Targets Compton Violence : New Councilwoman Not Used to Giving Up

When she was a youngster, Patricia A. Moore and her migrant family spent Memorial Day and the Fourth of July picking crops in the Central Valley while the parades passed them by.

“I remember . . . asking my father why we couldn’t be there. He would say, ‘Baby, next year we’re going to see it.’ I wanted to be a majorette, so, he cut off a broom handle for me.”

Determination and years of practice with the broom handle made Moore the first black majorette at the high school in Corcoran, the farm town between Fresno and Bakersfield where the family settled after her father was paralyzed in a farm accident.

The same kind of determination has made Moore a Compton city councilwoman. After unsuccessful tries in two previous elections, she won a seat on the council in last month’s primary.

She was to be sworn in July 1 but, without ceremony, took the oath of office at last week’s council meeting after Floyd A. James, whom she defeated in the April 18 primary election, decided to vacate his seat early to wage a write-in campaign against Councilman Robert Adams.

Though there was no time to organize an elaborate celebration or to gather her family and friends, the swearing-in was momentous, Moore said.

“I was shaking because I was so overcome by it . . . asking myself, ‘Am I ready?’ I feel that I am, but you never feel that you’re worthy of all the people you have such respect for that have supported you.”

Though her election was only a month ago, 40-year-old Moore, an outreach specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau, dived headfirst into her new duties even before her swearing in. She rode night patrols with the Compton police and attended the budget work sessions that ended last week.

Her performance during the budget sessions has already impressed some city staff members. “I think she’ll be the type of person who is going to read all the materials,” one said, “who does her homework, does research and is involved in everything.

“She’s very dedicated to the well-being of the community. I think that came through in the (budget sessions). She asked some good questions that were thought out and had some substance.”

In a city beset by bitter rivalries and struggles over who will reap the benefits of redevelopment, Moore’s success has also sparked criticism. One woman active in local politics referred to her as a “political hack” who is “unqualified” to sit on the council.

While Moore was attending the daily budget sessions, foes were already asking why she was not at work at the Census Bureau.

“I took time off,” Moore said without rancor. “I put in long hours with the bureau.”

‘Excellent Work Record’

On most mornings, she said, she is on her way to the bureau by 7. Also, she said, her job requires her to work many weekends, speaking at churches and other gatherings in an effort to heighten awareness of the importance of the population count. “I work very hard. I have an excellent work record there.”

While she was working and campaigning this spring, she was also taking four classes at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where she is earning her degree in political science.

Hard work, though, is nothing new to her. She remembers well the days when she and her two younger siblings worked with their parents in the fields.

“We used to travel in the summer to dig potatoes, pick watermelons . . . plums, beans, grapes. I couldn’t sleep at night because we would sleep on those mattresses that were full of bedbugs and they would bite us. I remember, oh, so vividly, up before dawn. We were up on the trucks going out to the fields.”

Teacher’s Encouragement

After her father’s accident, she, her brother and her sister helped him run a small “juke joint” in Corcoran while their mother worked as an attendant for home-bound people. A kindly junior high school teacher whom Moore remembers only as “Mr. Isaac” convinced her parents that their oldest daughter could spend more time in school and still do her share of the work at home.

When she graduated from high school, Moore came to Los Angeles, went to business school, worked for the Bank of America, then married and raised three children in Compton. The grandmother of a 2-year-old, Moore and her husband, a former Compton policeman, separated 10 years ago.

As a congressional fellow, Moore worked in U.S. Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally’s office. In 1983 she ran for the City Council against Jane Robbins, with whom she will now share the council dais. Four years ago she ran against James and lost. She was not planning to run again but when a 2-year-old child was killed in Compton during a drive-by shooting earlier this year, Moore said she was overwhelmed with the feeling that she had to do something to help her community overcome the cycle of violence and drugs.

“I got tired of people up at the university saying when something happens over in Compton you don’t stand up and do anything. Where are the people?”

Organized Group

Moore organized marches and demonstrations to draw attention to the need for gun control and helped establish a group called Mothers Against Violence that was made up largely of women who had lost their children in gang shootings.

Creating a safer community, she said, will be her No. 1 priority as a council member. “Without people feeling safe,” she said, “they don’t participate, they can’t function. They can’t shop, they can’t water their front lawns.”

She said she wants a reevaluation of the Compton Police Department so that more patrolmen are on the street. Compton residents, she said, don’t have faith in their police. The chief, his commanders and his lieutenants, she said, must go out into the streets and listen to the people’s pleas for more protection.

“We need to look at a more progressive way of dealing with our gang problem,” she said. “We’ve got to offer alternative (programs).”

Moore said city officials need to work more closely with their state and federal representatives to bring more programs and more money into the city for job training, education and recreation.