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. Not just paying
your health care bills, hut also
helping make sure that services
are there when you need them
and unnecessary costs are not.
This new symbol is one way
of saying “we care for people? But
we intend to continue showing it
in more wavs than one.
Blue Cross
of Oregon
*MrR Milk Hl«ie<
2 8 6 -2 2 9 6