Blue Water Woman--Spring 2020--ONLINE

A CENTURY
of civic leadership
Ila Shoulders is a woman driven by faith.
Faith in the Lord has helped her through life’s ups and downs. And, over
the past 100 years of her life, Shoulders has had reason to question that faith
– and she’s certainly been given reason to question her faith in humanity
itself – but she did not question that faith. In return, her faith in the Lord not
only comforted her, but led her to a place where she brought comfort to her
community. Shoulders has volunteered
thousands of hours of her time, during
her very long life, to help make the Blue
Water Area a better place to live.
“There is so much I depend on God
for,” said Shoulders. “I depend on Him
for everything. He is my everything.”
Shoulders – who celebrated her 100th
birthday on January 10 of this year – has
been named the recipient of the Blue
Water Woman Civic Leader Award for
her lifelong dedication to making the
community better.
“She’s very inspiring,” said Donna
Schwartz of Port Huron, who nominated
Shoulders for this award. “When she
becomes involved, she’s a change-agent for
any organization or cause she believes in.
She is a brilliant woman.”
Shoulders said she got involved in
community events for a simple reason: “I
wanted to see my community become
better, and I wanted to see people become
better, and I wanted to keep busy.”
Born in Letahatchie, Alabama in 1920,
Shoulders moved to Michigan when she
was four years old.
“Our family moved because black
people were being lynched just for being
black, and it was not safe for us in the
south,” she said.
After Shoulders graduated from high
school, she attended Port Huron Junior
College, now known as St. Clair County
Community College. She married Earl
Shoulders Sr. and together they had four
children.
Shoulders worked for the St. Clair
County Economic Opportunity Committee and helped establish the first
Head Start daycare program in St. Clair County. She later worked for the
Michigan Employment Security Commission, and then retired from the
Social Security Administration.
Shoulders is most proud of her volunteer efforts, especially those that helped
establish the Peoples Clinic in Port Huron. The clinic provides free healthcare
to those who cannot afford it.
“I worked at the clinic for 21 years,” she said. “We started it because a group
of people saw that people were not getting the healthcare they needed.”
She noted that it took a while to help spread the news throughout the
neighborhoods that free healthcare was available to people.
“People who don’t have much, don’t expect much, and they feel they don’t
deserve it,” she said.
Shoulders was also instrumental in establishing the Blue Water Citizens
Against Crime neighborhood watch group and the Southside Coalition.
Schwartz noted that due to Shoulders’ involvement, residents on the
6 SPRING 2020 BLUEWATERWOMAN.COM
BY PATTI SAMAR
ILA SHOULDERS
south side of Port Huron were able to drive drug trafficking out of their
neighborhoods.
Shoulders has been recognized for her volunteer community leadership
roles throughout her life. She received a Spirit of Port Huron Lifetime
Achievement Award, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major Award,
and the Distinguished Service Award from the Port Huron Council Parent-
Teacher Association (PTA).
Shoulders was also an active volunteer
with Blue Water Habitat for Humanity
and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
During the course of her life, she’s
been witness to much change in the Blue
Water Area and beyond, particularly the
ways in which people of color are treated,
and the benefits that came to them with
the establishment of the Civil Rights Act
of 1964.
“The Civil Rights Movement was a
great thing for black people,” she said.
“Before that, right here in Port Huron,
we couldn’t live anywhere we wanted to.
Landlords had an unwritten law between
them that they wouldn’t rent to black
people.
“And jobs opened up…before that, we
were refused jobs because of our color. It
made things very hard for people.”
Shoulders recalled a painful medical
incident.
“I was pregnant and I had a toothache,
so I went to the dentist downtown here,
and he looked at me and said, ‘I don’t
treat black people.’ So I went to another
dentist and he told me, ‘I don’t treat
pregnant women.’ A friend of mine took
me to Canada. The dentist was a really
nice person. I went to him for years. I
brought my kids to see him. He really
spoiled me.”
Regarding the state of race relations
in the country today, Shoulders said:
“Things are a little better, but the change
is subtle. It’s not as good as it should be.
“Prejudice is a terrible thing. People
need to not be prejudice. But that’s a hard thing to conquer. It’s taught in the
home. Little kids see no prejudice. It’s taught to them. It’s a sad situation in
our culture.”
Throughout her life, whenever difficult situations arose, Shoulders turned
to her faith for support and comfort. She grew up attending St. Paul’s church
in Port Huron, and as an adult became a founding member of Faith Christian
Community Church.
“All of my friends, we went to the same church,” she said. “We had to go
to church before we could do anything else. Any time the church doors were
open, we had to be there.
“My church means I have a home, and after I leave here, I have a Heavenly
home.”
Her favorite hymn also mirrors the way Shoulders views her past century of
life: “I like to think of that song we sing all of the time: ‘He’s been good to me,
He’s been good to me.”