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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 1972)
Page 2 As I See It Lee P. Brown: Man on the Move Par» II MU5T MWK TOGETHERFVR FULL ANO EQUAL EMPLOYMENT. Portland A ’ bserver Thursday, June 22, 1972 The N o r th * « !» '» Be»» W e e k ly A Block O w n e d Publication Published exerv 1 hu sda\ by t xie Publishing Company, 2201 N . K illin g s » c i til, Poi tl.ind, Oregon 97217 Subscription $5.25 per year in T ri-C o unty area by m a il. (.Mil- Side the Tri-County area - »b.iX) per year by m a il. Phone 283-2486. M ailin g address - P. O. H ’X 3137, P o rtla n d , Oregon 97208 A LF R E D Lfct HfcM 'bKSON, P u b lis h e r/E d ito i Verna I . Henderson Xsst. Publisher business manage! Helen Hendrix Personnel ato Production Manager INPA V\ny ei toneous reflection upon th e c h a ra c te i, standing oi rep- utation of person, fir m oi co: p o ra tiu n ,» hich may appear in the Portland o b serve r w ill be ch e e rfu lly co rre cte d upon te iiig brought to the attention of the E d ito r. The Editors Desk ALFRED LEE HENDERSON Legislature must act A recent decision of the United States Supreme C ourt gives the states the right to participate in the d iscrim in a to ry prac tices of private clubs and lodges. The Court found that the state , by issuing liquor licenses to these clubs, was not guilty of denying equal protection to all citizens. This is a question able decision, especially in sutes such as Oregon where there is a lim it placed on the raimber of licenses issued and where a private club holding a license prevents another business, one required to not discrim inate, from holding a license. This decision demonstrates a trend in the B urger C o u rt- away from protection of individual rights and back to placing the interests of government and business above the interests of the individual. Fresident Nixon’ s appointees all voted to al low discrim ination and the m ajority decision was w ritten by Jus tice Rehnquist, whose appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court was question»! because of his views on racial discrim ination. Since the Supreme Court has refused to enjoin the states from condoning racial discrim ination through the is s u in g o fli- censes and the sale of liquor, it is up to the Oregon Legislature to end this practice inOregon. There is no reason why the State of Oregon should continue to provide this service to organiza tions which have white-only memberships, when the state's adopted philosophy and law supposedly is to guarantee the rights of equality fo r all its citizens. When age brings wisdom There has been much editorial comment in the daily papers in recent days regarding the political ambitions of older men. The inference is that Wayne Morse, age 71, is too old to return to the United States Senate. In our haste to make room fo r the young - to give them poli tical rights, to provide educational and employment opportuni ties, to tap their financial market - we sometimes forget that age can bring experience and wisdom. in the closing years of his life F redenckDouglass, who wrote. It there is not struggle, there Isnoprogress," struggled long after a lesser man would have retired with honor. In his 90's, W .E.8. DuBois le ft Am erica. tookGhanaian c iti zenship, and began the massive work - "Encyclopedia A f ricans.” Born in 1868, he was a lert and active, s till fighting fo r the liberation of black peoples until his death in 1963. Pablo Casals, nearing 100 years, is s till regarded a? the w orld's greatest musician and Picasso, also nearing I0T, s till paints masterpieces and is s till studying. Austrian General Radezky conquered Italy at the age of 96, and we could go on and on. So let us not cast aside ourolderm en and choose our repre sentatives on the ba sis of youth a lone. Let us choose a man who over the years has proved to us his commitment to our cause, a man who has proved his concern by actions, not by promises. It's better to te represented by the best man fo r a few years than by a lesser man fo r many. The Observer's official position is expressed only in Its Pub lis h e r's Column (The Observation Post) and the E ditor’ s Desk. Any other m aterial throughout the paper is tfe opinion of the In -’ dividual w rite r or autwnitter and does not necessarily reflect (the opinion of the Observer. B«»t B. Q ue In Town O rd e r » C a fe to O pen Fly 6 go C a ll 5 :3 0 p m Boy W in g s A 2 8 2 -6 3 6 3 Except M onday S p e c ia l Fries $ 1.40 Pood & Drinks GENEVA’S 4 2 2 8 N . W illia m s By Lenwood G. Davis Someone once said, " I f you want something done, get a busy man todo i t . " This state ment is apropos fo r l ee P. Brown. Needless to say, tw ts extremely busy. Mostpeo- ple are not aware that he ts a consultant to numerous orga nizations - the United States Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Ad m inistration: C ity of Portland, evaluator of Mcxlel C ities Po lice-Community R e la t io n s Program; C e n te rfo rC rim in a l Justice Agency Organization and M in o rity Employment, Marquette U niversity; Chica g o -A fro American P atrol man's League; National U rhan Coalition, Washington, D.CJ Columbia Research Institute, Portland; and Rumor Control Center, Portland. D r. Brown is also the author of a number of books - "Anatomy of the Police; A CaseforCommumty C o n tro l" Amistad III, (fo rth coming book edited by Charles H arris); " A Selected and An notated Bibliography on the P o lic e ," Amistad III, (forth coming book edited by Charles H arris): P olice-C om m unity Relations (forthcoming text by Lee Brown, Gordon M lsner and Thomas Johnson); and Black Men in Law Enforce ment (forthcoming anthology). Even though Brown is a con s t a n t , author, professor and d ire cto r he s till finds time to keep in touch with community affairs. He was selected In 1970 by the Portland Police Association as the citizen making (he most outstanding contributions to the profes sional ization of Law Enforce ment. He has worked with the Model C ities Program , Albina M ulti-S ervice Center and PM- SC Program s. Yet, one would never know that he has a Doc torate of Crim inology l legree because he seldom uses the title Doctor. He usually In troduces him self as "L e e ” o r "L e e B row n." This is a rare quality in today's society since most people are ex tremely status conscious. Brown can communicate ef fectively with all classed of people - whether It is the av erage citizen, pimp, prosti tute, hustler, executive, may or, c ity councilman, governor o r President of the United States. He has the rare quali ty of being able to make others feel af ease In his piesence. Lee Brown has the keen insight to know and understand human nature. What does the tutu re hold fo r Lee P atrick Brown? This w rite r can only offer conjec ture at this point. However, it is a known fact that he has many offers to be Chief of Po lice in many citie s. It is also a known fact that D r. Brown could get almost any high po- Mobile Home: Just How Safe Are They? Ron H andren_____ IN WASHINGTON Lon w ood D a v it sitlon in the U.S.Government. Perhaps, one day, he w ill go into p o litics. H ecertainly has many of the necessary assets to he a politician. le e Brown w ill probably leave Portland In the near fu ture. It w ill not he because he wants to le a v e -It w ill, how ever, be because his expertise is not being utilized to the fu ll est by Portland. If he leaves, Portland w ill lose one of the most resourceful citizens that it has had In many a year. THEREFORE. C I TEENS OF PORTLAND, IT IS YOUR CHOICE TO KEEP T H ISPR o- I IFIC CI T E E N IN THE CIT> OF RtSESI Five persons died In Syra cuse, N.Y. this past w inter when (ire swept thuugh their mobile home. The suddenness and Intensity of (he blaze was such that all w eie (rapped inside and perished within minutes. This tragedy is not an isolated instance. Unfortu nately, injuries arxi deaths occur at an uncommonly high rate among this nation's more than seven m illio n mobile home re sklents. P art of the problem, ac cording to F lorida Congress man Lou Frey, J r , Is that theie are no texte raI safety guidelines governing con struction o r installation of these housing units. And while many manufacturais do strive to m e e t indu s( ry - adopted safety standards, tliese regu lations are not mandatory ant some builders simply ignore them. Thus faulty electrical w ir ing, flammable insulation m aterial, malfunctioning fu r naces and flues. Inadequate exits and im proper installa tion all add up to a m o rta lity rate as much as eight times higher than in conventional homes. W m l damage Is the second most serious safety problem. E arly this year a tornado swept through a mobile home park at F o rt Kuckei, Alahama. I rve weie killed and 80 In ju r» !. Nearby conventional homes suffered little damage. In a recent windstorm in Boulder, Colorado - - where safety regulations have teen adopted fu t, according to F rey, not enforced - 35 mobile homes were destroy»! with damages totaling $800,000. A ll these factors have made insurance hard to get ami ex pensive. This problem Is compounded by the tact that most mobile home resklents e n te r are retirees living on meager incomes o r young couples Just getting sta rt» !. Yet the insurance late on a $6,000 mobile home Is com parable to that on a con v e n t io n a l home costing >40,000. Mobile homes ate not sub ject to local building curies and although they constitute 95 percent ot the homes sold in America fo r under $15,000, mobile homes are subject to state regulations in fewer than half the states. A t best, enforcement of existing regulations Is hardly adequate. In F lo rid a , for example— the largest mobile home market In the nation— there are only three lnst>ec- to is competed to 165,000 mobile home lots. Aral yet, acconluig to F rey, Florida lias one ol the le tte r enforce ment programs in11»country. Frey telleves t« le ia l reg ulations are needed, anil in late May lie Introduced H.R. 15157, tie National Mobile Home Safety Act of 1972. l i e b ill, which Is peidurg te fo te lie House Hanking and Currency Committee, would lay the groundwork (ot foderal mobile home safety atandards, and Is niixleled a lter the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1970. A companion measure Is pending In the Senate. Standards would te p ro mulgated in tie lepartm ent of Housing trul Urban I evelop- rnerit and would he In effect within 180 days a lter enact ment ol He b ill. Prey says fie (mends to work fo r quick consideration of hts proposal by the committee, six) hopes for prompt passage by Con gress. It so. It would te the firs t la te ra l law ever enacted to provide sate construction of mobile homes. With seven m illio n Americans living in mobile homes luing con struct»! each year—certainly some tyje of enforceable regulations are need«!. Vernon Jordan asks Nixon to visit ghettos President Nixon was chal lenged last week to v is it the nation's troubled cities and rural areas fo r a face-to-face confrontation with American citizens who have suffered poverty and racial d is c rim i nation. The challenge was issued by Vernon E . Jordan. J r , execu tive d ire c to r of the National Urban League, in the annual commencement address at Howard U niversity. Taking note of President Nixon's recent summit meet ing in Russia to deal with the problems of international peace and to reduce the ten sions that threaten a world wide holocaust, Jordan said that "th e domestic situation requires the same depth of concern and the same bold ness." "J u s t as the international situation has been eased by this display of communication and negotiation by the leaders of the great powers, so toocan our domestic situation te im proved by increased commu nication among black and white leadership and by a black voice in decisions concerning our security and s u rv iv a l," Jordan said. "T h e admini stration has fo r too long screened itself from the sight and voices of the ghetto." Jordan continued: "T h e time has now come fo r him (the President) to go into the pov erty - stricken ghettos of Am erica, to talk with the very people whose lives and hopes he sogreatly affects. The time has come fo r a summit confer ence with the organized black community, to negotiate and communicate.” " . . . in Leningrad, the Pres ident paid tribute to a little g irl named Tanya, whosediarydo- cumented the destruction of her fa m ily during World War 11,” Jordan s j xl. “ H ewasel- oquent m his statements about the sufferings ofTanya anti the hundreds of thousands of little Tanyas who suffered so much in w ar. We Join him in those sentiments. "A nd, we hasten to add that here in affluent America are hundreds of thousands of black children, our Tanyas, whose fam ilies have been scarred by poverty, whose fathers have suffered unemployment and discrim ination, whose moth ers have suffered ill-health and racism , whose brothers have been victim ized by drugs, by an unresponsive education al system and by the d is c rim i nation that s till pervades our society," Jordan continued to the applause of an estimated 13,000 persons m the Howard University Stadium. "Come to see our Tanya, M r. President. See how she, too, is cut off from tier true human potential, not by war, but by economic and social coalitions so easily co rre ct- a l. Listen to her. Listen to her dreams and her hopes. Listen to her representatives in a meeting just as you listen ed to M io ant) Brezhnev. Her leaders are not your enemies nor are they, as those (women are, determined rivals of this nation. Her leaders are c iti zens pledged to wot k fo r con- The tw o -d a y A f r i c a n American National Con ference on A frica ended with the c a l l fo r a permanent structure to implement the strategies from the con ference workshops. The conference also clos»! with an appeal from the Com mittee Concerned Blacksask- uig black Americans not to tcxir o r entertain in South A fric a . This committee was represented by co-chairmen D r. John Henrtcke Clarke, Hunter C o lle g e and M rs. Louise M eriw ether, Los Angeles. The Conference on A frica was sponsored by the Con- Open letter to Goldschmidt Dear S in There can be no dispute, the incidence of burglary is very high and increasing. Statistics show that youth be tween the ages of 16 and 21 In our community a re largely re sponsible for these crim es. Burglary is generally a crim e of stealth and non-violence. In other words, violence or the threat of violence does not usually accompany an act of burglary. However, citizens are ag gravated (mad) and a re moved sometimes to demand harsh Stop library cutback Dear E ditor; It would seem that the deci sion to put Central L ib ra ry on a five-day schedule needs re thinking Inasmuch as that faci lity maintains »ich Important services as m icro film perio dicals, m ajor references and Indexes, special collections including the Oregon Collec tion, governmental depositor ies, etc. . . . I do not feel a c ity this size can afford such a drastic re duction. Is this an lnstanceof "penny wise and pound fool ish” ? An Informal observation w ill find many persons stand ing outside ten minutes or more before Central L ib ra ry's opening tim e, each day. In order to take advantage of the many services. This obvious ly evidences the enthusiasm of early a rrtv e rs . Even with some neighbor hood fa c ilitie s currently closed on Friday, there have teen a few lib ra rie s open on Friday such 8 3 Hoolywoodand Central L ib ra ry . What la the necessity fo r a complete can cellation of lib ra ry service on Monday, effective July I, It operational funds should be come available? Inasmuch as die lib ra ry serves as a laboratory of ex tended learning fo r people of all ages and incomes, the pub lic Is entitled to a fu lle r ex planation of reasons fo r the proposed five-day schedule. I feel the decision fo i a five-day schedule should be reconskl- ered to ascertain If Morxlay really reflects a day of poor lib ra ry usage. Sfcicerely, M rs. O. J . Gates 4215 SJE. Bybee Blvd. Portland 97206 I he tune has come, Jordan said, fo r "th e Presklent ami the highest tigures in his Ad m inistration to meet with us; to go into the ghettos, to v is it the Black colleges of this na tion, to Communicate on a face-to-face basis with (hose of their fellow citizens who have suffered most and bene fited le a st." O b s e rv e r’ $ Intercom — Letters to the Editor — Honorable Nell Coldschmidt Mayor Elect 314 C ity Hall Portland, Oregon 97204 structlve change through the process ot a democratic soci e ty ." measures against burglars and other crim in a ls. It may be that the demands fo r harsh measures are fa ll ing on receptive ears, fo r It appears that the Police De- paitnient is now shooting at people who are Interrupted in tie commission of a burglary. We should be reminded that there was a great public outcry when a Clackamas County de puty killed a young man In the course of stealing a turkey. It would be most unfortunate it the Portland Police killed a youdr while in the course of stealing a portable TV set. Very tru ly yours, John Toran, J r. Attorney at Law 234 S.W. Salmon Street Portland, Oregon 97204 gressional Black Caucus at Howard U niversity. Major topics iheydiscussed concerned economic develop ment and a ld;Carrlbbean link, anti L l be i a 11 o n of South A frica . Ben 1.. Hooks, a black fo r mer judge from Memphis learned that the U > . Sen ate c o n iirm o l his nomination to tie Federal Communica tions Commission (FCC). He said, " I'm looking forward to the challenges and opportuni ties of rendering service on the F C C ." Proposal regulations that would prohibit States from de nying public assistance to an orh._r.ise eligible individual le y because he ls n o ta c ltl- /• ' or because of his status as . alien were announced by HEW’ a Social anil Rehabilita tion Service A dm inistrator John D, Twlname. RECORD E IE R A R T A R e c re a tio n ,8 2 6 N.K illin g s w o rth Featuting SOUL SURVEY TOP 40 best selling Singles. A ll Reconl Purchases are D is counted 10%. ARETHA FRANKLIN A JAMES CLEVELAND (soul satisfying) Gospel Album "Amazing G ra ce ", recently roleasel. Available at Record L ib ra ry . F o r your Recreational Pleasure. Invited. We have Pool anti S kill Games fo r all ages. Ladles Beginning Saturday, June 24th. We w ill Stage Pool T rxiinamem's Weekly. Qualifying 5:00 PJM. - 7:00 P.M. Finals 9:00 p.m. Walnesday and Saturday. Pool rales: Adults $1.25 per hour. Juniors $1.00. Open 7 days a week. Monday thru Saturday, 2:00 P.M, to 11:00 PJM. Sunday's 4:00 I ’ m to 10:00 PJM. ' F o r your convenience we c a rry HieJetMagaztneand the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper. The Supreme Court unani mously let stand a California Supreme Court decision that struck down the state’ s death penalty, sparing the lives of more than 100 convicted men facing the gas chamber. In a b rief order without comment, the High Court re ject») an appeal from the state decision brought by the State of C alifornia. The state court ruied that thedeath penalty v i olated theCal Ifornla'sC onsti- tutlonal provision against "c ru e l o r unusual punish ment.”
