A Voice for Equity
Barbara K. Roberts
Available April 2022
Paperback Original ISBN 978-0939165-81-0
$20.00
198 pages, 30 photographs
Library Edition ISBN 978-0939165-83-4
$32.00, Library Binding, Hard Cover
EPUB ISBN 978-0939165-82-7 (Available on several Online venues.)
A Voice for Equity is a collection of twenty-two compelling speeches by former Governor Barbara Roberts that span her years in public service as a politician. Roberts was the first woman governor of Oregon and the tenth in the nation. She began as a member of a local school board in 1973, followed by years of elected offices, culminating with her election as the 34th governor of Oregon in 1990.
Governor Roberts has always been a strong supporter of public education, handicapped rights and services, environmental management, and streamlining of state government. Equity has been a beacon in her public service to this day. Roberts continues to give public speaking engagements and is considered a vital link in Oregon’s Democratic party. Bottom line, Roberts has always given voice to fairness, equality, a level playing field, decency, and dignity. As Roberts states so passionately in her latest book’s Preface, Author’s Reflections, “I hope my passion comes through to you, the reader. Please sense my urgency of message. Be open to making change. Be the voice.”
Over the years, Governor Roberts has given many speeches on many topics to many different groups and organizations. She has carefully chosen the speeches in this volume to be representative of her lifework for equity: she covers a variety of issues, including disability rights, women’s rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, children’s rights, death education and grieving, the environmental concerns, protection of public lands, and more.
The Speeches
—A Voice for People with Disabilities *** A Future Governor Speaks Out for Disability Rights(1989) *** Answering the Call for Children (2004)
—A Voice for Women ***Feminist Leadership: Making History (2003) ***Capturing Women's History: Telling the Stories (2012) *** Looking Back, Moving Forward (2015)
—A Voice for Oregon ***Naming Ceremony for Oregon's Human Services Building(1995) ***Why Are They Angry? Citizens & Their Government(1995) ***Portland State University Commencement Address (2007) ***Finding a Place: The Trials and Triumphs of the Displaced (2015) ***The Practice of Leadership and Change (2006) ***Climbing the Mountains of Change (2009) ***Voting: Inclusion, Exclusion, Confusion. Where Does Oregon Stand? (2013)
—A Voice for LGBTQ Rights
*** The Threat to LGBT Rights in Oregon (1992)
*** Bringing it Home:Gay Youth, Families and the LGBT Movement (1998)
*** Harvey Milk Foundation (2013)
—A Voice for Death with Dignity
*** American Academy of Bereavement Conference(2005)
*** Association for Death Education & Counseling Conference (2005)
*** Press Conference on Death with Dignity (2006)
***Compassion and Choices
***Testimony to Vermont Senate Health and Welfare Committee (2013)
—A Voice for the Environment
*** Eleven-year Retrospective of the Clinton Forest Plan (2005)
*** Bureau of Land Management and the Public Lands Foundation (2018)
About The Author
Barbara Roberts was elected the 34th Governor of Oregon in 1990, becoming the first woman governor in her state and one of the first ten women governors in the nation. Previously, she held public office for twenty-four years, including ten years as a public-school board member, a community-college board member, a county commissioner, a state representative, and the first woman to serve as majority leader in the Oregon House of Representatives. In addition, Roberts was elected to two terms as Oregon Secretary of State (1984 to 1990), serving six years before her election as Governor.
Barbara Roberts is a native Oregonian and a fourth-generation descendant of 1853 Oregon Trail pioneers. Her father was a minister’s son from Oregon and her mother was a farmer’s daughter from Montana. Barbara and her sister, Pat, grew up in Sheridan, a small Oregon town with fewer than 2,000 people. Roberts describes her parents, Bob Hughey and Carmen Murray Hughey, as warm and caring, and she considered her father one of her greatest supporters. Her dad was proud of his two daughters and encouraged them to be active in school and the community.
At 18, Barbara married her high school boyfriend. As soon as she graduated from high school as class salutatorian, she moved to Texas where her husband was serving in the U.S. Air Force. Her first son, Michael Sanders, was born in Texas in 1956. Her younger son, Mark Sanders, was born in 1958 after her return to Oregon.
After sixteen years of marriage, a divorce left Barbara raising two sons as a single parent with no child support and a low-paying office job. As a result, her part-time college classes were no longer financially possible and she had to leave college.
When Barbara’s son Mike was diagnosed with autism and school authorities would no longer accept him as a student, she knew she had to step up and advocate for him. So, Barbara began her active public service life as an unpaid, part-time, legislative advocate for children with disabilities. Six months later, she was successful in securing passage of one of the first special education laws in the nation that served children with emotional disorders. That first legislative win was the start of a long, notable, political career.
In 1974, Barbara married Frank Roberts, who was her state senator and political mentor. Frank became Barbara’s biggest fan, eventually encouraging her to run for secretary of state and governor. In 1993, during her term as governor, Frank died of cancer. They had been happily married for twenty years.
Following her term as Oregon’s governor, Barbara Roberts spent a decade in higher education administration focused on state and local government leadership. She served five years at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, followed by five years at Portland State University’s Hatfield School of Government in Oregon.
Among her many recognitions is the naming of the Oregon Department of Human Services Building in her honor and the Barbara Roberts High School in Salem. Governor Roberts was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Willamette University, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Portland State University, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Western University College of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition, as part of USA TODAY’s “Women of the Century,” a 50-state national program recognizing trailblazing women in every state, Governor Roberts was named one of Oregon’s ten “Women of the Century” in 2020.
Barbara Roberts is a published author with four books, including her autobiography, Up the Capitol Steps: A Woman’s March to the Governorship (Oregon State University Press, 2011), and two editions of Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology (NewSage Press, 2002 and 2016). With her latest book, A Voice for Equity, Roberts continues to be a vocal advocate for women’s leadership, disability issues, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental concerns, and equality and dignity for all people.
Barbara Roberts lives in Portland, Oregon with her significant other, Don Nelson. She is a mother to two adult sons, a grandmother to two grown grandchildren, and a step-grandmother to eighteen.
As one of Oregon’s most beloved, respected, and sought-after leaders in the state’s Democratic party, Roberts continues to mentor and advise others as they seek leadership positions.
