Emerald
Vol. 82, No. 80
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Eugene, Oregon 97403
Friday January 16, 1981
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Allied against racism
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1
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Emerald graphic
BSU honors black activists
while Atiyeh condemns racism
• • •
By PAUL TELLES
and LISA TAYLOR
Of the Emerald
Noting that American race relations
may be as bad today as ever, Eugene’s
black community joined with blacks
and others in the United States Thurs
day to celebrate the birthday of former
civil rights activist Martin Luther King,
Jr.
“He (King) would be impressed by
the degeneration of race relations
since his death,” University Law
School Dean Derrick Bell told about
250 people at a “Celebration of
Humanity’’ in Gerlinger Lounge.
Castigating Pres.-elect Ronald
Reagan and the Republican majority in
the U S. Senate for anxiousness to
revoke or gut desegregation laws, Bell
said the conservatives are building up
the American military at the expense of
social programs that are necessary to
guarantee some measure of racial
equality.
The result will be a greater crisis at
home than any overseas disaster
imaginable, said Bell, the first dean of a
predominantly white law school.
"Even the blacks who benefited most
from the civil rights era must realize
that they are less trailblazers opening
the way for others" than tokens used to
justify a racist society, Bell said. He
cited Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s recent call for
anti-racial harassment legislation as a
sign of the severity of race relations in
Oregon.
Bell also told the predominantly
white crowd that "integration means
less that blacks demand they be let in
as that whites realize they (blacks) are
being left out."
The reception, organized by the
Black Student Union and the New Age
Council, also honored Bell, a veteran
civil rights activist
Earlier in the day in Washington D C ,
about 3,000 people marched from the
Capitol to the Washington Monument,
where they joined an estimated 7,000
others for a rally.
Organized by musician Stevie
Wonder, the rally called on the U S.
government to make King’s birthday a
national holiday.
The day's events honoring King
capped off a week-long celebration
and remembrance in many cities.
More than 1,000 University students
and faculty members signed petitions
circulated by the Black Student Union.
The petitions, which supported the
proposed national holiday, will be for
warded to Wonder, according to BSU
Pres. Donald Brown.
Although generally pleased with the
response, Brown said he is worried
about the lack of negative response to
the BSU's week-old drive.
"The silent ones are the most dan
gerous ones," he said. "They’re doing
more thinking than talking and we want
to know what they're thinking about
this."
Although the celebration was meant
largely for blacks, Brown said King’s
message is equally important to whites
"People think that because he was
black that he spoke only for blacks,"
Brown said. “He really spoke for all
people."
The BSU won’t discontinue its peti
tion drive until a decision is reached on
whether to make King’s birthday a na
tional holiday Although it is already a
holiday in a few states, the 96th Con
gress rejected a move to make the day
a national holiday last year
King, who was slain in Memphis,
Tenn., by James Earl Ray in 1968,
would have been 52.
By RICHARD WAGONER
Of the Emerald
Local minority leaders and civil rights
specialists are 'pleasantly surprised''
at Gov. Vic Atiyeh’s plea this week to
end bigotry and make racial harass
ment a felony.
But minority leaders also warn that
without convictions in the courts and
jail sentences for violators, laws
prohibiting bigotry are merely lip ser
vice
Atiyeh condemned bigotry and
called for penalties for racial harass
ment in his opening address Monday at
the state Legislature in Salem.
The governor’s comments were
prompted mostly by a cross burning
last summer on a black family’s lawn
near Portland Other incidents of har
assment have been reported in some
Oregon towns.
“I'm definitely surprised, especially
because he is the governor of a state
that is notorious for it’s Ku Klux Klan
activities,” says Donald Brown, pre
sident of the University Black Student
Union.
Derrick Bell, University Law School
dean and a leading civil rights activist,
agrees with Brown. “I’m pleasantly
surprised,” says Bell. "Laws do have a
deterrent value They show that this
kind of conduct (racial harassment) is
not condoned .”
But both Bell and Brown were cau
tious in their optimism, noting that
getting convictions from racial harass
ment laws isn’t easy.
"Getting convictions is always dif
ficult,” says Bell. 'But we have to start
somewhere.”
Brown says it will be up to judges to
decide if the law will be effective.
Kent Gorham, Eugene human rights
specialist who works with the city’s
minority commission, says he hasn’t
received any reports of racial violence
such as those cited by Atiyeh.
“Eugene hasn’t approached that
kind of problem as described by the
governor," says Gorham.
Although some racial-oriented har
assment has been reported at the
University, the campus affirmative ac
tion director also says racial violence is
not a problem in Eugene.
Most complaints received by the af
firmative action office are from people
who feel they have been treated differ
ently by an employer or a professor
because of race or sex, says the of
fice’s director Bean McFadden
But while overt racism may not be a
problem in Eugene, Brown says covert
racism does exist
"Overt harassment, no. But I can
speak from personal experience that
there is racism here,” Brown says.
Brown says he has been discrimin
ated against when looking for housing
and has had racial slurs yelled at him by
passing motorists He says he has tried
to rent apartments with for-rent signs
posted only to have the owner or man
ager say no rooms were available.
The potential for overt racism in
Eugene is "frightening" because of a
small, spread-out black community,
Brown says. A black may have a hard
time finding help if he or she is alone
and harassed by racists, he says.
Brown hopes a state law making
racial harassment a felony would
prevent violence against minorities in
Eugene
"(The governor) is looking ahead,”
Brown says. "He’s starting to do
something now. But that doesn’t mean
anything until we see some action in
the courts — until we see someone go
behind bars.”