develop other assets,” she said. “IDA and the Earned Income Tax Program, a program that sends back a tax credit for the working poor; when you mix that with the IDA program, it really gives people a foothold.”

In her spare time, she is active with St. Anthony Catholic School and is also a member of San Bernardino Valley College Foundation. By springtime, Ms. Carson will participate in the search for a new president for her alma mater, Cal State University San Bernardino, as Albert Karnig steps down in retirement.

“I’m looking forward to it as a member of the first graduating class of Cal State San Bernardino, I’m happy to give back and serve in some way,” said Ms. Carson, who graduated in 1967 with a degree in English.

Through her career as a social activist, she said turning around the psychology of poverty is probably one of the hardest challenges of all.

But, she looks at the world from the prism of possibilities.

“You’ve got to break a mindset to do that. You’ve got to get that spring in the head to turn it from I can’t to I can,” she said.

For IDA program information, see http://capriverside.org/opencms/FAQ/IDA_FAQ.html