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CommentsYes You Can
NAACP Springfield Chapter President Francine Pratt is a living example of how anyone can get what they want out of life, if they’re willing to try.
Most people are ready to call it a day: It’s 7 p.m. on a Friday night at Big Momma’s coffee shop on Commercial Street. But Francine Pratt is just warming up, sipping on a big mug of chai tea and reflecting on her crazy week. Pratt, the president of the local chapter of the NAACP—the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—has a full-time job working on child support projects with Maximus, Inc., a government services provider. Francine’s week started in California and took her to Virginia. She then spent Friday in Missouri, seeing clients in Jefferson City. It’s all in a week’s work for this 51-year-old.
Good genes mask her true age, and Francine’s energetic presence is a force to be reckoned with. Only a few well-placed smile lines give a hint at the lifetime of stories worth telling. And like her life, she dives right in. “I was born in Europe, and my mom passed away when I was in second grade,” she says, starting with what sounds like a modern-day Jane Austen novel. Her father, Ralph Stedman, worked in the military and became head of communications under former Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter. He was one of the first African-American males on the official White House staff. “We grew up in a lifestyle that most people never experience, but because my father came from a family of 12 where they never had anything, he raised us in a matter of respect,” Francine says.
Exposed to politics and travel at an early age, Francine soaked up experiences other children never see, languages many never hear, and a whole different set of life requirements and expectations. In sixth grade, her family moved to California, where Francine lived most of her life. Her father raised her with empathy and high standards. “My father used to tell us, ‘I will give you all of your needs—a roof over your head, clothing on your back and food on the table—but everything else is a want,’” Francine says. “If I wanted a bike, I had to figure out how I was going to raise half the money for that bike, and he would give me the other half.”
Under this loving guidance, Francine became her own woman with her own goals. She was married and became a mother to three children. There came a point in life, however, where she was stripped of everything material. She survived an abusive first marriage and became a single mother. “I was so embarrassed to let my father know that I got in that situation, that I never shared that with him until I got myself back on track,” she says.
And she did. Francine worked in public service for 27 years. To supplement her income, she took odd jobs after the kids went to sleep. Always community-minded, Pratt started the Young People on the Move group in California and mentored homeless women. In 2005, after her children were grown, Francine moved to Maryland to run the Baltimore Office of Child Support. She took a caring but firm line with the single mothers she worked with in Baltimore. “I would tell [them], ‘I had three children! I didn’t have a car! I had to take them on a bus at 5 a.m., dropping them off at two different places, and I would still get to work.’ I told them if I can do it with three, you can surely do it with one. It helps them realize they can do something. I say, ‘Yes you can.’”
It was Francine’s personal life that led her to Springfield. Francine met her husband, Wes Pratt, the coordinator of cultural diversity at Missouri State, at a professional conference in 2002. They were married in 2006. Wes grew up in Springfield, and when they moved back in 2007, Wes told Francine that things in Springfield hadn’t changed in the 30 years he had been away. “I told him to invite some people for a gathering at our house, and I would make some food.”
The Gathering was born. A handful of community members came to the first meeting, and the group talked about partnering with Springfield Public Schools and how to become more financially savvy. “I have always lived in diverse environments—and this is my own philosophy—but I think that people who live in more diverse environments have a better understanding of people’s differences,” Francine says.
Rev. Larry Maddox, then-president of the NAACP, came to The Gathering and told the Pratts that they should join him at the NAACP because the groups had similar interests. Despite her short time in Springfield, NAACP members saw Francine’s leadership ability and experience and elected her president. “Together We Can Do More” is the 2009 theme of the Springfield local NAACP chapter. Over the course of the year, the chapter will set up an infrastructure that can help Springfield residents create the community they want to live in, and Francine says she looks forward to the challenge.
“I have been saying, ‘Yes I can’ for years,” she says.
