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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1972)
Page 6 Po rtland /O bserver Thursday, August 31, 1972 Davis publishes bibliography Theater seeks teens Janet MacLachlai stars as Wanda, the rebellious daughter of the firs t black P “ ’ »dent of the United States, in Paramount P ictures' "The Man' The Theatre Workshop of the Portland Bureau of Parks announces the formation of a new group to teach the ele ments of musical comedy pro duction through d ire ct p a rti cipation. The group, called TW<2, w ill produce Its own shows in addition to taking classes in acting, singing and dancing. Any teenager wishing to I » ruei(ia« is invited toattend any of the rehearsals or classes which are held every night, except Saturday, a t 7:30 p jn . in the Laurelhurst Park Building. S4£. 39th A Stark. TW#2 is designed so that a student may participate as much or as Unie as he is able. There is a two d o lla r registration fee. Virgin Islands invite Americc Governor M elvin H. Evans has extended invitations to Americans, especially to A m erica’s Blacks to come to his U.S. V irg in islands and stop by and v is it with him upon a rriv a l. To make itm o re economical fo r fam ilies to v is it the V ir gin Islands, during the month of September, hotel directors are offering a special "Tw o fo r One" package. V isito rs to the three islands of St. C roix. St. John or St. Thomas, during September, w ill be given double accom modations at the single room rate. Accroding to John P. Scon, Commissioner of Commerce, "T h is w ill mean tremendous savings to the tra ve le r during this period.” Scott said. "W ith rates already at th e ir low off season level, up to 400 per cent off peak season rates, this added reduction w ill certainly be a dollar stretcher. Rates w ill be available from as little as $7 per day to an average of $24 per day,’ ’ Scott added. This special fall package has been made available to coincide with the firs t “ M iss Twins UJS.A." beauty pageant to be held in the V irg in Islands during Sep tember. Twins from many The explosive story of the first black President of the United States. of the states and te rrito rie s w ill be converging on the th ree islands to compete fo r the title and the chance to repre sent the Uj5. in the "M is s Twins W orld’ pageant to be held in 1973. Bargains are not unusual to the V irgin Islands. As a free port, merchandise ;'rom a ll over the w orld is avail able at much lower prices than the same items can be purchased fo r in New York. The U.S. V irg in Islands is s till the only place in the Caribbean where one can bring home $200 worth of merchan dise duty free. In addition, each v is ito r 21 years of age and over may return with one gallon of liquor. Other counties are only a l- loted one quart by U. S. Customs. GALA HRFMIFKF X 0 l k CINEMA 21 > * w a < ■ T « « O VT . C a a «711 Lenwood G. Davis, who taon the faculty of Portland State U niversity, was notified re cently by the Council on Plan ning L ib rarians of M onticello. Illin o is , that the publication date is set fo r November of this year fo r his latest book, BLACKS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: 1788-1972. Hts book la p rim a rily de signed as a reference fo r those who wish to learn more about the achievements of Blacks in the P acific Northwest from their e a rlie st a rriv a l to pre sent. The bibliography at tempts to lis t everything that has been w ritten about Black people in that section of the United States, whether books, a rticle s in newspapers, pe riodicals, and official govern ment documents, as well as manuscripts. P rofessor Davis wrote a si m ila r cotnprefiensive and ex ha us l iv e bibliography on BLACKS IN THE STATE OF OREGk'N that was published last year. He is considered the leading authority on the histo ry of Blacks in Oregon and the P acific Northwest. He lias published several a rticle s on Blacks in Oregon and the Paci fic Nortiiwest for the leading professional quarterlies and journals. The author and pro- Lenwood D a v it lessor lias also taught classes on "B la cks In the Pacific N orthw est", as well as lec tured all over that area on the history of Black |<eople. Besides teaching, traveling, speaking, w ritin g articles and book reviews, the b rillia n t young and dynamic professor is doing additional research on Blacks In the Pacific North west and hopes to complete it within tlie next year, IhePSU A frican and A fro -A m e rica n historian is tie author of three other bibliographies, BLACKS LN THE STATE OF OREGON, PAN-AFRICANISM. BI ACKS in m u c ities , 1900-1972. He is also the author o il HAVE A DRBAMl 1HI I II I AND TIM ES OF M AR TIN I I I 111 K KING, JR . which was published in 1*>9. 21 2 5 N . V a n e o \ u C o n d itio n e d b ree P a i king I ive M u s ic I ht Satunlay x liu tlle tu s to dog Hack d.uly l oading tune — 6:30. C a ll 284-1390 (o r infoi madon. Monday-Wednewlay Thursday-Friday Saturday-Sunday 3:00 p.m . to t< to 11:00 a. m . 1:00 p.m . On being black in Oregon First black governor THE QUALITY OF Hl RT, By Chester Himes, Doubleday. $7. a Howard graduate M elvin H. Evans, the firs t native Black Governor, won in the V irg in Island’ s firs t gubernatorial election in No vember, 1970. He was born in C hrlstian- sted, St. C roix, on August 7, 1917, and attended public schools there. He completed his secondary education at Charlotte Amalie High School in St. Thomas, where he was valedictorian of his class. Governor Evans was gradu ated Magna Cum Laude in 1940 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He won his medical degree with honors from Howard in 1944. Following his medical In ternship in New York City, Governor E v a n s became Physician-in-Charge of the F rederiksted Municipal Hos pital, a position be held until 1948. Then he was appointed Senior Assistant Surgeon in the United States Public Health Service, Washington, D.C. In 1950, he resumed his po sition at the F rederiksted Municipal Hospital and in 1951 was appointed AssistantCom- m issioner of Health fo r the V irg in Islands and Chief Muni cipal Physician fo r St. C ro ix. In 1956, Governor Evans be came a Fellow in Cardiology at John Hopkins U niversity. He was appointed Commis sioner of Health fo r the V irg in Islands in 1958, resigning that position in 1967 to enter p r i vate practice. In 1966 he took a year's leave of absence to earn his M aster’ s Degree in Public Health from the Uni versity of C alifornia at Berke ley. Governor Evans is C hair man of the Board of Trustees of the College of the V irg in Is lands and a member of the Board of D irectors of the Good Hope School. He is also a charter mem ber of the Rotary Club and has served as Chairman of the Board of Medical E xaminers. President of the V irgin Is lands Medical Association and Chairman of the Governors’ Commission on Human Ser vices. The Governor is active in American Medical Associa tion, the American Public Health Association, the Na tional Medical Association, and the Fan American Medical Association, and is a charter member of the American As sociation of Public Health Physicians. He is m arried to the form er M ary P hyllis Anderson. They have four sons. Drug problem aired a r f ç u n i îl L u L n liL U U JiL i. Let PfiPPS BOTTLE SHOP bo yuur headquarters for champagne, wtnea, misers. . at the lowest prices In town F o r the fir s t time in tele- vison history, a c ritic a l pro blem shared by two nations w ill be explored via ;rans- Atlantlc satellite as England and the United States sim ul- Watch for grand opening of TED AND PATS # 2 RESTAURANT #1 is open for business now at 3940 N. W illiam s Ave. working partner wanted a wonderful opportunity Contact Ted 284-0555 taneously present DRUGS VIA SATELLITE on Sunday, Sep tember 10 at 2:00 p jn . The program w ill be seen live on KPTV, Channel 12, and w ill orginate from London, Eng land and from New Y ork. David F rost, well known on both continents, w ill host the telecast. In tie United states P resi dent RichardNixon has labeled the drug problem "P u b lic Enemy Number One." B r i tain shares the problem of drug abuse but handles It d if ferently. Viewers of DRUGS VIA SATELLITE w ill meet the street addict in New York, who must steal to support a habit that may cost him $200 a day, and tie B ritis h addict who lias a legal medical pre scription fo r heroin. The addicts w ill confront each o tte r on the program, com paring their lives under the two systems. Other experts of each nation w ill also dis cuss their divergent points of view on the best vzay to handle a problem that Is destroying lives, increasing violent crim e, and invading the en tire social structure of our w orld. Through this examination of two societies it is hoped that some light w ill 1« shed on wliere both America and B ritain have been and wliere we are going in relationship to heroin and other dangerous drugs. Several weeks ago before a meeting of the Oregon Black Caucus, I had the good fortune of talking with an articulate, m iddle-aged Black woman (m other of four) who ex pressed her life-long " a m bition to w rite a really good novel . . . mainly, about Black people in P o rtla n d ." 1 re ite r ated my inclinations in th a td i- rectlon, and we both lamented the fact that Oregon Blacks in a professor in a Southern their more than 300 year his Black college and his m o tle r tory in the state had produced was a dynamic lady of consid no creative w rite r of m ajor erable influence in tie Black significance. The woman said middle class of Cleveland, that she had known "one tal Ohio. Chester was encouraged ented young Black w rite r, in to attend Ohio state U niversity his early twenties . ..whohad where heselJorn went toclass. fled the state fo r Paris ...a n d Instead 1« spent much of his there m arried some French time with the "h ip ste rs, push woman . . . and never wrote a ers and p ro stitu te s" off-cam - single important lin e !" pus where ( * entered a life of 1 told her that this had be crim e and violence. And it is come a common practice of a here chat tlie young Chester considerable num ter of Black Himes learned the tricks and authors since th e Harlem connlvings ot the crim inal e l Renaissance of the 1920’ s. ements in Cleveland and des That some of our very best au perately seeking money be thors ll'as James Baldwin, cause of his gambling obses W illiam D e m b y , Richard sion, txirglarlzed the home of W right and others; had be a rich , white suburban fam ily lieved fla t the social, p o liti and had to flee to Chicago cal and psychological environs w fere he was appretiended of America were so intol while trying to peddle the stol erable and repressive to their en jew elry. As long as Himes creative and psychic con crim es were confined to the sciousness, that they returned Black community, he was to Europe o r A frica todlscov- largely free ot harrassment er sanctuaries where th e y from the law; but since he could he in relative peace with committed a ertme against themselves and th e ir "neces wealthy and powerful whites - sary w ork.” he was tortured Into making a One such exceptional Black confession by tlie tough Chica talent is Chester Himes, the go police who were not inter author of THE QUALITY OF ested in the crim e he had com HURT, an Im portant autobio m itted back in Ohio, but wanted graphical firs t volume of fo r him to confess to having stol ty-five years of his life and en jewelry from a white wo lite ra ry works. C h e s t e r man In Chicago, who was a Himes, who now lives In A li g irl-frie n d of one of the police cante, Spain, was bom In Jef o ffice rs. (Shades of Portland!; ferson C ity, M issouri in 1909, Himes resisted the Chicago and a fte r too many frustrating policemen’ s Intimidation and years of "searching f o r dishonesty, but lie was finally peace" in ra cist America, left transported lack to Ohio the country fo r Europe In 1953, wliere lie was Imprisoned to r Himes w rites: "T h is vol seven and a half years. It is ume of my autobiography In prison fla t Chester Himes recounts all that memory re began w ritin g Ids fir s t novel, tains of the fo rty-five years CAST THE FIRST STONE, In of my hurt. Am erica hurt me 1952, which Is s till one of the te rrib ly , whether rightly or definitive works on Black p ri wrongly Is not the point. When soners in Am erica. It is here 1 fought back through w riting that he decides that he liad it (America) decided to k ill something Important to say me, whether because I was a about tlie Black Ex|<enence In degenerate e x -c o n v ic t (his White Am erica.H im esw i tea: words) who refused to wear "T lie seven and a half yea. s I sackcloth and ashes, a Negro actually served did not seem to who refused to accept the Ne hurt me at all . . .theonly ef gro Problem as my own, a fect It had on me was to con " n ig g e r" who would not con vince me that people w ill do form to tie existence pre anything - white people, black scribed fornlggers, o ra Black people, all people....up to tlie man who pitied white women, age of 31, 1 liad leen hurt emo I w ill never know. I do know tionally, sp iritu a lly and physi that when America k ills a nig cally as much as 31 years can ger it expects him to remain bear; I fed lived in tie South; dead. But 1 didn't know tliat 1 I had fallen down ari elevator was supposed todie. I s till had shaft; I had leen kicked out of hope. I s till believed tbedevll. college; I fed served seven and But at age fo rty-five , while a half years in prison; 1 led trying to make a white woman sui-vlved tlie hum iliating last feel safe, 1 suddenly realized five years of tie Depression in 1 had never been safe. Fear Cleveland; and s till I was com erased my hurt. | became plete; functional; my mind was afraid to liv e . Fortunately, tie sharp, my reflexes were good, desperate struggle fo r life in end I was not b itte r," formed me that the only place Yet, Himes fled to Europe where I was safe was in my (England, France, Spain) be skin, 6 June 1971, Alicante, cause le " ju s t wanted out of tlie United States . . .1 led had I Alameda Theater 3 0 0 0 N.E. Alberta 287-2887 Jarnos (Doc) Rogers I t ! ” Yet, In Europe, fa r dis tant from the Black community and its oppression and prob lems, Himes discovered no lasting peace. Many Euro peans lie discovered were as racist and unreasonable as American whites. Yet,Him es in his wisdom is grateful dec his "e n u re life had condi tioned me to a constant expec tation of catastrophe . . .a ix ll didn’t expect Europeans to le greatly d ifferent. A fte r a ll. Americans were theirdescen- dants. 1 just wanted out from tlie United States." You liked it before so h ei back with more He met some of the great w rite rs of tills o r any time; In cluding R ic h a r d W right, James Baldwin. Jean-H aul Sartre, Andre Malraux. Rob e rt Frost and others; and tie had a num ter of sexual adven tures and affairs with women ol all racesand ages anil Inter ests. And I shall here allow Chester to sjeak fo r himself: "W fe re women areconcened 1 have always teen an ass . . . just to put a Black man into a white woman's bed Is to sug gest an orgy . . .outside of her body, tie most appealing thing about a woman Is her sense of humor I" I ’m afraid I can’ t agree with C fe ste r on a ll of his conclu sions. He Is much more im pressive when le w rites: "T h e American Black Is a new race of rnan . . . " and he le - lleves that In time we w ill con quer our oppressors and our problems. I heartily suggest you Ixjy and read this rem ark able biography, If you wish to know tie author of IF HE HOL LARS LE T HIM GO: THE LONELY CRUSADE; PINK- TOES and other valuable con- trilu tlo n s to Black lite ra ry 5HAŒV BIÖ5CDRE- Legend of HiggerCharley ainft r u n n in g a r t. Young Black poetess, N ikki Giovanni t o ld Chester Himes during an Interview on tie television show, "S o u l", tliat "h e was tie Father of contern- porary Black n o ve lists." I don’ t agree with thateither. Yet, C fe ste r Himes’ T H E QUALITY OF HURT Is an lm - portant lan, iark In Black bio- graphics. Get your., i f a copy. And, hey . . . take care. These a re dangertxis rimes fo r our people. By James (Doc) Rogers i I j I Fred W illie marni D 'U rv ille M a rtin Ikon IV d r Screenplay liy M a rtin Goldman arai L a rry G. Story by James Bellah Produced by L a rry G. Directed liy M artin Goldman Soundtrack allium available on Paiemount Records In Color A Paramount Picture Final week Too much sun can lie a dan ger, the American Lancer So ciety warns. Use hats, beach umbrellas and lotions to safe guard against skin cancer. O p e n M o n d a y thru F rid a y 7:0 0 p .m . S aturday 5:3C p.m. Sunday 2:45p .m
