X
P .g e 2
Decisions Decisions of 1972
As I See It ----------------------
Portland’s Black M iddle Class:
A Disappointment!
MU5T I t lW TOÛETHEQFPR FULL
AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT.
P art
Portland/O bserver Thursday A p ril 27, 1972
The N orthw **»’* Be*» W eekly
A Block Owned Publication
N. Kilhngsworth, Portland, Oregon 97217
Subscription $5.25 per year in Tri-County area by m a il. Out
side the I'ri-C ounty area - >6.dl) per vear by m ail.
Phone 283-2486.
M ailing address - P. o . Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208.
ALFRED LEE HENDERSr N, 1 a b lish e r/E d ito r
Verna L. Henderson
Asst. Publisher/business manage:
Helen Hendrix
INP A
Personnel and Production Manager
Any erroneous reflection upon the character, standing oi rep
utation of person, firm or corporation, which may appear m the
Portland Observer w ill be cheerfully corrected upon teing
brought to the attention of the E ditor.
Decisions
Goldschm dt o r deUeese , that is the question' \\ ill e ith e r man remember us a lte r he is
elected?
o r w ill candidates continue to give those decision making positions to whites
say ing that Blacks are not ready? And what about Ed Hamiltion? Would he do better?
The
The
O b s e r v a tio n
s
Desk
ALFRED
LEE HENDERSON
White responsibility
to black business
W hat is the responsibility ol the white community to the eco
nomic life of the black community ?
Since the fir s t white Americans sett.ed the Oregon Country,
their economic, social, educational, religious and politica
foices have combined to iso ate black people from the economic
mainstream.
When blacks began to come to Portland in greater numbers,
in the e a rly 1940’ s, the lines of separation were tightened and
isolation made more d istin ct.
A coalition of business, labor and public o fficia ls has con
spired to prevent blacks from taking their rightful p ace.
This was accomplished through refusal to hire blacks, dis
crim ination by labor unions, and the elimination of blacks trom
public employment through manipulation of tests and c iv il ser
vice lis ts . Government has looked the other way as blacks have
suffered discrim ination in education, housing and employ
ment.
* * "
»•
White businessmen, union leaders and public o fficia ls are
s till in command. Black businesses and other economic endea
vors must rely onwhite support or fa il. And if this support Joes
not come, they cannot exist.
Black business exists in a depressed area, with potential con
sumers who have lower than average incomes and must spend
a higher percentage of their incomes on the basics - food, shel
ter and clothing - than white customers. Business expenses are
higher due to inflated insurance costs, high rents, d iffic u lt to
obtain c re d it and other handicaps.
Yet the same people who have systematically kept blacks out
of the economic life of the community, accuse us of failing to
have the initiative to become businessmen.
The responsibility of the white community is toencourage and
support black business. The responsibility of the white corpor
ation o r industry is to spend some of its money, especially that
provided him by the government, to purchase goods and services
provided by black business.
Attention
W ill the w rite r that mailed to us an " a r tic le ’ ' entitle : "A
Community C ries Out in Agony” (The Neil Coidschmidt Pro
posal fo r M erger of Poverty Program s) please come in and
claim the a rtic le . We w ill print your view, if these are your
convictions. Why not let the community know who vou are?
Open letter
to the school board
M r. Robert Ridglev, Chairman
Board of Education
631 NF Clackamas Street
Portland, Oregon
Dear Mr. Ridglev:
I cannot in good faith accept the position you asked me to
f ill on the committee to choose members to r the d is tric t ad
visory committees.
1 am honored by yourconsideration ol me fo r this task. How
ever, | strongly believe that members of the advisory com m it
tees should be chosen by members ol the communities they
represent.
A committee chosen by the school board, no
m atter how objective it trie s to be. cannot replace the elective
process.
1 hope you w ill in the very near future levelop a process
whereby committee members w ill be elected with sateguards
to insure participation by a ll segments of the population.
I would be
happy
to serve vou in seme other capacity
Very truly yours,
A . Lee Henderson
The o b se rve r's official position is expressed only in its Pub
lish e r's Column (The Observation Post) and the E d ito r's I esk.
Any other m aterial throughout the paper is the opinion ot the in
dividual w rite r or submitter and Joes not necessarily reflect
the opinion of the Observer.
Deadline
Pictu e3 - Mondav 5:00 [an
Stories
- Tuesday 5:00 pm
D ear E d ito n
In both editions of the Ore
gonian and Oregon Journal of
A p ril 19, 1972, an a rticle ap
peared accusing the baseball
coach of Oregon State I d iv e r
sity of discrim ination indeny-
ing Verdell Adams, an all P IL
baseball player, the right to
travel with the school team.
T his is not the firs t incident
of this kind on the part of this
coach who has made public
statements that he w ill not
have black players on h is
team.
T his is not the firs t time this
has happened at OSL; ask F red
M ilton, but this only seems to
happen, throughout the entire
system of higher education, at
OSU.
These continual racial slurs
demonstrate that there is
clearly something wrong with
this college and the mental
attitude of th e e n tire C o rva llis
community.
This w ill not once again
stand a s o -c a lle d " l o c a l
investigation by a local c i
tizen”
but needs in fact a
searching inquiry from th e
Governor's office and the
State Board of Higher Educa
A
A
tion by a completely impartial
body.
How do you convince black
children not to be drop-outs,
when on the highest level of ed
ucation, they are dropped out.
The state of M ississippi has
over two hundred black stu
dents on its I Diversity cam
pus. There is a message here
somewhere.
Perhaps it is time fo r our
community to organize ami
warn its graduating h ig h
school students, athletes and
nor - athletes alike, that they
simply are not welcome in the
C o rva llis educational commu
nity.
J . Alton Page
»
Conference
supports
busing
Advertising - I uesl i_, 5:00 pm
I he anti-busing proposals
of both President N i x o n anil
separatist groups who suc
ceeded in adopting such a res
olution at the recent National
Bla k P o liti il Convention m
( .ary. In. iana, were lin n lv re-
jecte by Ihe National I’ olicv
Conference on E location for
Blacks.
D r. Kenneth C la rk, who is
president of the Metropolitan
\p p lie i
Research Center
(MARC), was i keynote qeak-
er at the conference. Notonlv
Dear Editor:
I»: he lenounce theNixonplan
as an itcempt to slow the pace
I would like to commend
of public school lesegrega-
you fo r the fine job the f il>— tion, but aiso as a return of the
server has been doing with
civ il rights movement to a
its distribution of news. We
point at or le fo re the Plessy
need such a vital institution
vs. Fergison sep ira te -b u t-
in our c ity .
I only wished
equal stage. He contended that
that more citizens (especially
this planwoul i hold tie federal
whites) read you: newspaper.
court hack from acting as an
I support you wholeheartedly
rnderendent protector of the
in your effo rts to bring about
rights of m inorities against
some change in the com
tie prejudices of the m a jo rity.
munity, city, and state.
"W h ile the President at
I also like " A s I See It.”
tempts to prohibit transput ta-
M r. Davis makes tnary ob
tion of students fo r purposes
servations that escapes most of desegregation, he would
people. He said that the pur
perm it ti ansportatlon of these
pose of his a rtic le is to In
childien lo r other purposes.
form tie community ol things He is using ttie power of his of
that effect then lives. That fice in a racial controversy on
is what he has been doing.
tie side nt those w ho have teen
Lenwood G. Davis is truly consistently opposed toequal-
"T h e Conscious of the Com ity of educational opportunity
m u n ity ", and I hope that he for racially rejected m inor
w ill continue to be it. I he itie s ," said D r. C lark.
community needs such young
Mor e than 600 delegates at
p ro lific men like M r. Davis. tended the th re e -la y meeting
sponsored by th e Congies-
I. H. Land
sional Black Caucus, with I ,5.
III S.W. Harrison
R e p . Augustus Hawkins of
Portland, Oregon
C alifornia as chairman.
Letters to the Editor
Racism a t OSU
1
changed as long as the Black
M kklle Gia as continues to suf
fe r from delusions of grandeur
and fa il to face tea Illy , things
w ill not change ui Put tlaml un
til A l l. Black people can Ire
respected as fellow human Ic
ings ami firs t-c la s s citizens.
F or Portland's Black Middle
Class to Iwlleve otherwise Is
fo r them to suiter from can
cer ol the brain and dial itie r
of (tie mind.
IB I enwoad G. I »sv is
Commends
WASHINGTON
y
/ - •>
I II.
. I ■
Ihe Columbia University
Graduate School ol Journalism
announced that E a rl Caldwell
oi the New York l imes rml
Robert C. Maynard of th e
Washington P o stw ill beeo-di-
rectors ol the 1972 summer
Program in Journalism to r
m inority group memhers.
the school said Caldw ell's
anil Maynard's appointments
mark the firs t time the p r o
gram has teen headed by jour
nalists who are nationally
known.
"W e seek to find m e a n s
through this program ol e lim i
nating from tie lexicon of
American
journalism th e
phrase, 'couldn't tind anyone
qua lilie d ,” Caldwell and May
nard said.
Bayard Rustin, executive
d ire cto r ol the A. Phil ip Ran
dolph Institute, an orguniza
tion that promotes registra
tion ami voter eudcation cam
paigns among black tr a d e
union;., called lo r tlie election
this year ol any other Pres
idential
anil al ate iesvles
Richard Nixon o r Governor
George Wallace.
Rustin said, " A s long as
Nixon is in the White House,
there can le no social pro
gress in A m erica. Nixon';;
economic policies produi e
scarcity, and as long is there
is scarcity, reople w ill light
each other fo r jobs, housing
iixt medical c a re ."
Rustin said any Democratic
candidate except George W i l
iac* was ac< eptahle to his o r
ganization.
Rustin urged blacks to jour
labor union ami pointe-1 out
that tlie 2,5 m il lion blacks who
helong to unions earn 50 |iei
ent more than blai ks not af
filia te with unions.
Some Insight into the ways
in which ghettos are bred and
maintained is provider In a
current suit brought by the
ACI I igainst Cleveland Ma
yor Ralph Perk. I lie suit
charges that 62 per entol the
c ity 's pubir housing is in pre
dominantly black areas. It al
so contend , that blacks are be
ing isolate! from the white
community.
II
.ucce ,sful, tlie uit will
bring a moratorium on tlie fu
ture construction ol public
housing in black ireas until
tlie ie is a balance ol the units
in all wards of tlie city.
lie
life of D r. W illiam
Nkomo, who lie l at tie ige ol
57, covered the whole .[«• -
trum of tie fight lo r the A f r i
can people ol South A frica -
from black power to peaceful
dialogue.
As a young man, he was ex
pelled from tie African Na
tional Congress (ANC) fo r his
m ilita n t le i lets. In later ye n s
some blacks spurned him as an
"F n c le lorn” fo r advocating
dialogue ami omprornisewith
whites.
Nkomo was bor n iri 1915 in an
A frican township near I ’ reto
rla . The son of a Methodist
m in iste r, lie gained a bachelor
of science degree at p o rt Hare
I niverslty ami travelled to tie
United
States just le fo re
World War II to attend the
World Youth Congress.
In January, he was elected
fir s t A frican president of tie
South A fi lean Institute of Race
Relations.
I would like to preface this
a rticle by staling that I leel
that I am in a goal position to
analyze Portland's H lackM kl-
dle Glass because I have leen
designated as being pm t of It.
I le ie to ie , I cannot Ire accused
ot lemg envious or jealous of
It.
Having tiaveled In 41)states,
10 countries ami 3 continents,
m this w rite r's opinion, Port
land's Black Middle Class is
tie m o s t G t'M PI. ACE N F,
most SA USI-TKD, most APA-
I III IIC , most CONSERVA
TIVE, mostPKOVINClAI .and
most TRADITIONAI of any
Black M sidle Class that 1 have
seen ANYWHERE! Now let's
examine those allegations.
Most of Portland's BI ackM kl-
dle Class aie under tie sad
illusion that we have acquired
uur status because oloui abil
ities amt initiatives. Chat Is
an Invalid assumption. W h a t
we do not want to admit is that
we did not make it altogether
because of our own abilities,
but because other Blacks have
paved tlie way fo r us. Musi
ot the MxldleClass Blacks ate
out ol touch with re a lity. We
have tailed to realize that we
w ill swing together or we w ill
all swing separately amt that
NO BLACK man is fie e until
M l FI \CK men are ERKE.
Most ol the Blacks líete ate
too fragmented. There is no
unity. We are too divided and
ate not working together. lo o
many ol us ate only concerned
with maintaining the status
.|uo. Most ot us are too con
cerned with projecting our own
self unage amt ate NOT con
cerned with what happens to
tlie masses of Black people.
Most atem ore interested with
teing part of th e ir own social
dubs, fra te rn itie s, sororities
and jieer groups than trying
to do something lo r our Black
brothers and siste rs. Granted
th a t sortie of these social
groups do give a few scholar
ships and make some m inor
contributions to the commu
nity. However, these acts are
mere gestures am! somewhat
n il. We are not doing one iota
ol what we can ami should rlo.
We have tlie N.A.A.C.P. going
In one direction; the Urban
League in one direction; the
Black Panther Party uionedl-
rection; the m inisters in one
direction; the average i iti/e n
in one direction; ami tlie Black
Middle Class in another. All
oi us should support one o r
ganization that - an le tlie voice
ol the Black community. At
present the Oregon B la c k
Caucus is the logical organi
zation to speak fo r tie commu
nity. A ll ol us should support
the el Io its ol the Black Cau
cus.
Very lew s o -c a lle l Black
M Mb lie Class reople have sup
ported tie Oregon Black C m-
us. several, however, hive,
such a I .e e l'. In own (when le
is in town). Charle . Jordan,
John Toran, o cie I ro tte r,
Gladys McCoy, David Nero,
Jette Wild a. Hazel Warren,
W illi am M C o y , Kay Jeimgan
ind etc. Other . have p a rtic i-
pated occasionally, such as
George Rankins, Paul Knaul ,
( halrner , Jones ami etc. oth
ers have leen conspicuously
ibsent, s u c h us Cleveland
G lie re r e , l.eon H a rris ,M é r
c e le . Deiz, Aaron B ro w n ,!..
Slelton H ill, E llis Casson,
Hazel Hays, II. Belton Ham il
ton, Brenda Green, Maltha
Jordon, W illiam McClendon,
\lv in Batiste, Joe Bawman,
J e rry F u lle r, W illiam New-
born, Russell Dawson, W II-
liirn Gerald, Arthur C ox, C.
Don V itin , W illiam Jenkins,
Henry Scott, A lbert Scott,
Samuel Scott, Manuel S< ott,
Vernable
Booker, Geoige
C hristian, Herman C, Plum
m et, I . Hen I , iw, Nathan Nick
erson, I,Ivin R oberts,W illiam
liillia n l, D.A. Johnson and
Helloise H ill. I here have teen
NO BLACK
Part II of ‘ ‘ Portland's B la c k
Mkldle Class: A Disappoint
m ent!" w ill apiear next week.
Len w o o d
G .D a v it
speech and leing white orien
tated with all ol then values.
Ihe Black so-called Middle
Class In Portland can no long
e r sit idly by while the masses
lie re are oppressed. I hey
Ml S I RISE A N I) HEC( »ME A
VOICE OF DISSENT. Ami if
they continue to perpetuate
myths of whites, then the
Black masseadon't need them,
they must realize thatUNTH.
A l 1 BLACKS ARE FREE.,Nil
HI \CK is F Kid .. I he luture
of Portland w ill never te
(EDITOR'S Noll-:: IheKdltoi
ot the o bserver has attemled
meetings ol the BlackCaucus,
however, I suggest that the
Black Caucus coordinate its
meetings at either another
day ot at a different hour.
Whatever your profession
maybe, it the meetings are
schaluled dut uig yourwoi king
houis you cannot attend.
Although the black church
has a seven day a week respon
s ib ility , most ol its input is on
Sunday ami most m in iste is
find il unposaible to attend).
McCoy
DEMOCRAT
For State Representative
District 15
Responsible
Knowledgeable
Concerned
E lect VLCoy Committee
7433 N. Lombard Si.
Dennis M 'G ounack. | ivas.
Portlnm l, Oregon 97203
(286-9144)
From
MCM.
the company that gave you SWMT
He hit
the Man
(or $ 3 million
Right where
it hurts.
In the diamonds.
PHYSICIANS,
DENTISTS, PHARMACISTS,
MINIS 11. Rs oi Id SINESSMI.N
involved except David Nero.
We fiml that a lew of them have
the time to v is it Geneva's,
F red’s P in e , Ebony Club, I ip-
stairs, Jade West, I hunder-
b lr l |nn(Jantzen Beach), Ra-
hi gla Inn, Sheraton Inn, Holi
day Inn, Candlelight Inn (fo r
m erly S m ltty's), arid a few out
of the way places. Yetsomedo
not have tlie time or w ill not
take the time to attend the
P.lack Caucus meetings.
In some cases what we find
is the Black Middle Class be
ing only carbon copies ol the
white middle class in their
Clinking, lehavior, d r e s s ,
And baby, that's cold.
MF TRO GOIDWYN MAYIR Present*. GOOI HPK/I Slarnnq IHHIMIKRAMW»
JUDY PAU JIM WATKINS IINCOIN Kll PATRICK And RAYMOND ST JAUXJI '■ As Mr h m
STARTS W ED N ESD A Y
MAY 3
M T . TABOR THEATRE
104»h
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