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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 1973)
P ordand/O bxerver Thursday, May 17, 1973 Page 3 SPECIALI le is u r e *F d VteCXí'A'&s TR©>1 OHA^USS Black identity got its start in lona-aao frustrations Dry Cleaning Only $2.50 per load SAVE YOUR CLAIM TICKETS! Along «bout this time my mind begins to go berk over the immediate peal, and I begin to wonder if it ia worth it. Aa the Mississippi spring approaches it m a k e s me think of plowing time. 1 hear the sound of the hoe slapping against the rocks in the soil. And plowing time and scrap ing time make me think of seed time coming first. June 12th keeps coming closer and closer, the seed time of our work in Mississippi. And 1 remember Medgar. I re member how he loved our music. He recognized that without it we would never have made it out this far our music and our God brought us out. with the help of people like Medgar culti vating the seeds of freedom planted by people like So jo u rn e r T r u th . D e n m a rk V easey, V erno n D a h m er, Clyde Kennard. Herbert I-ec, Wharlest Jackson, f M a rtin Luther King. Jr. When 1 climb to the top of the highest hill right outside Fayette and stand looking at the Mississippi morning. I want to be free so bad. Almost like flesh and blood, the ghosts of our forefathers pass before me. I hear the sounds they made, the sound of a high wailing rising to meet the morning sun as the thin ragged line of the men. women and children swing th e ir hoes lik e pistons against the weeds and grass in the cotton. As the dew dries I ran hear the spiritu ala pass line by line among the field workers and far over in the next field 1 hear the beginning of syncopation as the man with the plow pushes his mule on down the furrow. Then Fayette. Mississippi 1973 comes back into focus and the beauty of this little town and its people is with me again. Medgar is gone and the sharp pain, the brutal shock of his going has lessened a little, making it (HMsible for me to at least accept the fact of his ab senre. Hut not the reason for it. I know there are many who have lost sons, brothers, fathers and sisters and mothers in this long time war of color against color. I know a whole race of people is crippled in the spirit if not murdered, because of what was done to us. It is because of these tragic denials of human life that Medgar became what he was. He didn't have to do it. He could have gone to work in some other business and taken care of his own familiy and let the rest of the world go along the best way they could but he didn't do it. Neither could those others. If they had. none of us would have made the progress we have and I am including all the white folks in this too. If they had, I could not stand up on my hill and almost taste freedom. There is a long blood line extending from the slave ships that left west Africa down to the kinship of Lx day’s "Soul" brothers and sisters. I t is a line that extends from the slave ports of Massachusetts and Virgin ia down to the slave markets of Natchez and New Orleans and Savannah everywhere one person sold another into bondage. It was that blood consciousness that made him what it was. Our racial memory caught hold of him and would not let him go. He knew, through our mu sir. how our folk had fought back when they had only spiritual weapons. Some times their song was sad. Sometimes a juicy bit of gossip or im p erso natio n about old master spired it up. Hut if the master had whip ped somebody the night be fore, all the miseries of an exiled and helpless people rose and fell in the air of the hot M ississippi m orning. The ragged line of field hands dared express their fear and hatred and resist ance in the guise of music. W ith their untrained ears, the slaveholding planters missed completely the revolt and conspiratorial revenge in the songs. Their self decep lion only deepened as they considered the music one more evidence of childishness among their chattels. This is how our people were able to contain their bitterness until today. From these early spirituals and work songs grew the blues and folk rock which have spread throughout the world. As the simple monotones and two part melodies gave way to more sophisticated com positions, the music spread its influence to all colors. W hile Medgar and I only burned and talked about going back to Africa, our music did go. I t went back in the form of jazz and blues and foik rock and hard rock. The history of these travels had been charted. Museums devoted to preserving ex amples of prim itive art forms abound in universities as well as cities along the Mississippi The New Orleans sound, the St. lx>uis school, the Chicago beat up and down the river and across the deep south from Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe all have a cult of devotees. W here ever people listen to our music they hear the story of how we have survivied. On June 12th, 1973, we will observe the 10th anniversary of Medgar Evers' death. We have spread the word among our hom efolk musicians. Those who have left to go on to fame and fortune and those who have stayed here to comfort and sustain us in person are asked to come to Fayette that day. There will be special guests, too. Missis sippians at heart, who will help us tell the musical story from the centuries before 19611 and in the decade that has followed. You come too. and we will remember to gether Caucus Time by Jetie R Wilds. J r., Chair man of the Oregon Hlack Caucus In our Western strategy we must identify establish menl techniques that keep Hlack folks and other folks divided. We should imprint the names of these tech niques so deeply that one need only hear the name to be aware of what's coming. Let's review a few. There is the old "accen tuate the difference" tech nique. It lakes the form of pit ling the person who has been in a city two years against the person who has been in the city two years and nine months. The basic premise is that if you've been in a city a longer time, you are able to give wiser counsel in political, economic, philoso phical and other areas than the person who has been around a shorter time. Obviously this is untrue. The reason given for the inconsistency, by those who are advocates of this tech nique, is that after a while (some arbitrary cut off point) the counsel becomes unwise. There is the old "make the scene" technique. It's used in every phase of our lives. In fart, parents use it some times unkno w in g ly when praise is arbitrarily given to one child and not the other. Pretty soon the one child is alienated because he or she feels that the parents love the other best. The favored child then proceeds to main tain the difference because it makes him or her feel ele vated. Politicians use it also. The politician may grace a., affair with his or her appearance, thus giving that affair ap proval. Other organizations then feel the need to have politicians at their affairs. The old "make the scene" technique is of no value unless the politician is there to make a firm commitment to some action pertinent to the goals of the assembled organizations or individuals. There is also the old "make you a star" technique. Many aspiring hollywood starlets have found themselves duped by the agent who promised them fame and fortune. The starlets tend to forget that the relationship is a mutual arrangement with the starlet having the real skills and (Please turn to page 6, col. 6) by Roy Wtlklns, Executive D irecto r NAACP In the day to-day effort to discover the true meaning of Hlack identity, much non sense is inevitably being ut tered by people who know no better and by thoae who do know better. W hite people are busy adding th e ir thoughts, some with no mo tive and others with plenty of individual or group greed riding on their suggestions. One of the most inaccurate items about the Blackness cult is the assertion of what is racial patriotism, judged by apply a 1973 situation to a 1920 setting. A Black actor (who had not emerged 50 years ago), discussing an episode in “Sounder", the sharecropper film laid in the '30’s, said he would never play a part in which a Black man was shown as submis sive. He was critical of Paul Winfield, arrested by a sher- rif and two deputies, all armed. The critic felt that the arrestee should not have "submitted" to arrest. Hut Winfield had a wise answer: "W e owe it to our parents and grandparents to make accurate movies of their lives and struggles. The fight for civil rights did not begin in the late '50s with the Montgomery bus boycott or in the '60s with the freedom riders. It began with our parents and grand parents. From their frus trations the civil rights move ment grew." No truer words have been spoken. Black Americans need a knowledge of their history. The civil rights movement did not just jump up in 1956. It did not spring from a personality, no m atter how great, but got its in exorable drive from thou sands of ordinary Black peo ple who “took low" so that their sons and grandsons could later go higher. W hite people, as a mass, need to be instructed that Negroes worked and sacri ficed. like every other race, to win the sparse dividends in citizenship rights that they enjoy precariously today. O f such a history is respect fashioned. W e should be the teachers to America about Negroes; but first we need to know about ourselves. Not about Hlack tribes having wrought iron utensils in Africa before they were used in Europe; but about Benjamin Han neker, who helped lay out 10 cleaning and pressing claim tickets good for 1 81b. load of cleaning and pressing. BUDGET DRY CLEANERS 7 2 2 0 N. Fessenden Call On Us because Long D istance is the next best thing to being there. M r. Roy W ilkins Washington, D.C.: about the scores of thousands of Black soldiers in the Civil War; about David W alker, author in 1829 of the explosive pamphlet against slavery. The rebels against slavery and the insurrectionist heroes are cause for pride. O r the later ones, including Richard Allen, M artin R. Delany. Frederick Douglass. Henry 0 . Tanner and H arry T. Burleigh. All these and thousands more, some name less, shaped the march of Negro Americans. It is important, indeed, for Blacks to dig up the pre 1619 years; but it is more impor tant to record w hat happened during slavery and since emancipation. Only by this history can the present day struggles with organized la bor, the educative power among white citizens of the greatly increased Black voter registration, and the resul tant election of Blacks to office be understood. There is no logic, as Win field cogently declares, in thinking that the civil rights movement started a few years back. It started generations ago with our forefathers. No estimate of their actions can be made by those who judge ® Pacific Northwest Bell them by what a beneficiary of their conduct would do in today's climate. St. Johns* P t« -t* -B iU V t* Y 'CLERY REAMR-UM IWWEKHCYCiEB S tart spinning y o u r w h e e ls - T ry C h u ck’s d e a ls 1 speeds, 3 speeds. 5 speeds and 10 speeds T ríeseles - training bikes - w ag on s CHARLES CREWS W e feature: • Raleigh • Jeunet • Columbia 7017 N. Lombard • Vista 2 8 6 -1 0 7 9 5°s> discount on rentals to churches and o rg an izatio n s Introducing a brand new familiar symbol: Signatures can be revealing. And so can symbols. That’s why our new one depicts a person in the heart of the familiar Blue Cross. Because the heart of our business is people. 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