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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1972)
Mìa France» ìchuen U n lven ity o f »egon Library Ne.apaper Room iaigene, O n 97403 POR T b t /vn 3f V o lu m » f N o . P o rtla n d , O reg o n ±H E ONLY N ew SFA P » IN OBSEWPH AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER , H I W H O U W ,0 , W O . t D T H M » » U Y « £ » « 0 « , „ o p u “ '” ' ' 0< p e r copy Caucus holds Political Convention $6ùta Corporation: $ social experiment An interview with lien Ber mg. employee-owned manu ry, former Chief Engineer of facturing plant. Albina Corporation brought The idea for Albina Corpo <«i die opinion that Albina waa ration came from the Watts not properly evaluated. M r . Manufacturing Company in B erry |a now Senor Admin Los A ngeles, which was a sub istrative Analyst for the City sidiary of Aerojet Geiwral of Portland. Corporation but was black op It has been a year since A l erated. A fter seeing Wans bina Corporation closed its Manufacturing Company, L i doors and much has been w rit nus Niederm eyer, a white ten about the Corporation’ s Portland businessman, inves failure to make a profit and tigated the possibility of cre many attempts have been ating a sim ilar company in made to place blame. But Portland - but it would be an there has not been an evalua independent b la c k -o w n e d tion of the social benefits company. The company was brought by A (bins Corporation organized as the Watts-Albina to its employees and their Company, with consultation fam ilies and to the community from Louis Kelso, San Pran- as a whole. cisco economist and proponant The community should be of employee profIt-aharliqj. proud of Albina Corporation Ihe company was patterned for as a social experiment it along the lines of the Wans was a success. Albina Corpo M a n u f a c t u r i n g Company, ration was not a successful which Ben B erry acted as con business, but It was intended sultant in formulating. C lif initially to be a training pro ford Campbel)acted as P resi gram for both management anl dent and N Kxlermeyer as Vice production employees and to President in charge of man become a tajslness enterprise agement. over a period of three years. A grant application was Albina Corporation could •ajtmlttod to the Ofl Ice of Eco have become a profit-making nomic Opportunity in October company if it had been given of 1967. When the grant came ^time. But who can be blamed through. It was with the stipu - a president who was a social lation that the management be worker and social program di black, so Nlederm ey-r with rector and who placed the drew and acted as a consultant, needs of ihe employees above and Mayfield K. Webb, attor economic interests; a board ney and form er director of the tfiat hail no tajslness experi Albina Neighborho<xl Service ence tan was concerned for the Center, became President. community; or a government Hen Berry, Vice President for that made a commitment it Engineering, and David Nero, failed to keep? Vice President lorM arketing. Albina Corporation was an •long with Webb, formed the (MiU funded training and re management Committee. habilitation program, which, As Is required of OBO pro if government commitments jects, Albina Corporation had had been kept, wouldeventual- a community Board of D irec ly have become a profit-m ak- tors. The board w asclearlya fíen B e rry •octal board, not a business hoard. It was made up of four representatives of the Albina Citizens Waron Poverty Com mittee; one each from the ADC Mothers Organization, the Model Cities Planning Board and Eastern Star; and five rep resentatives of the Corpora tion management. Ihe agreement with OEO was that the government would provide the operating capital through grants for three years. Excessive expenses retaining from the use of trainees, inexperience, turn over, wastage, would not allow p ro fit-m akin g fo r at least three years and during that time the government would support the Corporation as a social program. The Corporation was set up to train and rehabilitate “ un employable” black residents of Albina. These included men with sporadic work records, felony convictions, s o c i a l Droblems. who could not be hired by private industry. Ap- proxlmately 90 per cent of the work force were trainees, as opposed to a maximum of 10 per cent in the average manu- facturing plant. Employees were trained for management positions as well as skilled and unskilled trades. Ihe Corporation special ized in government Contracted products including fiber glass boats, steel tent forms, am munition boxes and hydraulic cylinders. Comm ercial con tracts included telephone brackets, recoiling telephone cables and welding machine assembly. In 1969, after the Nixon Ad ministration took office, the Office of Economic Opportu nity notified Albina Corpo ration that it would no longer be funded. The Nixon Admini stration’ s theory on Black Capitalism is that black com panies should begin as branches of white companies and eventually become inde pendent. The grant did come through, however. The following year, 1970, af ter 1-1/2 years of operation, OEO again announced that A l bina Corporation would not be funded. At that time the C or poration had the option of cut ting back its training program (Continued on page 8, col. 4) n n 'I : Oregon B la c k Caucus Chairman Lee Brown, P lat form Chairman John Toran and Publicity Chairman Len wood Davis announced plans for the firs t Oregon Black Po litical Convention. The Con- and July I at the Portland State University Education Center at 2611 NJE. Union Avenue. Announcing the Convention, D r. Brown said, “ Hundreds of delegates from throughout the state w ill participate in the tw o-day event. The purpose of the convention is three fold. F irs t and foremost the convention is b e in g put on as a vehicle to develop unity among the some 26,000 Blacks in Oregon. Second, to develop a platform designed specifically for Black O re gonians. Third, to elect Ore gon s three delegates to the National Black Assembly. “ Our holding this conven tion reflects the surging of «Jr cultural and political con ^ 7 *° I ™ * * John Tor3n' 3nl Publ icity Chairman Lenwood r . v i , sciousness. ,t represents a d u ^ 7 o r Hne 30 x ^ 8.0", S! 7 ^ CkPOl‘tl"a lC ° nVentlOn- 7 oi the Convention, sche new era of Black awareness duled for June 30 and July 1. is to draw up a Black Agenda for Oregon. and involvement in Oregon’ s political arena. It will give us the opportunity to define of African People. M r. the black people of Oregon, those changes we deem es Sukumu was also the West eus represents a broad cross which w ill be presented to sential if we are to obtain coast co-convener for the section of Black people, and those persons who control the true independence. The con National Black Political Con that all Blacks are asked to political processes. Thecon- vention . vention w ill represent the participate. D r. Brown re it vention represents one of the birth of a new Black Politic “ Confirmation is still peril erated that no Black Orego first attempts to develop a po and out of it w ill come pro ing on Saturday’ s keynote nian, regardless of economic litical consciousness among grammatic ideas which the speaker who w ill be one of status, is really free until all Blacks in Oregon? Black c iti Caucus w ill direct its efforts the co-chairman of the Na Black people are free. zens of Oregon have never be toward implementing. tional Black Political Con The original location of fore presented a Black Agenda vention.” “ Friday night’ s keynote Bethel A .M .E . Church had to to the political leaders of the speaker w ill be Immuro be changed to the P.S.U. Edu The Black Political Conven state. Sukumu, who is the West coast tion w ill w rite a platform that cation Center due to the tre - Lmpl.a sizing that men.ber- Chairman of The Congress merxiuus response tc the con w ill indicate the concerns of ship in the Oregon BlackCau- vention. Portlander serves STAR Board Ill M rs . Lucille Love, a board member of Portland Project STAR, has been appointed to the National P roject STAR Ad visory Board. Project STAR is a research and demonstra tion project sponsored by the Urban League, Fam ily Coun seling Service, and the Mult nomah Association for Re tarded Children. STAR serves Model Neighborhood families with retarded members and works to bring about more and Block VP candidate visits Portland Andrew Pulley, Vice Pres idential candidate for the So cialist Workers Party, vlalaad Portland to further the cause of the Socialist Revolution Pulley, a black, waa born In Greenwood, Mississippi in 1951. When 12 years old his fam ily moved to Cleveland. Expelled from high school for leading a walk-out in protest of the m urder of M an in Luther King. J r , he was given the choice of going to Jail or to the A rm y. In the A rm y, Pul lev became Involved in one of the first anti-w ar protests among ser vicemen. He became one of the defendants In the “ Fort Jackson Eight” case and waa eventually discharged. He ran for Congress from C alifornia's 7th D istrict in 1970 fo r the seat now held by Ron Dellums. He has travel ed throughout India, Ceylon, Japan, the Philippines, Aus tra lia , New Zealand and West Germany supporting the so cialist cause and helping In crease support against the A s a black man who is a Rev olutionary Socialist - a M arx ist - Leninist, Pully sees the liberation of blacks through the formation of a black politi cal movement. This move ment, or pa rty, would Join oth e r movements of the oppres sed - the minorities, women, the young, w orkers-undei the socialist banner. He believes the black revolution w ill come through the elimination of ca pitalism . o. ó Instant Earnings from Day o f Deposit P9r annum com pound'd daily and paid quarterly If o n j- © F ra n k lin Robert H Haien, P re. wa r. The Socialist Workers P a r ty, which w ill run a slate of candidates In the ( iregonGen eral Election, view ownership of the means of production as a right of the people. Under ca pitalism . production is owned by a few, who exploit the work ers for their own profit. In a socialist state, the means of production and the profit w ill be controlled by the w orker. The oppression of the masses of the people - the minorities, women, the young, the workers - fo r the gain of a few w ill he ended, . 1# Offlcs. . Phone 24S1234 Home Office Franklin Bldg . Portland, Oregon #7204 Blacks cannot find libera tion through either the Demo cratic or the Republican par ties, he said. Those blacks who do support the more liber al candidates, such as George McGovern or Shirley Chis holm, w ill find that they can not gain freedom by Joining the parties that are tlielr oppres sors. Neither major party would change the economic structure of the nation. ’’ The oppressed must learn from the Vietnam e ra . Lying and deceit go hand and glove with the implementation of the (Continued on page 8, col. 3) M rs . Love recently re turned from a National STAR Advisory Board meeung held in New York City . Members of the board include represen tatives from all races and all geographic areas intheUmted States. M rs . Love attended a previous STAR conference in Arlington, Texas and future board meetings are planned for New York City and Wash ington, D.C. ■Mrs. Love received glowing comments from National Pro ject STAR for h erability to re flect the concerns of parents in an effective way to the Na tional board. The National Project STAR includes com ponents inH artfordjConnecti- cuq Tampa, Florida; South Bend, Indiana; SanDiego.Cal- ifornia and Portland, Oregon. - II Wendell Travis makes conductor By Archie Easter, J r . The Burlington Northern is the largest railroad in the world. It covers 26,600mlles of land across the Unltec States of Am erica. Wendell B. T ravis is a part of this vast network of transportation. Wendell T rav is started working for the railroad Sept. 20, 1967, as a switchman. One year later he passed the brakeman’ s test. When Travis startexl in 1967, there were nc Black conductors in the North west. T rav is wanted to be a conductor. About three months ago, after acquiring the necessary seniority, Travis felt he was ready for the six-hourconduc- tor exam. He failed. Deter mined to meet this challenge, T ravis surmised that he had overestimated his readiness. He began studying during all his leisure moments. When the testing date arrived again T revls was ready. Missing only two questions, he was the only person who passed the exam. T rav is became Bur lington Northern’ s s e c o n d Black conductor. As a conductor, Travis is responsible for the super vision of the brakemen and shares the responsibility of the general train with the en gineer. This means at times carrying out train orders for as many as 125 cars. Along with beinganemploy- ee of the Burlington Northern Railroad, Wendell is a father, a new home owner, a high school graduate and an ex college student. Wendell Travis was born August 11, 1943, in Portland, Oregon. He attended eight years of elementary school at Boise, four years atjefferson High School and six months of I.B A I. Computer Training at P o r tla n d Community. He comes from a fam ily of three children - a brother, W illiam T ravis, J r , and a sister, Anita T ravis. Some of you Portland natives and old tim ers may re- member Wendell’ s father. Bill T ravis, S r. He Is presently retired from the Multnomah County Deputy S h eriffs De partment in Portland, but was one of the firs t Black Sheriffs In Oregon. Wendell's mother is currently working at Port land State University where she has been employed for the last twelve years. (Please turn to page 8, col. 3) I I better services to such fami lies. r African dance featured r n iv -^ iJ , V LaS’ m W a M WOrkS W“ t’ P o rtl»"d « “dents while Alphonse Gimber play, traditional a Urlng one ° f BonJe 9 9peclal sunimer term - ' ' « « a at PortUnd S°ate ^ ^ ’ d ’ p ' 0"1 * 7 BOn" “ Batt)e8’ *7’ ' JaCk* ° n H l«h Scho° ' studen« ' *"• W illiam s 22 College student and reigning Miss Black of Oregon; John ..." 1 College student from St. Louis, and Velma Brunson. 17. a 1972 Jefferson 7 ° i r#duate and winner of a scholarship with the Young Americans singing organization Borde and some of his students w ill appear in a benefit recital at Lincoln Hall Auditorium at 8 pun. Thursday (June 29) to make It possible for a Biack student from Portland to accompany ■ group of student, on a six-week study tour of West African culture and dance b ^ i n ^ u f y V .
