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Ms. Beverly Bowens
"Actually I didn't do too much. I mean, I went to church. I did a lot in my work as a nurse. I was involved in multiculturalism in terms of recruiting nurses. There was a terrible shortage of nurses at one point. In my position, I was a director of nursing. I had a lot to do with affirmative action in my work. I tend to be quite low key. I don't like to participate where people can see me. I'm a quiet type of person, and I feel that I can accomplish much more by actually staying out of the limelight."
"I had a lot to do with hiring, which did involve affirmative action. I had a lot to do with labor relations, an awful lot of arbitration negotiations. But, as I say, there are ways you can be an activist quietly, and I tend to do that."
"I don't know that I've made any contribution, per se, but in terms of my work, I think nurses make a great number of contributions to the community. We became very much involved. We had worked with gangs which was a very interesting thing because everybody would put the gangs down, and yet the gangs were the ones that saw that the children were fed for breakfast before they went to school. So you sort of have mixed emotions, and you have to evaluate what is going on. I have not been back in Portland that long, but most of the work we do as nurses, it encompasses a lot of community involvement."
Ms. Beverly Bowens (born in Maine; age 67; left at 21 years old for about 35 to 40 years and then returned to Maine)
Keywords: family demography, Black Families, Maine
Full Length Interview: Home is Where I Make It: Bowens, Beverly
Publication Date
2021
Recommended Citation
Bowens, Beverly, "Bowens, Beverly Quotes Transcript" (2021). We Exist Series 2: Quotes. 6.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/we-exist-exhibit2-quotes/6
