Salute to the Black Family Spotlights 2 Households : The Filers of Compton and the Gautiers of West L.A. Are Lauded as Examples at the Third Annual Event

Maxcy and Blondell Filer of Compton have been married 38 years. They’ve raised seven children, six of whom went to college and two of whom also have graduated from law school.

It wasn’t easy establishing his family in careers, Filer said. “I had three children in college at the same time. They would call on Sunday and say, ‘Daddy, I need $500 for tuition tomorrow.’ I didn’t have it. I didn’t know where to get it. I’m happy to say I never wrote a bad check.”

By working with finance companies and laboring to pay them back, “We did it without borrowing from family. We did it on our own.”

Thousands of black families are “doing exactly the same thing,” quietly crafting their own success stories. But, said Filer, a tall, bulky Compton City Council member, the media only focus on blacks who fail and not on those who make it.

Media Criticized

As a way of correcting that negative image, Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Los Angeles sponsored the third annual Salute to the Black Family at the Sheraton Grande Hotel.

At last Thursday’s event, local black politicians criticized the media, even as they honored two, stable, successful black families, including Filer’s.

“I know a thousand people in my neighborhood in Compton who could have received this award tonight,” Filer said modestly, adding, “I don’t believe there is a problem with the black family. The problem is with the media.”

Evelyn Gautier, a West Los Angeles resident who was honored in the single-parent category, agreed.

“I think the media portray things different most times than they really are,” she said. “All black families are not into drugs. They are not into gangs. My kids aren’t into drugs or gangs. I’m a single parent and I think they turned out pretty well.”

Sole Support

Indeed, her daughter, 21, is now a senior in political science at UC Berkeley where she is president of the Berkeley NAACP. Her son, 19, is attending L.A. Trade-Tech College, studying to be a chef.

Hard work has allowed her family to achieve what it has, said Gautier, who at a time when she was the sole support of two children younger than 3, moved to Tennessee, got a part-time job and attended dental hygiene school. She said she later passed her national boards “with the highest score ever made.”

What made Coke in Los Angeles decide to honor black families? Lucy Boswell, the company’s ebullient, extroverted consumer relations manager, said the program had its genesis about four years ago.

She and other blacks long have been concerned about media depictions of black families but one night she tuned into a television special focusing on the “decline of the black family,” she said. The program showed black families “didn’t do this and they didn’t do that and it was all drugs, gangs and welfare.

“It was so slanted--it wasn’t showing the true picture,” said Boswell, who was master of ceremonies at the Coke salute. “They showed nothing positive,” nothing about “the 90% of black people who care about this country, who work hard for this country. They are not on welfare. They go to war and die for this country. They do everything they can to show they are proud to be Americans.”

Made Her Mad

The show made her so angry that Boswell, a few days later, went to the “powers that be” at Coke and asked if she could organize an event to honor and celebrate black families.

It was for the very purpose of combating the notion that the black family is disintegrating that the Rev. Jesse Jackson presented his family to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, said Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, (D-Los Angeles) who spoke at the Coke awards along with Rep. Julian Dixon, (D-Los Angeles), and Mayor Tom Bradley.

“It was important to see him as a family man,” said Waters, who added it was even more interesting to note the reaction to Jackson’s display: “After the convention, there were all these raves about Jackson and his strong and beautiful family.” People said they had no idea Jackson had such wonderful, articulate children--”and they are so smart.”

“Yeah,” Waters replied, “a lot of us are.”