CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE
August 1, 1966
Page 17722
DOROTHY BROWN, 16, OF PORTLAND, MAINE, A PARTICIPANT IN THE WAR ON POVERTY
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I would like to invite the attention of my colleagues to an article appearing in the July 17, 1966, Portland (Maine) Sunday Telegram. The article concerns 16year-old Dorothy Brown, of Portland, Maine, and her experiences as a participant in the War on Poverty.
Dottie's first connection with Portland's anti-poverty program came through her enrollment in the Neighborhood Youth Corps program for school dropouts. As an NYC enrollee, she became a member of the Operation Headstart recruitment team. She is now enrolled at the Poland Spring Job Corps Center where she will learn skills to enable her to become a productive member of society.
Dottie's experiences as a recruiter for Operation Headstart are eloquently stated in her letter to President Johnson. The conditions in the impoverished homes she visited illustrate the great need for continuing an effective and meaningful anti-poverty program.
I believe my colleagues will be impressed with the spirit of this young girl, and I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the RECORD.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
[From the Portland Telegram, July 17, 1966]
GIRL CALLED DOTTIE WRITES LETTER To HER PRESIDENT
(By Marion Roberto, Staff Reporter)
Dorothy Emma Brown paced the floor at the Neighborhood Youth Corps center while anger and frustration welled within her. Dottie, a 16-year-old NYC enrollee had just spent two days rapping on doors of impoverished families to recruit five-year-olds for Operation Head Start.
And she was heartsick at the poverty and misery she had seen. So she poured out her despair in writing to the most powerful man in the country-President Johnson.
"I don't understand why the President of the United States helps these other countries when he can't even help his own."
Dottie outlined with graphic clarity home conditions she had seen. Her letter ran almost seven pages.
She made little reference to herself, merely four short sentences: "I'm 16. I live alone. I have been living alone for at least a year now. I had a hard life when I was young."
The letter, it is known, was read by the President, whose response was sympathetic. He said he was grateful to young people like Dottie who try to better the lot of others. She will frame his answer, she says.
Dottie takes exception, however, to being called young. "I'm not young anymore. I'm not an adult either. I guess I'm just Dottie."
She knows with a fierce certainty that she wants to take care of children, perhaps in an orphanage of her own, or even in Korea.
"I love kids. I know how they feel. I can tell when they hurt just by looking at them," she said.
Dottie's own childhood hurt was so deep she won't talk about it. Oddly, she feels no bitterness.
"I started to but I knew it wouldn't do me any good," she says. "So I bring the hurt out of me by helping other people. And those other memories just go away."
Right now, helping other people means working with little children at the YWCA Day Camp. As an NYC worker she devotes about 32 hours a week, with these youngsters.
"I love it. I had a lot of training with a lot of kids. I play games with them and talk to them. This is just my whole life. I'd give my whole life for a kid," she says.
"I feel like I'm wanted by kids and that they need me. I just feel that some of them have the wrong kind of parents. All they need is the right kind of love and the right kind of care, but love is the most important." Dottie wants little for herself; in fact, she asks for nothing. She is financially independent on the $40 a week she earns.
When her day is over she goes to her room and dreams of the future.
"I remember once I wanted to become a nun. Now I couldn't dream of it. A nun has to go to church all the time. How could I take care of kids if I had to be in church?"
Dottie says she's not a Catholic, nor a Protestant. "I'm not anything."
Asked how she feels about God. she answers, "I love Him. I hope He's with me all the way."
The past seven months have meant everything to Dottie. This is the period she's been a member of NYC and she refers to officials there as "my family."
Under the corps' encouragement she attended night school and received her eighth grade equivalency. She may go on to high school "and if I can't get my diploma I'll get all the education I can get."
The corps made arrangements to have Dottie enrolled in the Women's Job Corps Center in Poland Spring. A few strings had to be pulled because trainees homes are supposed to be at least 300 miles away.
Dottie leaves July 26 and will be gone a whole year. "I'm going to miss my family here, the Neighborhood Youth Corps," she says. "Before I came here I didn't know what I was going to do."
She says one of the things the corps taught her was to "start acting more like a lady. And I wear skirts. I don't wear chinos all the time."
She gets annoyed, however, when people tell her she should be a little neater or fix her hair differently.
Somebody tried a while ago. "I'm Dottie," she said with a flash of anger. "And nobody's going to make me into anything but Dottie."
DOROTHY'S LETTER (JUST AS SHE WROTE IT)
"DEAR PRESIDENT JOHNSON: My name is Dorothy Emma Brown. I live at 12 Wescott St. Portland Maint. Im 16. I live alone. I have been living alone for at least a year now. I had a hard life when I was young.
"I'm in the NYC. (Neighborhood Youth Corps). I like my work very much. I do work with children. That's the most important part in my job.
"Yesterday, my councilor Mr. Franciose and Mrs. Kimball put me on a spical mission. The mission was going around to different houses and trying to get the parent's to sign the form for their children ages 5 for the head start program.
"I have to amit it wasn't easy. I just couldn't believe the thing's I saw.
"I went to a lot of poor peoples home's. I felt so bad I had all I could do for not crying. "I went to one house on Salem St. The woman had 5 children, all little one's. Their were feather's all over the place and it looked like they got the furniture out of the dump, the kid's were running and crying, and the mother looked like she had a six pack, what I mean is she looked like she been drinking.
"One Of the kid's was sitting on the floor trying to get in a bottle of pill's. Their was two of the kid's out sid fighting. I was trying to make the baby laugh, but she just look at me and then turn over in the crib and went to sleep.
"I couldn't stand it and so I went out side while she (the mother) was signing the paper. I told the kid's to stop fighting and then I went in side the house, took the bottle of pills away from the little girl, check her mouth and went out.
"Boy! Was that place cold. I felt like taking the kid's and run.
"There was another place on pine street. I felt sorry for those kid's too. Their must have been eight, know father, all little one's, rate up to eight year's old.
"They were the cutest kid's I have ever seen. I talk to them and you can tell their hurt. Their mother was very mean to them.
"One Of the boy's was sick or should I say retarded. He started coming over to me and his mother belted him. I told his mother their wasn't know (reason) for that, and she said he was always in her way. I told her if she didn't want them why that she have them.
"I know that wasn't right for me to say that. I know it was none of my business, but Im interested in kid's so I think it is my business.
"There was another Place on congress street by munjoy hill. She had about 9 kid's, for what I've sen she looked like she was about 60. She had the shakes for maybe it's because of drinking. I wouldn't be surprise at all.
"The funerture look's like it came from the grand central dump. Im not joking either it was torn and had hole's all through it.
"The kid's looked like they came from overseas somewhere. A little girl about two climb on top of a table or what was left of it, and going to jump. I caught her just in time.
"I could go on and on but I think I gave an idea how a lot of people live, in Portland. "If there is anyway I could help these children I would, and I think the NYC kid's would to.
"I don't understand why the President of the United States help these other countrie's when he can't even help his own.
"Well, I think I made my self clear in a lot of thing's I wanted to say.
"I sure can see that I had a hard life, but their's people that is worse of than I am. "
Sincerely your's
"DOTTIE BROWN."
AND L.B.J.'s REPLY
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington,
June 29, 1966.
DEAR DOTTIE: I was deeply impressed by your letter about your work with the Neighborhood Youth Corps and your experience in signing up children for the Head Start Program in Portland.
It is obvious that you have acquired an important lesson that some people never learn.
The lesson is that regardless of how hard life seems at times -- and you have known how hard it can be -- conditions can be even worse for others.
I think you would agree with me that our country is the greatest on earth and that never before have Americans enjoyed such prosperity. That is why I am so grateful to young people like you for giving of your time to help make life a little bit better for your neighbors.
I am glad to hear that you have been going to night school. Keep it up, Dottie,. because nothing is more important than adequate education in preparing for the years ahead.
We are depending on citizens of your determination to make this a nation in which some day there will be no such thing as the poverty which caused you to write to me.
Sincerely,
L.B.J.