Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1971)
Panthers disrupt Portland prison meet By DEAN WHEELER Of the Emerald PORTLAND—A luncheon of the Oregon Correctional Association convention was disrupted briefly Wednesday by a group of nine Blacks one White who were protesting the luncheon speaker, Louis Nelson, San Quentin Prison warden. The 10, who identified themselves as Black Panthers, carried signs and chanted throughout the room as conventioneers were being served. The protestors left the room briefly, and, when they tried to regain entrance, Bob Snider, Thunderbird Inn General Manager, locked the doors on them. A customer of the motor inn was spat upon by the protestors when he tried to clear them from the hallway outside the luncheon room. State police and Multnomah County officers responded to the complaint, but no one was arrested or charged. The demonstrators left the Thunderbird Inn quietly after parading outside the building for a brief period of time. Meanwhile, Warden Nelson began his speech, entitled, “Prison Riots.” Nelson opened by saying “In California we haven’t seen an Attica. But we have been blessed—or plagued, depending on your point of view—by many minor disturbances.” He said he had predicted “disturbances” in America’s prisons several years ago, but “nowhere were we led to believe there would be butchery, savage butchery.” He was commenting on the recent At tica, N Y. prison riot in which 42 persons died, and the Aug. 1, 1970 disturbance in San Quentin. Nelson used a report by one of his assistants to document his own contention that prison disturbances and riots are caused by outside agitation rather than interior problems. “It has become increasingly obvious that trouble can be started from the outside—and not the inside. The events of 1968 (San Quentin prisoner strike) showed that public pressure from the outside and the use of rock bands could forment trouble.” He continued, “The people who were demonstrating on the outside were not there out of concern for conditions of the prisoners, but were a continuation of the campus demonstrators. “Our prison disturbances—not revolution, not rebellion—but disturbances, were caused by the same persons who brought our great universities into the disrepute they are now in.” Nelson said San Quentin had made more changes “in prison reform in the last four years than it had in its history. I can’t un derstand how we were so good in the eyes of the public two years ago, and now we are being constantly criticized.” The San Quentin warden, who described himself as a “non circulation manager,” said, “We must stop trying to isolate penal reform. “I can remember the time when penal reform was giving the inmates an extra bath a week." Louis Nelson. San Quentin Prison warden, gives speech before the Oregon Correctional Association convention at Portland Wednesday. Nelson’s talk was delayed by a demonstration by 10 Black Panthers (below). Photos by Phil Waldstein U.N. China Debate Weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, October 18 through Tuesday, November 2 Live on KWAX 91.1 f.m. New Releases of Major Importance Tiger & FOX imperial Animal 6.05 Bergamini **22X2?" 14.95 Reuben Any Woman Can 7.95 Van Lawick - Goodall 10.00 In The Shadow Of Man Fast Incompatibility of Men & Women Lash Heyerdahl Wouk Ben - Gurion Ashe Eleanor & Franklin Ra Expeditions Winds of War Israel Quest for America l*fj||m/ Introduction to American VVMlCy Archaeology: South America 5.95 12.50 10.00 10.00 17.50 15.00 18.00 O. 13th at Kincaid Political Soicaec Films Presents D.W. Griffith's 1915 masterpiece in Birth of a Nation "My most favorite of plus- Movies." . —G. Swanson Buster Crabb9 TheTymes in Buck Rogers ^ episode no. 4 Next week: Fistful of Dollars Friday, 150 Science 4:30, 7, & 9:15 p.m. Still $1.00
