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OBSEWPH
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
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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 .