George Boykin shares the important history of Sioux City’s Sanford Center, a cornerstone of the African American community. Founded by Elzona Trosper and Stella Sanford, the Center has provided vital services that have met the times, including supporting Black airmen during World War II and launching a gang outreach program that in response to growing concerns at schools in the 1990s. Recognized as one of Iowa’s top social work agency, the Sanford Center continues to serve and uplift diverse communities today.
[What follows is an automated transcript from the unedited interview]
Jim Tillman
well, I'm Jim Tillman here today interviewing Mr. George Boykin. George, how you doing today?
George Boykin
I'm doing just fine. Good, good. I'm George Boykin lived here all my life and been involved in the community, so I'm very happy to be here.
Jim Tillman
Excellent. Let me start with saying this the Booker T Washington's Washington and Sanford centers have been an important part of Sioux City Iowa for over half a century. They have sought to serve the needs of majority and minority groups in the city. Washington Center served as the forerunner to the Sanford center, currently located at 17th and Geneva Street. The history of the centers is interesting because it tells a great deal about the people in the community, and today, the Sanford Center is a landmark of the community, continuing to serve the entire area and people within it. You know, we talk about people, and it's it starts with the people George. Tell me about some of some of the early pioneers. Let's start with, let's start with elzona Trosper. Elzona Trosper
George Boykin
is one of the early pioneers of this community. Particularly, see. City, and probably one of the first, I would say, civil rights movement women in this community, one of them, there were several others, but we'll just stick with with Arizona Trosper, she had quite an impact in this community, as a leader in the black community and also in the wider society, in the white community she first started working with and I'll bring in one more name in The area of social work or neighborhood settlement houses that Mrs. Trosper was involved with, and that was the community community house on this in the south bottoms, and Mary trail Yeah, and she worked real close with with Mitt with Mary trailia. Interesting.
Jim Tillman
Some other Okay, so you mentioned Mary trellia. Mary trellia was at the community house, and she helped formulate the Booker T Washington Center. Mrs.
George Boykin
Trotter did help formulate the Booker T Washington Center, okay? And that started back in 1933 as you know, and this center was located, you know, on the west side, on West Seventh Street, you know, above Thompson drug store.
Jim Tillman
That's fascinating many times as a kid gone in Thompson drug store never, never knew that.
George Boykin
Yeah, it was, it was, it was on the top floor of the of the building there that Thompson drug store was in and and they had their, you know, we had our, our programs and and they were a group, group of black people, as you know, the community black people that formed that Booker T Washington Center. It was name that because Booker T Washington, as you know, was one of the black leaders in the United States as far as social work and getting major contributions to the civil rights movement and establishing, you know, the Schooley Institute. And he was the person, and that's why that center was named after him. And so, you know, Mrs. Trotter goes back a long ways the other person that that, that that comes to mind, that had, you know, a tremendous impact on on the community, and particularly the black community, was Stella Sanford. Stella and Mrs. Trousper were very, very close. And Mrs. Trosper worked with, you know, Stella and the community, and with her, with with Stella's husband, and Stella convinced her husband this was a need of the black community, and he and Mrs. Sanford worked with, I would say a group of black people in the community of it had to be about 20 some some folks,
Speaker 1
black people, okay,
George Boykin
you know, to develop and to plan the Sanford Community Center. And he, he decided, well, Stella, the wife you know, convinced him he should make this as a project for our community.
Jim Tillman
And the sanfords had been known for their philanthropic efforts in Sioux City
George Boykin
for years, for years, absolutely.
Jim Tillman
So this wasn't this was just something they did. This is something they
George Boykin
did then it wasn't. This wasn't the first time they'd make they'd made charitable contributions to to the community they could they they were widespread and and making their contributions to this community is out as a
Jim Tillman
whole, and we're just so grateful that they did bless the blue T Washington. Yes, we were that's that's a great thing, and me being a product of the Sanford community center, you. Didn't know Mr. Or Mrs. Sanford, but I did know Ozona Trosper, yes, and when she was there, I was eight or 910, maybe, but I remember her, she would she was very short lady. She was short in stature, but she was as tough as anybody in the world. That's right. She cared about people. Yes, she did tell us. I think, okay so. Ozona Trosper, I think part of it was, didn't she help the black soldiers at the Air Base? Yeah, she did integrate. She did she,
George Boykin
you know, as you know, the Sioux City Air Base was a training facility for airmen for World War Two, okay, and there were they trained fighter pilots, pilots and bomber pilots, you know, in Sioux City. And there were a substantial number of black airmen that that were there and that base was segregated, and black airmen were not allowed to live with with the white airmen in the in that in those same facilities out there. In fact, I had a friend as a former lawyer. He's no longer alive here now, but he was a prominent lawyer in Sioux City. He was an airman. And we talked about, we talked about, before he passed away, how that, how that air base was segregated, and he was very ashamed of that, that that that that occurred. But anyway, as I said, the Sanford center, or the Booker T Washington Center, originally was established in 1933 and the commanding officer of the Air Base came to Mrs. Trosper back in those days and asked if, if she could do anything to establish any kind of a supportive program for the black airmen out there. Okay? And she did at the at the Booker T Washington Center. And so that was another substantial basis for the sanfords and postella to, you know, to get more involved and work with with our black community, because the black airmen had nowhere to go except for our black churches. As you know, there were about, oh, at that time, there were about six or seven black churches in the community. And as black people in the community, we only had the black churches to go to on Sundays. And the churches had not only their regular services in the morning, but then they would have their afternoon services, you know, in their churches, and then they'd have their evening services in the services. Those were the social things that that black people participated in in this in this community, and so we had two places to go, church or to work, but we had no other place to go. There were other things that was in Sioux City that that we were not able to go to. For example, we were not able to go to the Orpheum Theater because it was segregated. We could not go to the Capitol theater because it was segregated, the holiday theater. We could not go there. There were drug stores downtown that we were not able to go in and sit at the counters and order things, you know, like total drugs, like katsas, places like that, Yonker and the Martin store, we there were no minority employees there. Those are very difficult places for for us to participate in, and so we were isolated. So when, when, when, when art decided to build the Sanford center. We were very excited about that. It became a reality. Like I said. 1951 as I said earlier, Jim, my parents brought us to its grand opening in 1951 and it was a very exciting time. The place was packed. The governor of Iowa was brought in by art Sanford to help make that wow presentation and and the building was was packed. So we finally thought, when we knew that here was a place where we could come and feel comfortable, we could have our own programs, such as there was black women's clubs that that met there on a regular basis. The NAACP met, met there on a regular basis. We could have our after school programs for our own kids, because there was no other place that we could go. We couldn't go to the YMCA with our with our youngsters. So the Sanford center was it, and could have our we had our educational programs there, but the the the bread and butter programs for the Sanford center in those days were the after school programs and our Head Start programs, okay? And then, of course, we had the the other adult programs, the volunteers, clubs and things that that met there left major, not major contributions, but they left enough contributions at the center to to support it financially so that we could keep our doors open. I don't think until the late, until the late, late 50s, the Sanford center became a member of the United Way and but up until that point, it was supported by the churches and also contributions made by the various clubs and individuals in the in the black community. Wow.
Jim Tillman
So the decade of the 50s was exciting, yet it was challenging. Yes, it was very challenging.
George Boykin
It sounds like absolutely when I became the Program Director of the Sanford center 1968 our budget was our budget was only $15,000 so as you know, out of that had to come the salary of Mrs. Trosper, my salary, maintenance of that facility, insurance, all of that, and maintenance of the facility as a whole. Wow. So that was not a lot of money, and so we had to build from that point on to where we're at right now financially with various programs and various grants. Wow.
Jim Tillman
So, so, so really the 50s, and it seemed like the early 60s, and maybe beyond that, everything happened at the Sanford center, whether it was a wedding,
George Boykin
everything, everything might be a funeral, funeral receptions, funerals and even some church programs, because there were occasions where some of the churches kind of didn't have a place to meet, and the center was a place for them to meet temporarily they have their services. So wow, there was just, there's all kinds of things like that that happened.
Jim Tillman
What an incredible story. Another early pioneer, along with Mrs. Trosper, was maple white. Maple white. She was an educator. Tell me why did she care so much about
George Boykin
well, she, she was an educator here in Sioux City, and you know, the black community asked her to become a member of the Stanford Center board, and she was always interested in the civil rights movement and the rights of black people in the community and and for everybody, for that matter, for Native Americans. Because, as you know, in those days, the black community and the Native American community were the two largest minority communities in this community, and Mabel Hoyt. Was was was a dedicated Civil Rights Movement person in this community also, and along with that, was was Alba trough, tough, we're. It was another white lady that was an educator, and she was run parallel with Mabel Roy.
Jim Tillman
Wow, that's outstanding and and really, without the Okay, so it's obvious that black people could not do this by ourselves. No, we couldn't,
George Boykin
absolutely not. We did not have the the financial wherewithal to do it. We didn't have the we didn't have the leverage with the financial institutions, you know, in this community, to go to the banks or whoever and say, Listen, can you give us, you know, some credit loan to to, you know, to build a facility like this for ourselves. Just didn't have it. So art Sanford was a godsend for, for for the black community, because he financed the entire thing himself and for us to, you know, to once that building was complete, and meet, to drive up and to see that beautiful building in that location in 1951 was an absolutely miracle for us.
Jim Tillman
So I can see why it was called the Sanford center as well.
George Boykin
No, no other person made any kind of a financial contribution to the building of that center except art Sanford.
Jim Tillman
That's, that's, that's powerful, that's powerful. Let's, talk about just just some I know we're going to fast forward a little bit, but I think one of the biggest accomplishments of the Sanford center in my lifetime was the and they've had many accomplishments, but talk about how the gang outreach program developed, and what was that all about.
George Boykin
Well, for a long time, we had a situation developed in Sioux City where we became more and more diversified in our population. Jim, okay, and in 19 in 1951 or 1968 when I particularly 1968 when I started there as program director, we had very few Hispanic people that lived in our community. It was just blacks, Native Americans had a few Asian families, that kind of thing. But when the plants started to change their employee base, and I'm talking about the packing houses, and more and more Hispanic people came, came to the community, and more and more black people came to this community from other parts of the country. They brought with them their culture and their behavior patterns. And so with that, that was really good, but also there were some negative things that was happening too. We started to have have some gang issues in Sioux City. We developed a gang committee back in 1989 made up of the Sanford center DHS, the school district, and it was one other agency, AEA, and we started having meetings about what we can do, should do, to resolve some of the issues that was going on. And particularly there was a lot of graffiti going on. Also there had been two murders of youngsters by gang members in Sioux City. Oh, wow. Oh yeah, wow. Okay, and, and then we were starting to have some major problems in some of our schools, with with, with youngsters that had brought this gang attitude with them and behavior. And we, we had a we had people that come in from from from Omaha, Nebraska, because they they had a major problem down there and and to talk about their situation, what they were doing, how we could combat, you know, the upcoming situation with ourselves. And as a result of those meetings, I had written a proposal with a couple of other agencies that, you know, to do gang work. Okay And and I wrote a proposal to the state of Iowa for a for money for a gang outreach program. There were a couple of other agencies that had written proposals to the state didn't receive them, and also to local, local bodies here for $4 I was not successful in in getting my proposal, getting my promote proposal accepted. But in 1992 I was approached by the situation had gotten so bad in one of our schools, which was Woodrow Wilson, that the superintendent came to the Sanford center, the principal, the juvenile probation director, came to us and asked, if you know, what could they do we do to help them with a major problem at this particular school, because kids were bringing weapons to school, they were parents were coming to that school, disrupting in all the time, pulling their kids out of school, out of class, You know, doing things toward the teachers. They were just it was just out of control. And I said, Yes, I could do something with this, if I had the funds to do it. And they assured me, if I could do something, they would, they would, they would. They would provide some funding for us. The other, the other family that that had heard about what we were trying to do in the community with this gang problem was the wait family. And the wait family met with me also, along with juvenile probation chief of Officer, position person to talk about what I could do and how I would do it. And they also, not only they provided the administrative, not administrative, but volunteer expertise and money. They were a major contributor to the Sanford center for the for the getting out outreach program, and they they were just, they wanted to know, what would I do to to help me solve this problem? And my answer to that was that I would put, if the school district would allow me, I would put outreach workers and and particularly at at Woodrow Wilson School, and we would deal specifically with with youngsters that was causing the dysfunction and their families in that school. And so I placed three outreach workers in that, in that, in that in that school, the first year, 1992 we took probably a dozen weapons from those, from those youngsters at Woodrow Wilson, we stopped, I don't know how many gang fights. Wow. Every evening after the youngsters were dismissed from school, our outreach workers were out there to make sure that there was no gang fights. They would not only be on a school property, but after the youngsters had left, they'd go into the community and you know, to make sure that there was no fights in that particular part of the neighborhood. And that's how we started. That was a very successful experience for the Sanford center and this community. And as a result of us working with those youngsters that that had the major problems, particularly, we wanted to identify, you know, the gang leaders, because if we couldn't get to the gang leaders, we were not going to have success, right? So we were able to do that with the people that we had there in those schools. We also had a very close relationship with law enforcement in in this community, they helped us also with with with their support, and the program grew. And so during that time, from from from 1992 Jim to about 2015 when I retired, we. Had helped over 6000 almost 7000 kids in the gang outreach program. The other Wow, the other program that we used as a supportive program was our school suspension program, any youngster that was on the caseload of our outreach workers and I required that each outreach worker had to have at least 20 youngsters on their on their on their caseload in their schools. That we knew that those youngsters because they was, they were, they were the functional ones and and they were the ones that was going to get in trouble more than anybody else that they were going to be. They were going to be suspended from school. And we didn't want these youngsters, well, the Stanford Center. I didn't want those youngsters out on the street being suspended for a day, two days, three days, or even a semester, and getting into trouble again because their parents were working. The kids were at home by themselves. They would be going out doing things that they shouldn't be doing. And so I developed a suspension program where any youngster that had been suspended from the Sioux City School District. We started out with middle school youngsters and high school youngsters could come to the Sanford center, and we would continue the education in cooperation with the school district. The school district would provide all of the educational material for the Sanford center, and working with these kids from the school that they came from. And in that program, we helped about 5000 kids from 92 to 20 to 2015 and they'd be suspended maybe for a day or three days. Some were suspended for semester. Wow. And so it was a very successful program. It was so successful that that the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, came to the Sanford center and visited us to look at because they our program was a a first time program in the state of Iowa that was effective in in Working with kids and keeping them out of the law enforcement center, keeping them in school and keeping me, keeping them in their families. The other person that I'm proud that I had a relationship with was Barack Obama. When he was running for office in 2007 I believe it was. He came to Sioux City, and our center was the first place that he wanted to come because he'd also heard about our city, okay, and met him, showed him what we were doing. You know, he rated his experience in Chicago and whatever. He was so impressed with our program that he he says, I'm coming back, George, and what I'd like to have is a special luncheon just for your staff and myself, because I want to meet them and their families and and I have pictures of that at home. You know, in what you're doing, he said, I'd like to meet you, wow, these people that that are working with these with these families and with these youngsters, because we were working not only with the with it, with the youngsters, but we were also working with the total family. Because if you didn't do that, if we didn't have the support of mom and dad or grandmother whatever, then we weren't going to be very successful working with those kids. So anytime that, anytime that these families, the adults in the family, had any kind of a domestic problem or a legal problem or whatever, our outreach workers would assist those folks in resolving those issues hand carry them to whatever institutions they needed to go to and work with those administrators and those programs to help them through the, you know, the legal situations that they were in immigration. The same thing I had people that that would take our folks to and assist. Them and with immigration issues, to Omaha or to wherever they needed to go to make sure that they were getting what they needed, as far as green cards and whatever else, and process and getting adjusted to this community.
Jim Tillman
Wow, and that's and that really shows you that the Sanford center outreach workers care about people, absolutely. I mean, I think that's really a
George Boykin
big part of that, absolutely, well we understood the people that that I hired were people that understood that the gap in education and the I won't say that all of us as black people, as minority people in the system, didn't get a good education in Sioux City. There are a lot of us that did, but there's a lot of us that didn't. And you know, and I've been talking about the youngsters that that wasn't getting a good education because of their dysfunctionality, you know, in the system. And those were the youngsters that that we wanted to work with. We also wanted to work with those youngsters that had gotten into trouble, that looked seem to be going off on the wrong track track, and if we could catch these youngsters early, before they really got off on the wrong track, then we could prevent them from from from going off in the wrong way. We had several occasions where parents would ask if they their youngsters could come to our program without being suspended because we had a reputation of success with with youngsters that weren't doing well in school. They got into trouble one time, but they weren't being suspended, but they wanted to come to our program because we worked individually with those youngsters to resolve that issue. One of the things that was very, very important in this program is that that that no other program in Sioux City had was that once a youngster was suspended from a particular school, our outreach workers would follow him from that school to the Sanford center and meet with them on a regular basis for the for the time that they were being suspended, if they were being suspended for two weeks or for a semester, our outreach workers would still come and work with those youngsters and the teachers to resolve that, resolve that youngsters issues, and we had certified Teachers. I mean, we just didn't have people or volunteers coming in, you know? Well, I'll help this reading or math or whatever. We had certified teachers that who could teach to teach. That's right. Wow.
Jim Tillman
That's, you know, you just look at the the impact, how it's helped Sioux City, Iowa. I mean, I don't think a lot of people realize that, but, but that that was strong, strong time period. Let's, let's, let's go way back. I know I'm calling kind of all over the board, but through my research, I understand that you first heard of the job of the Sanford center through some co workers at Zenith. What was, what was those conversations about? Well, you know,
George Boykin
that was that was that was another opportunity and, and what else do I want to call that, that I had, I was at that time when I was a when I was a worker at at at Zenith. I was a line foreman for two lines of women that built radios at
Jim Tillman
zenith, and at the time that was a big company hired a lot of people. They built
George Boykin
radios and TVs. I remember that absolutely. And one day, I'm sure you remember this name, Loretta Butler. Oh yeah, you know, she was a worker there too, and she was on the board of the Sanford center. And at 68 she came over to me. She says, I want to talk to you, George. And I said, Okay. She says, We need someone to assist Mrs. Trosper at the Sanford center, and we would like for you to interview for the program directorship of the city. Wow. And I said, Man, almost knocked me off my feet, Jim, because i That was the first thing away in my mind that I could get. Because I never would imagine anything like that for myself. Because at the time, I had had, you know, few years of college education, and my major at that time in in college was, was music, music and, and, wow, and, and I just, I just, just no way that I would, that I thought I would work in that particular area, and so I went home that day and talked to my wife about it, and told her that Mrs. Butler and I had had that conversation. Mrs. Butler again, they had a little something on to that she was another major black woman in this community is make to make progress for us all. And and my wife and I talked about it, and my wife says, George, do you have the patience of working with young people as well, I don't know, but you know, just based on our situation, I said, I think that right now, I says, I can, I can make that adjustment and make that change and And that's how we as black people have been able to do it all of these decades and generations. We've had to make adjustments, and you know, in our lives, to adjust to a society that really hasn't accepted us as much as they should. And I said, Well, I can, I could do this. I said, I have to do it. And, and I said, and furthermore, furthermore, I says, I'll be making just a little bit more money, which we can use. You know, at the with this position that I'm that I'm making now at Zenith. And I said, so I think, you know, you should allow me to, you know, you know, to try it. And I said, also, the other thing, it gives me the opportunity to grow more than what I'm at the zenith plant, because I know that there, I would have only been stuck in that position as a line foreman, and I said at the center, I think I can do more, particularly for my people and for my family, and so why don't, why don't we try it? And I did and that, and that's, that's how
Jim Tillman
I got the job. Amazing, amazing. That's, that's a great story. Man, I think, I think that's, that's all I've got for right now. Anything that we missed about 1700 Geneva Street. I remember, I remember being an athlete there. Matter of fact, the first football coach that I had there was Archie Arvin in seventh grade. He was my first basketball coach at the Sanford center. That's right. So, a lot of the Sioux City black athletes started at the Sanford Community Center, absolutely.
George Boykin
So Rudy Lee Junior was one of them,
Jim Tillman
yeah, one of the greatest. He's one of the great athletes Sioux City has
George Boykin
ever had. Absolutely, he was recruited by the by the Yankees after he graduated from high school here and went to Southern Illinois University. His mother used to work for me at zenith, and she passed away while he was at college, and Rudy had to come home and support his family because the father was not, was not involved anymore, and and he had Rudy had, I think he had a brother and a sister that. That that were younger than younger than him, and he had to come home and get a job and support and support his support his family, but he was one of the greatest baseball players I've ever I've ever seen play WoW
Jim Tillman
in Sioux City, and it's amazing because at the time, Central High School didn't have a baseball team.
George Boykin
No, we had intramural baseball at the Sanford center. We also had intramural track at the baseball Center during the days I was there and Oh, wow. And we had the baseball team that we had Rudy was always the number number four batter. And he would, he would hit a home run every single time he was, he was just that good.
Jim Tillman
Wow, yeah, it was, and I heard he was, of course, I was younger. That's my cousin, but I always looked up to him, yeah, and then I heard he could, he was ambidextrous. He could throw left handed, right handed. He was, he was a total athlete.
George Boykin
He was really, really good. He was really good. Wow. We've had some, we've had some really, really neat people there. I've had a I had a really, really good staff, you know, the you know, we go back, and he said, we've gone back a long ways. When I first started, it was just Mrs. Trosper and I at the center, and we would be open all day, every day, at the center. And we'd be open from from from nine in the morning until five in the in the evening. We'd come back at 630 or seven o'clock in the evening, and be open until 9am and then 9pm every day, every day, and it was just the two of us. We had, we had, we had some volunteers that come in. But you know how volunteers are, sure volunteers, well, I can't come today because, you know, have something going on with my kids and doing whatever, which is fine, but it was just, it was just us two, and that was, that was very, very challenging,
Jim Tillman
and me being a kid that came to the Stanford Center during that time we just came in the evenings, yeah, so we had no clue that, no, you guys did anything during the day. Yeah, we were open all day.
George Boykin
And we had, we had, we had, like I said, we had things going on. We had things going on during the day. And those things that I mentioned earlier were when some of the adult groups would come in and utilize the Center for further meetings, or they would be preparing for receptions on the weekends that we would have, you know, through the churches, it was, it was always something, And it was not like a five day week program for us, it was a, it was a seven day a week situation for us, because the churches would have things on the weekends, there would be funeral receptions on the weekends, there would be anniversaries on the weekends. And so it was, it was a tremendous challenge. Wow, boy. Tremendous challenge those. The center has quite a quite history. And the other thing that I'm quite proud of the center, I can't remember the year, but the center was recognized by the state of Iowa as the as the number one social work agency in in the state
Speaker 1
of Iowa, was that the one Iowa award? Yeah, okay,
George Boykin
and wow. Governor culvert gave us that recognition, and the lieutenant governor came out and made the award to the Sanford center,
Speaker 1
number one in the state of Iowa. That's a
George Boykin
great testament. So I'm, you know, I'm really proud of that agency. It's just, it's had a tremendous impact, you know, in the community. I mean, it is, you know, the second oldest neighborhood, settlement house, you know, in in Sioux City. Okay, sure. Wow.
Jim Tillman
One other question. Question. When I was doing the I was over at the Sanford center a couple weeks ago talking with Fitz, and he mentioned that, okay, so he read somewhere where, okay, so after Mrs. Trosper, and then before you got hired, was there interim? No, there wasn't. No, okay. Mrs.
George Boykin
Trotter was the first executive director of the Sanford center. And he may have been thinking about, you may have been thinking about another person that that helped Mrs. Trosper, get on, you know, get the thing going. Moving back in 1951 52 three, whatever. And that would have been Jane Yates. Jane Yates was the executive director of the merit trailer Community Center. And Mary and Jane Yates. He was she kind of Jane, not only mentored Mrs. Trosper, but she also mentored me. Because when I was hired, of course, Mrs. Trosper helped me a lot, but also Jane Yates gave me assistance, the other person that gave me assistance was art Sanford. He, you know, I met with him on a regular basis in his office in the Washington electric building. And so I had, I had several people, you know, you can't do all this stuff. You can't do these things all by yourself, right? You got to have, you got to have people, have people that support you and and will help you along. So, you know, Fitz may have been thinking about, you know, Jane, you know, assisting Mrs. Trosper at the time, okay,
Jim Tillman
because I had, you know, I was alarmed, because I'm like, I want my history to be accurate. Yeah, it's like, well, I need to find out who this person was, George. I appreciate you taking the time to share your life story, Sanford center story. This is the 75th year, this year that it's been located at 1700 Geneva street. So there is, we're putting together a, a, I don't want to just say a publication. It's going to be a major publication, good. This is and and I think it was important to really get your input on this. And I'm sure before the book is completed, we'll be talking again. I'll probably have you look it over and just make sure in there, I'd be happy
George Boykin
to do that, because I just hope that, I just hope that we can have a, we can have a, some sort of a celebration at that center soon, You know, because of its existence, you know, in this in this community, this long
Speaker 1
because, oh yeah,
George Boykin
we're the oldest, really, we're the oldest minority organization in Sioux City. I can recall meeting with when I first started there. I can recall meeting with our my Native American friends, when they were getting started, the person that I really do remember having an impact that on the Native American community, that that got things going for that community, was Theo means, and, you know, and it was just, it's just been a fantastic excuse me experience, and in working with folks the Hispanic, The same thing, the other thing too, that I think was very important when the Asian community came to us, and this is gotta, it's just it had to be in 2028, 2008 or whatever, and they wanted to have their their Asian celebration in Sioux City. And they came to me for help to get that organized. And we finally got them going. Had their first celebration out at Riverside Park, and two. 2008 and we were the major organizer for that, for that group. Now, they're independent and doing it, doing it on their own. It's a
Jim Tillman
huge festival now, wow, and that's so really the community is really involved with the Sanford center, wow. And if you want
George Boykin
to verify that you can talk to, you talk to pagan law. And she worked with with one of my employees that was very impactful in getting that whole thing started was YUI sai Bong, worked for me. He was, he was one of the major leaders in the Asian community that that that accomplished a lot in this community.
Jim Tillman
Yeah, my Of course, my son was a product of the Sanford center also, and he talks about, to say, a Vong, he was really impacted, impacted by him. So it just shows you that different workers at the Sanford center, it was all the community. They didn't just have to affect people that look like them. No, it was, it was
George Boykin
bigger than that. It is larger than that. Absolutely, absolutely. I had another young man that he's no longer with us. He died from cancer, too, and that was Rick flute. I don't know if you ever know. Oh, man, yes. Rick flute was, was one of the major leaders in a Native American community that that that could do anything he had. He had the culture in him, and he, he, he worked with and touched lives of hundreds of Native American youngsters and getting them on their feet, keeping them in school and graduating from school. Jim, when I, when I went on, when I went on the school board in 1971 in 1971 there had only been, there had only been, I think, less than than 15, less than 15 Native American kids that had graduated from the Sioux City School District. Maybe less than that they'd get to the seventh grade, the highest they would get, and they would drop out, they would drop out of school. So we had to do something about that when I went on that board, and we did,
Jim Tillman
that's great, man. So really, yeah, this really helps me, because, you know, a lot of people, we have our perception of what this center is, and it's so, yeah, this, this is good. It'll tell the total story. It's not, it wasn't just for black people. No, it was for anybody. It was for the community. It was for the
George Boykin
community as a whole. We worked with everybody, you know, in the entire family. It was like I said, you just could not, you know, you work with, you know, the kids and whatever. But you have to involve the entitle being in the total family if you want to make if you want to make change and breaking that poverty cycle in the community, you got to do it. I know that first year, when I established that outreach program, worked, like I said, closely with the juvenile justice people in Sioux City, they had a tremendous overload of minority youngsters that was on their caseload, and they were having a major problem in getting into the minority homes to work with those families, getting them to sign off on papers and whatever. They couldn't do it. So we worked with them. We were the only ones that could get in those homes and say, Listen, you know, this is what you have to get done. This is what you have to sign if you want to keep your youngsters out of trouble and get them out of this system. Because the probation officers would show up at the door, they wouldn't answer it, they wouldn't answer the phone, wouldn't do anything like that. Hire outreach workers because they look like them. You know, they establish a confidence in them to work with that particular office, and we diminish their pro. Nation list, tremendously. Wow.
Jim Tillman
That's great. That is great. That's great. Thank you, George, you're welcome. Appreciate you. Enjoyed this. We might, might have to get together and do a little part two later this summer. Okay, see
George Boykin
how we go, that'll be fine, excellent. I'd be happy to do it. I'm glad you invited me to do this.
Jim Tillman
Jim, well, yes, yeah, you've been a when I was in high school, I remember you came to West High and spoke to us in our minority cultures class, yeah, and not that we were, I think of the students in there, lot of us weren't really interested in what was going on well, but I remember you coming up there, and I remember we may not have really been interested, but we knew we had George Boykin at the Sanford center to support us. So whatever went down, we're gonna call George at the Sanford center and see what Deacon was
George Boykin
happy to be in that position. I really was.
Speaker 1
It was, I really was,
George Boykin
and see in the school district by me being elected to that office in 71 gave me that opportunity to do that kind of thing. It really did. And I, you know, and I appreciated that. The other thing that, you know, the that particular office did for me was, you know, I was appointed by Robert ray to a multicultural educational committee in the state of Iowa. There was about 25 of us on this committee to develop a multicultural education legislation for the state of Iowa. Wow. And we did that. We met for we met for about three years, and finally got things together, presented to the state legislature, and they finally, they finally passed that legislation for us in 1975 Wow, in 1975 amazing, amazing. And as a result of that, we were able to hire a minority Director of Education at the Sioux City in Sioux City, and we were the first district in the state of Iowa to do that
Jim Tillman
pioneers in a lot of things. So it not only started with the pioneers of Arizona, Trosper Mary, trellia, Loretta, Butler, but it just continued on. And I guess I like history. It's like, in a sense. You know, we run the race for so long that we hand the baton off. That's what we have to do. Miss Trosper handed the baton. Yes, she did her turn. That's right.
George Boykin
It's like running a mile relay team.
Jim Tillman
Wow. George Boykin, born in South Sioux City,
George Boykin
Nebraska, South Sioux City.
Jim Tillman
So we're going to get some Nebraska people. That's right, we're going to know about this book also good, because this is, that's where your journey started.
George Boykin
Yes, it did. But right? Educated K through 12 over there. Wow, absolutely.
Jim Tillman
Okay, thank you, George,
George Boykin
you're welcome. Jim, welcome.
