PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

eye on how much cotton his daughter picked each day. Ross attended an all-Black school because state laws excluded Black youngsters from attending the “white” schools. There was a railroad track in Byhalia “and we knew not to cross it,” said Ross. The water fountains and public restrooms in Mississippi were designated white or “colored.” OPPORTUNITY AWAITS ELSEWHERE “When I was 19 … my granddad came to visit fromMemphis, Tennessee,” said Ross. “I begged to go back to Memphis with him.” Her father finally agreed to let her go, on the condition she get a job there. “I took the first job there was, as a maid at Holiday Inn,” she said. “Otherwise, I’d have to go back to the cotton field.” Ross lived with her grandfather for five years while working one, sometimes two jobs and going to school. “I figured I’d get an education and not have to go back to Mississippi.” Her studies included two-year certification programs in the career areas of legal secretary, nurse assistant, architectural engineering, biomedical engineering and cosmetology. Once Ross had her own apartment in Memphis, six of her eight siblings soon joined her. “My brothers and sisters were raring to get out of Mississippi, too,” she said. PEORIA BECKONS Ross spent three and a half years studying early childhood education at Memphis State University, stopping short of a degree. “From the time I left Mississippi, I had a passion for children and how to help kids succeed,” she said. But she knew fromher own experience that the educational system for Black children wasn’t adequate. She was a product of Mississippi’s educational system with “A” grades “but in college it was a ‘D’ because the educational foundation was just not there.”

After living briefly inWashington, D.C. and California, Ross moved to Peoria on the recommendation of a friend who promised, “It’s better here.” Within four months of arriving in central Illinois in 1980, Ross had a job at Peoria’s Urban League doing cosmetology. A customer introduced her to Sidney P. Ross. She married him that same year. Over the years, Ross worked at Salvation Army, Carver Center and UnitedWay. She finished up at Bradley University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in social services and a master’s degree in human development counseling. On June 4, 2012, Ross was diagnosed with breast cancer. The next day, her husband of 32 years died, succumbing to heart failure. “When I toldhimofmycancerdiagnosis, he said, ‘I guess I better get better, so I can take care of you,’” she recalled. “Then the next day he was gone.” HELPING CHILDREN ‘TO SEE VALUE IN THEMSELVES’ At 21 years, Ross is the most senior member of the current Peoria Board of Education but not the longest serving ever, a distinction that belongs to Leo Sullivan (1963-1986). Ross got her start on the School Board in 2001, when a seat came open and she was appointed to it. In 2003, she campaigned for the District 1 seat serving Peoria’s South Side, was elected to a full term and has been reelected ever since. She served as board president from 2015 to 2018, and again this past year. She cites that institutional history as a big advantage. When new members want to make changes, “I can say, ‘We tried that and it didn’t work,’ not because I don’t want change, but so we can look at how to do it differently this time.” In April, at the age of 75, Ross will run for another five-year termon the School Board. Should she win, it will be her last. School Board members are unpaid. She serves because “I’m passionate about children and I’mpassionate about

families,” said Ross, whose devotion to the city’s South Side extends to her longtime presidency of the Goose Lake Neighborhood Association. In her time on the board, Ross is most pleased to have had a hand in establishing Parent University, “helping parents help their children to see value in themselves,” she said.

‘IT'S IMPORTANT WE HELP THESE KIDS UNDERSTAND THEY DIDN'T COME FROM SLAVERY. THEY CAME FROM ROYALTY’

— Martha Ross “It’s important we help these kids understand they didn’t come from slavery. They came from royalty,” she said. “Somehow, I just feel if they have value in themselves and a future, some attitudes would change.” But, she admits, “Things haven’t changed a whole lot.” Growing up in an era and a region where Black people were restricted from fulfilling their ambitions, Ross has backed efforts to get students the resources they need to work and live where they please. She cites the PPS programD Squared, a two-year study program for high school juniors that, once completed, simultaneously earns them both a high school diploma and a degree from Illinois Central College. She is proud, as well, of the district’s vocational offerings. Meanwhile, during her tenure the district opened the Wraparound Center, which attends to students’ social emotional learning needs. Her goal is for Peoria Public Schools to be a trend-setter for other districts. “We have people from outside our district paying to send their kids here,” said Ross. “They want their kids to be here.” Linda Smith Brown is a 37-year veteran of the newspaper industry, retiring as publisher of Times Newspapers in the Peoria area

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