Because of all the above, a political club was organized to combat prejudice and to give the Greeks a better reputation. We called it The Greek-American League. To advance these ends we decided to give a banquet in the Gold Room of the Fairmont Hotel and to invite the mayor and the local, state and federal politicians.

I remember at that time Mayor Rolph was in office. Senator Shortridge was a United States Senator from California. They and many other politicians were invited to attend. The plans were laid out, the banquet was organized, and a date was chosen. As president of the club, I had to play some official part, at least make a short speech. Being still inexperienced and young, I dreaded it. I told my friend and guiding teacher, Charles Constantine, that I would play ill, stay out of the city and stay away from the banquet. However, Charlie, God bless his soul, knew better and was able to convince me that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. He would help me prepare a brief talk. I could easily memorize it and deliver it. It would be a credit to me and to the club over which I was presiding.

At any rate, the day came. The dinner was held and my time to speak. I stood up. Charlie was alongside of me. I was scared stiff. My legs were trembling. I sounded like a youngster that recites a poem at school. After a brief three or four minute talk, I was through and sat down, relieved. The talk was not great, but I did not humiliate myself. The banquet was a success. A number of prominent people attended and the word spread that the Greeks were organized and would play a part in the political life of the City where we lived.

In September of l925 San Francisco would be celebrating it's Diamond Jubilee. It was the 75th Anniversary of the City. During the week's events there was to be a parade at night to be called the International Parade. At the meeting of our club we invited the help of all other Greek Societies and decided to raise money for a float. We appointed a committee to go out and interview various artists in order to design the float. The float was nicely decorated and again we appeared as a group of people that were here not to take money and leave, but to stay and participate in the life of the city and to contribute to its progress.

From the early part of 1925 on, I became socially active. I started to learn all that I possibly could about the Greek people of San Francisco. I learned that there were a number of Greek societies in existence. Most of them represented various parts of Greece from which their members arrived. Their sole purpose was to give assistance to their "patriotes" with sick benefits and the like. As a result, they played no part in the American life. They were practically unknown. They would bring together, for instance, the Arcadians, or the Messinians, or the Corinthians, or people from the Islands, or from Northern Greece. They tended to be provincial.

There was also a small fraternal order named "Order of Klossa." Klossa in Greek means the brooding hen. And as the hen looks after its chicks, so the organization was to look after the welfare and protection of its members. They were very careful whom they admitted as members. The number of members was small, but they did good work. It served as a medium to teach immigrants parliamentary procedure and the proper way to conduct themselves in meetings and in society in general. It became evident that we Greeks must also join non-Greek organizations. The more experience we had the better we would be able to conduct ourselves when we appeared among other peoples.

Three years before, in 1922, back in the Southern part of the United States, the Ku Klux Klan was persecuting not only Negroes, but Jews, Catholics and even Greeks. The Greeks of that section of the country felt that they should organize to find ways to protect themselves. A group in Atlanta organized a fraternal order, the AHEPA, which means American Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association, to fight prejudice and to educate the Greeks on how to be good citizens. Later on I'll come back to this issue.

While all these things were taking place, I tried to attend as many meetings as I could to learn as much as I could such as good English, conducting meetings, proper speech and anything else which would help a person be a better, more useful citizen. I attended meetings in the Order of Klossa. I also learned a lot from some of my friends. Some of them had a better education than I had. Some had more experience in running organizations from involvement in meetings of the Greek-American League, etc. As time went on I became confident that whatever I didn't know I could easily learn. I never hesitated to attend meetings or to express my opinion.

The following year, 1926, we had municipal elections. They were held every two years in San Francisco. That year the elections involved the Board of Supervisors, the mayor, the district attorney, judges, and state and federal offices. The Greek-American League took part in the elections by endorsing candidates. We wanted to let the people running for office to know that the Greeks were here, that we were a power to contend with, and that we were not to be disregarded or treated with prejudice.

I remember one year in particular when the Greek-American League had endorsed a slate of candidates. We called on the candidates we endorsed to come to meet our members at the California Hall. During the process of the meeting one of the candidates for judge that we had not endorsed asked to be recognized and to speak. I refused him the privilege and explained to him that I was very sorry but the policy of the organization was that only those who we endorsed could speak. The judge was pained. He did not like it. A few years later I happened to appear in his court in the Hall of Justice as a witness. No sooner was my name called and I was put on the stand, the judge said, "Peter Boudoures, let me ask you one more thing, and I want an answer. Next time you have an endorsement of candidates are you going to confine it to the ones you already endorsed, or are you going to let all the candidates come forth, give you their ideas and then decide who to endorse?" I said, "Well, Your Honor, we all live and learn. At that time we first endorsed the candidates and then asked them to come before us to speak. Now we have a different policy. We call all the candidates, listen to them speak, and then decide who we want to endorse."