i
P » tl' 2
As I See It
Oregon Black Caucus,
NAACP, Urban League
and Others
MUST M W < TOGETHER FOR FULL
ANO EQUAL EMPLOYMENT.
T h u rsd a y ,
A u g u s t 17, 1972
By Lenwood G . Davis
In the pest 1 have teen ex
trem ely critic al of the Port
land Branch of the NAACP.
Portland Urban League, Black
Panther Party end other com
munity and civic organiza
tions. However, 1 believe In
giving credit where credit Is
due. The NAACP and Urban
League leadership have sup
ported the Dragon Black Cau
cus, not only in spirit, but also
In practice. 1, for one. was
glad to see the leaders of (he
NAACP and Urban League
participate In the recent O re
gon Black Political Conven
tion, as well as thelr presence
at the recent meetings. And
this la more than what I can say
for the “ alleged" leadership
of the B lackPentherPerty, al
though they did stop by briefly
for the convention. However,
they have not been attending
the meetings.
The leaders of the NAACP
and Urban League have shown
their good faith to the Black
Caucus and are supporting it
and Its programs. This only
goes to prove, to disbelievers,
that different segments of (lie
Black community can come
together for common causes.
In this w rite r's opinion, the
The Northwest's Best Weekly
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ALFRED LEE HENDERSON, Publisher E d ito r
4®?
INPA
The Observer's official position is expressed only in its
Publisher's Column (The Observation Post) and the Editor's
Desk. Any other material throughout the paper is the op: ion
of the traJivalual w rite r or submitter and does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the Observer.
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Th«
Editor’s
Desk
The choice is yours
• • •
Bond rebukes
Blacks for Nixon
Black Panther Party has not
been as active in the Black
Caucus as it should be. How
ever, since the Survival Con
tent nee is over, perhaps. It
also w ill become more In
volved. Needless to say, the
Black Panther Party and other
organizations cannot he Iso
lated from other groups In (he
Black community. It would
be asinine and sulcklal to try
it. obviously, the Black Pan
ther Party In Portland, like
the Black Panther Parties all
over the United States, des
perately need M O R E mem
bers. Furtherm ore, the Black
Panther Party In Portland can
ill afford to w rite ott any sup
port from the other Black or
ganizations in the community.
In fact. It must strive to have
a more congenial relationship
with those groups. The Black
Panther Party, here, la doing
Its p artfo r the cause, but since
its membership is near nil it
can only do so much.
Since some of tie other
Black leaders In Portland
have shown their good faith to
the Black Caucus, (he Black
Caucus must likewise show Its
good faith by supporting them.
Lenwood Davis
There la no doubt in my mind
that (he Black Caucus w ill ac
tively su|>port the other Black
organizations. If asked.
Since the Black Caucus lias
recently issued (he Diegon
Black Agenda, all Black peo
ple and all Black organiza
tions, groups, clubs, must
work for its Implementation.
These organizations MUST In
corporate the Black Agenda
into tlielr o ver-all programs.
The Black Ageixla stated Its
position for Black people in
die Stale of Oregon: “ We have
out program. We lieve our
challenge. Let us (Blackpeo
ple) now proceed with the
chore at band. Let us seize
die time - for the time Is
oui a l" The role of all Black
groups MUST 1« to see that
every platform and every rev
olution isedopted and fulfilled!
To Be Equal ■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■a
by Vernon E . Jordan, J r .
ALFRED LEE hEfOERSON
It’s your move,
Governor McCall
F o r the past year the Observer has been pointing out the ab
sence of blacks and other minorities on the state’s many policy
making boards and commissions. These boards, which actually
it . axe the policies, determine how the money is spent and super
vise the operation of state agencies and departments, are vital
in the operation of state activities. They not only control state
action, buth they also provide the philosophy which governs at
titudes.
Now the Governor’ s Human Rights Commission has reported
that only one third of one percent (-3?) of the members of ail
state commissions, councils and policy boards are minorities
and only one percent are women. On 104 of the 106 state policy
boards, there are only 23 minority members and 72 women out
of 718 members. The others are white men. Some of the most
influential state commissions, the Liquor Control Commission,
the Highway Commission, the Fish and Game Commission, the
Environmental quality Commission - all are made up of white
males.
And who is at fault? The Governor is at fault. It is the Gov
erno r who appoints the members of the state'» commissions,
councils and boards. It is true that these boards existed before
Governor M cCall came to offloe and that many of the members
were appointed by Senator M ark Hatfield who was then Gover
nor. Hatfield's record is no better than M cCall's, but the fact
remains that Governor M cCall has beer, in office for six years
and that during that period most of these terms have come up
for reappointment. So the current make up can hardly be blamed
on predecessors.
Governor M cC all has made some minority appointments -
C lara Peoples to the Agriculture Board, E llis Cassoo to the
Youth Commission and Faye Lyday and D r . Lewis to the W el
fare Advisory Comm ittee. But this is insignificant when we
consider the hundreds of appointments he has made in the last
six years.
Governor M cCall has long had the reputation of an advocate
of civil rights. He was an early supporter and board member
of the Portland Urban League. He has profited from this a ffi
liation. He knows the importance of minority participation. F o r
him, there is no excuse.
The Governor must now give serious ¿onsideration to filling
every vacancy that occurs during his remaining two years in
office with a m inority person. Only in thia way can past
omissions be corrected and minority people be pla :ed in their
rightful place in state government.
Letters
to the Editor
Dear S in
I have read the many a rti
cles in your paper about what
Blacks, middle class and low
e r class are not doing. Con
tinuity is one of the answers
which seems to he obsolete ac
cording to what I have read in
your p a p e r . Traditionally
Black people have been de
moralized by Black and white.
Whites have placed Blacks In
administrative p o s i t i o n s ,
knowing they would fail, and
Blacks have criticized them
for failing. Portland Blacks
have not supported nor helped
prepare schools for proper
education for their children,
yet they are the loudest voices
every June when they finally
find out where and how to get
Into the schools.
Those liberals, both Black
and white, can make signifi
cant changes by insisting that
those Blacks who are in admi
nistrative positions, either do
their jobs as required or fire
them. We have many voune
I
I
Blacks who can do the same
job at a lesser salary and w ill
be vociierous where the ones
we now have have lost their
voice and usefulness for the
Black community as admini
strators
or self-appointed
spokesmen. The white admi
nistration must be made to re
alize the d is service they are
doing to the Black people, con
sciously and unconsciously, by
appointing some of these older
insecure Blacks to positions
they cannot fulfill beneficially
for Black people. Becauae
Blacks have been pusled by
Blacks and whlass, no wonder
our Black children are frus
trated.
Some of our Blacks are
doing an effective job helping
Blecka and others. Becauae
of their successes and truth
fulness,
many Blacks and
whites seem to fear them.
W elter F . M o rris, J r .
5628 N X . 22nd
Portland, firevon 97211
In one of the sharpest a t
tacks to date on black support
ers of President Nixon, State
Representative Julian Bond of
Georgia termed black Repub
licans “ political prostitutes.'*
The young black legislator
was the featured speaker at
the closing session of the 63rd
annual convention of the Na
tional Urban League.
M r . Bond warned against
those black supporters of
President Nixon who would
urge blacks to vote Republican
or not vote s ta ll in November.
"Those who urge us not to
vote are the w illing accom
plices of the fascist forces in
Am erica who believe the only
good black voter is one who
does not vote.
“ Those blacks who urge us
to vote for the man who gave
us Carswell and Haynsworth
and 'benign neglect' are mem
bers of a new American poli-
WASHINGÌON
BRIEFS
John Lewis of th eV o terE d -
uaation Project of Atlanta
and Delmas Lewis. Represen
tative W alter Fauntroy's con
gressional
staff director,
were named to head the Dem
ocratic National Comm ittee'!
voaer registration drive.
The
firs t Congressional
contest in Tennessee between
a black and a white was as
sured by the state prim ary
election. State Senatorjames
O . Patterson, J r . has become
the firs t black to win m ajo r-
party nomination fo r Con
gress. He routed three white
opponents in the new Eighth
(Memphis; D istric t, which la
46 per cent black.
M rs . Florence S. Gaynor
has seen named chief admini
strator of the largest hospital
in N e w a r k , New J e r s e y ,
Mortland Hospital of the State
medical school. She w ill be
the firs t black woman to heac
a m ajor teaching hospital.
The Federal Communica
tions Commission has refused
to block broedcasts of racist
political announcements of a
Georgia Senate candidate de
spite fears the words "nigger,
nigger” might provoke vio
lence In Atlanta.
The FCC turned down a re
quest filed by the Atlanta NA
ACP that It order an exception
to Federal broadcast regula
tions that make it illegal to
censor political ads.
John H . Sengstacke, editor
and publisher of the Chicago
Defender, w ill be among 22
American newspaper edltori
to vialt the Republic of Chine
for three weeks in September.
The editor« were invited to
visit by two officials of the
Hslnhua News Agency.
tical party, neiLherDemocrat
ic nor Republican nor indepen
dent," he said. "These new
political prostitutes belong to
the Small Business Admin
istration party, the Housing
and Urban Development party,
the Health, Education and W el
fare party, the Washington
Rent party.
"They praise the President
as ‘ the greatest savior since
Jesus Christ*: they applaud
the wizard o! the wiretap, the
architect of law and order, the
fo rm er Attorney General; and
wonder of wonders, they at
tend a formal dinner honoring
the old D lxiecrat himself,
Strom Thurmond."
M r . Bond added, " I t Is im
perative that we come togeth
e r now to drive Richard Nixon
from the White House. He
says he w ill get 20 per cent of
the black vote In November.
T hat’s 100 per cent more than
he deserves.”
T here's been a lot or c r iti
cism recently, about the role
of private foundations in fos
tering projects designed to
bring about social change.
The dea lias taken root that
foundations are fueling social
change by massive infusions
of money and are acting Ir
responsibly. Thisattitudewss
part of the rationale for the
1969 law that tightened federal
restrictions on foundations
and for current warnings by
some social scientists and
university administrators that
still more regulations are in
store unless foundations go
slow on social projects.
But the truth of the matter
is that private foundations
have, If anything, teen going
too slow. Considering their
enormous potential for en
couraging responsible social
change In a society that needs
co channel resources :o the
less-favored segments of the
nation, foundations could aid
should be doing a lot more.
They've always been late.
In the dim, d a rk e a rlte r years
of thia century, a bare hand
ful of foundations supported
black causes and black e f
forts at building viable educa
tional institutions.
Even in
the early sixties, at the height
of the civil rights movement,
there were only relatively few
foundations supporting south
ern voter registration efforts
and sim ilar activities.
M ore recently, the num
bers of foundations exhibiting
social concerns have grown,
but turds made available to
black institutions are still
lunrted a;d tire fuurdation
community is still split be
tween tbe tew who are in
volved ard the many who con-
tinue to sit out tbe struggle
for equality on (be s d e lire s .
Despite this, there baa teen
a backlash against aupjKrsedly
excessive foundation involve
ment in the social arena.
While black people are still
just getting crumbe Irom the
(able, foundations ate ac
cused of leaping our plates
too fu ll.
A recent research study by
the National Urban League in
dicates just how fa r founda
tions have yet to go lefore
complaints about "excesses'*
can be judged as lemg ration.
Analyzing grama compiled
by tbe Foundation Grants In
dex for 1970 and 1971, the
League found that less than
20 percent of all grants for
all purposes went into social
welfare programs.
And of
those social welfare grants,
only about a fifth went to
black agencies. Less than a
fount) of the money alloted
for social welfare went to
programs serving black and
other minority communities.
Grants In the field of race
With Ron Hsndran
A YOUNG VIEW OF WASHINGTON
relations, which Includes civil
rights agencies, «mounted to
only ten percent of tire social
welfare gram a,
only three
percent of giants for aasistn^
ttie aged fount tlw ir way into
the black community, as dal
less than ten iwrcent of the
grams for youth programs
and five percent of child w el
fare grants.
In (1« field of education, the
picture was more bleak. Of
all grama to colleges and
universities, tlw struggling
black colleges received only
six percent of ttie total.
There is then, little doubt
that foundations have barely
scratcted ttie surface In fund
ing programs of imports nee
to the black community. Un
fortunately, the fuundat ons
don't deserve the accusations
that they are too deeply in
volved in social change. I hey
do deserve to 1» reminded
that they exist to root out
social evils and that they
must use their wealth ard
power to help the poor and
the powerless.
A BILL OF RIGHTS:
NEW HOPE FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED
By Ron Hendren
W A S H IN G T O N -T h is session. Congress
will act on a Bill of Rights which re
sponds to the plight of the more than six
million mentally retarded persons in the
United States
Life for these Americans is, at best,
bleak For the 200,000 who are institu
tionalized in residential facilities it is
often a hopeless nightmare Willowbrook,
the world's largest institution for the
mentally retarded, was built in New York
in 1941 to house 3,000 patients Today
Willowbrook has a population of 5,200
Half o f the patients are under the age of
21 For a good number o f those under
treatment, Willowbrook is little more
than a depository a place capable of
providing only shelter and the barest of
essentials for those whose families are
unable-o r unwilling to care for them
The staff at Willowbrook is so over
worked that there is little time for reha
bilitative treatment " It just kills me,"
commented one attendant, "W e’re so
busy that we can't do anything that really
helps them.”
Willowbrook is more often the rule
than the exception In Alabama, an emer
gency court order described the 2,300
mentally retarded inmates housed at the
Tuscaloosa Partlow State School and Hos
pital as living in "acute physical danger "
Judge Frank M Johnson, Jr., declared
that the evidence "vividly and undis-
putedly portrayed Partlow as a ware
housing institution which, because of its
atmosphere of psychological and physical
deprivation, is wholly incapable of fu r
nishing treatment to the mentally re
tarded and is conducive only to the
deterioration and dehabilitation of resi
dents.”
In the words of Senator Jacob K
Javits (R -N Y |, "H ow can we, the nchest
nation in the world, treat innocent hu
man beings in such an inhumane fash
ion7”
Javits, with the enthusiastic support of
Senator Hamson A Williams I D - N J ) ,
Chairman of the Senate Committee on
Labor and Public Welfare, has introduced
legislation which has been called a "Bill
o f Rights for the Mentally Retarded" It
would create a partnership of govern
mental agencies, professional organiza
tions. practitioners, and consumer repre
sentatives working together to improve
services to the mentally retarded while
encouraging states to develop plans for
regional and community programs Funds
would be provided to help develop alter
natives to traditional residential care fa
cilities which have often proved to be
little more than prisons
The hill has received acclaim from
leaders of the United Cerebral Palsay
Association who described it as a "land
mark in the restoration o f full citizen
ship” for the retarded Labor leaders see
the legislation as "a major step forward
toward the goal of fully protecting the
rights of millions o f handicapped citi
zens," according to a statement issued by
A F L -C IO representatives
Tbe bill is likely to pass Most legisla
tors apparently feel it represents the least
America can do for her mentally re
tarded As one Congr *ssman put it, "This
measure does not provide all the answers
But it will herald a beginning And God
knows, for the mentally retarded that
beginning is long overdue."
And while the talk goes on, 120,000
mentally retarded infants are bom each
year in America.
©Copyright 1972 by
WASHINGTON WEEKLY, Inc
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