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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1973)
I - Mro m t C 0 3 L’n !v r a l t y POR TLA ND Volum « 3, No. 4 0 Portland, O regon AN THE ONLY NEWSPAPER IN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD ..apaper l oom .• ’ on L ib r a r y f OBSERVER Thursday July 12, 1973 10< per copy THAT REALLY CARES ABOUT PEOPLE i» Wilkerson warns students: This year last chance Julius (Hill) Wilkerson, dir eclor of Portland State Uni versity’a Operation Plus, an nounced the receipt of an H E W grant of $50,000 for the PSU program. The pro- gram will enroll 100 new students thia year. Wilkt<r»on urge» all stu dents who want to attend college and who will need financial aid to take advan tage of the program thia year. Because of new de velopments in educational as sistance, this might be the last year that disadvantaged students will have a reason able opportunity for financial assistance. Next year the limited funds for financial aid will not be alloted to the universities for the use of the students, but will be given directly to the student. Competition will be nation wide and based on need rather than prior disadvan tage. Wilkerson sees this as the last year that minority and low income students can look to government programs for financial aid. Operation Plus, initiated by PSU in 1968, provides financial aid, personal and career counseling, assistance in finding part time jobs and housing. Students are en rolled in regular university courses and are also provided special c re d it courses in mathematics and reading. Students eligible for the program must meet Health, Education and W elfare De p a rtm e n t income re q u ire ments, have a high school diploma or G .E .D . Slaty percent of the students are those who meet university entrance requirements but need financial asaistance to attend school. Forty percent are students who do not meet entrance requirements but have the potential to do college work. Disadvantaged is defined as those students who are handicapped by be J l I . I l S IHII.I.I W II.K K K S O N longing to minority groups or who are from low income backgrounds. College students who have earned less than 45 credits and have a G PA under 2.5 are also eligible for the pro gram. Since it was initiated at a time when colleges including P o rtla n d S ta le U n iv e rs ity were responding to the Black and student uprisings by making more opportunities available to Blacks, Opera tion Plus has historically had a high percentage of Black students. The program, how ever, is inter racial and the racial breakdown last year was: Black, 92: white, 44: Indian. 16: and Chicano, 14. Wilkerson considers Oper ation Plus to be a success in that it has motivated and assisted students to attend the university. All of those who have dropped out of the program have done so for financial reasons. Many of the students who have had to leave ikv e returned later. Lust year the first group of O p e ra tio n Plus students graduated from PSU, and in the spring of 1974, thirteen more students will graduate. Wilkerson, who came to PSU in 1966 on a basketball scholarship, earned his B.A. at PSU in 1968 and his M .A. in psychology in 1971. He was previously employed by the Portland Development Commission and K P T V . He is looking forward to a career in law as a way to help elim i nate injustice and oppression of Black people in this country. Wilkerson strongly (Pleas«- turn to pg. 4. col. 6) Oregonians ask Nixon impeachment The Oregonians to Impeach Nixon Committee, Inc., is at tempting to organize public- support for the impeachment of President Nixon through public forums, letter writing campaigns and attempting to reveal to the people the unlawful activities of the Nixon administration. Press S e c re ta ry Burns Rauschenbush released the following statement of the O T IN C ’s response to John Dean's testimony: "John Dean's five days of testimony before the Senate W atergate Committee have furnished a great deal of additional impetus to the movement to impeach Nixon. Dean has testified, under oath, 1) that Nixon knew of the cover up from the time of the W atergate break in for ward: 2) Nixon approved large sums of money to keep the W a te rg a te defendants from revealing White House involvement: 3) Nixon also offered executive clemency to Hunt and the other de fendants; and 41 Nixon and Ziegler repeatedly lied to the American people about the W a te rg a te a ffa ir, citing phony Dean reports or in v e s t ig a t io n s th at never existed. On the basis of these charges alone if they hold up Nixon could be impeached for bribery and obstruction of justice. "But W hite House docu ments released by Dean and stress«»d in the testimony developed by Senators Ervin and W eicker point to further impeachable crimes. Weick or (S-Conn I read off a tlrt of sixteen crimes committed by the W hite House, including perjury, unauthorized use of IRS information, conspiracy to destroy evidence, and conspiracy to intercept oral and w ire com m unications. The thurst of Weicker's ar gument was that the W hite House had disregarded the Constitution This point was developed further by Senator Ervin who got Dean, a lawyer, to agree with him that the W hite House had violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitu tion. As Vice Chairman Sen ator Baker later commented. S en a to r E rv in has con structed a strong legal case for malfeasance in office, specifically the violation of the oath of office to uphold the Constitution and the laws of the land." David Gwyther told the Observer that O TIN C is at tempting to generate an in terest on the part of the members of the House of Representatives to explore impeachment. O TIN G is not presuming guilt on the part of M r. Nixon but believes an impeachment trial is the only way to get at the truth. G wyther does not believe the House is ready to consider impeachment and that the current plan of the Demo crats is to leave Nixon in office and look to the 1976 elections. He feels it will take a more drastic involve ment than W atergate to push the House to move toward impeachment. One incident that is now being investi gated is the plan crash death of Mrs. Howard Hunt, wife of one of the conspirators. Mrs. H unt was reportedly carrying pap -rs incriminating to the president and there is some evid » pointing to sabotage >f the airplane. O TIN G is a statewide or ganization, with stale head quarters in Eugene under the direction of Peter Jacobs. A d d itio n a l offices are in Salem. Bend and Portland. NAACP suspends Atlanta Branch •« The National Board of the N A A C P has voted to uphold the suspension of the 42 member board of the Allan ta, Georgia Branch if it does not vote to repudiate the recent school desegregation compromise. The vote, which was taken at the N A A C P National Convention, was re portedly followed by a secret vote to expel the Atlanta Branch if it does not con form. The Board also re moved Lonnie King, presi dent of the Atlanta Branch, from office and banned him from holding office for a period of two years. The executive board of the A tla n ta branch was sus pended in March of 1971 by Executive Director Roy Wil kins after it refused to with draw support of the com promise that will go into ef feet this fall. The Atlanta Compromise ended a 13 year legal dead lock between the N A A C P and the school lioard. It includes minimal busing 814 white students and 1.246 Black stu d en ts - in ex change for the hiring of a Black s u p e rin te n d e n t of schools and the placing of Blacks in at least 50 percent of all policy making positions. The National office said the plan violated the N A A C P policy on school desegrega tion and when the Board voted in March to continue it's support of the plan, the Board was suspended. Atlanta officials had ex peeled the national office to send a fact finding team to Atlanta to review the com promise, but this was not done. Instead, the National Board acted at the National Convention, at which there were no delegates from the Atlanta branch seated. Some officials see the lift ing of the charter of one of the organizations most presi gous branches as a warning to other branches that might wander from national policy. Members of the Atlanta branch, however, see the move as a reactio n to wounded pride. One mem Parents bvild park Parents and residents of the Irv in g to n E le m e n ta ry School attendance area have banded together to improve a new addition to the school playground. Since last May neighbors, parents and students in the area have been working Sat urdays landscaping and build ing new facilities for the playground addition. The school district last ye ar acquired a one h alf block addition to the school playground from the Port land Development Commis sion. Since that time Portland Public Schools p ro p erties d e p a rtm e n t and v o lu n te e r workers from the community have sodded a large part of the playground addition and c u rre n tly vo lu n tee rs are building playground equip ment. W ith the help of a volun teer architect residents have designed and built a wooden fort and bridge with towers using donated materials. Finishing touches will be added this Saturday. July 14, beginning at 9 am .. at the playground, 1320 N.E. Braze«- Street. (Please turn to pg. 8, col. 5) S ave fo r w e a lth ... r id e f o r h e a lth The Benj. Franklin has great buys on bikes for those who save now! FOLDING BICYCLES With $5.000 deposit - $25 With $2,500 deposit - $35 With $250 deposit - $45 10-SPEED BICYCLES With $5,000 deposit - $45 With $2,500 deposit - $60 With $250 deposit — $75 Franklin ■ «,!„«« a l o a m « •■ « . Robert H Hazen, Pro« • 22 Offices • Phone 248 1234 Home Ottlce Franklin Bldg Portland, Oregon 9Z204 Portlanders take a break during the filming of "Lost in the Stars” near Cottage Grove. The film, which is based on the novel "Cry the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton, is directed by Daniel Mann. Black nation gains independence The Commonwealth of the Bahamas gained it's inde pendence on July 10th. The chain of over 700 islands and a total land area of 4,404 square miles achieved home rule in 1968 after being gov erned by Great Britain. The 185,000 citizens are led by Prime Minister Lyn den 0 . Pindling, a 42 year old Black man. Pindling, the head of the Progressive Lib eral Party, was elected in 1967 when the Bahamas first elected their own ruler. Pindley's priorities for the new nation include economic viability, national unity and social justice. The Bahamas population is about 85 percent Black, and they have achieved govern ment control majority rule. Since coming to power the Progressive Liberal Party has insisted that more Baha mians be involved in middle and h ig h er m anagem ent areas. The movement is successful and Bahamians are beginning to own some of the larger business properties. Because of it's position at the northern edge of the Caribbean, the Bahamas have a large tourist industry and a larger portion of the popuia tion is involved in the tourist industry. Recent legislation bans foreign labor move ments in an effort to pro mote the hiring of Bahamians. Foreign owned companies have always resisted the promotion of Bahamians to top management posts and much of the opposition to independence came from hotel owners. The Bahamas have great hopes for it's fishing indus try. which is being developed with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program. I t is estimated that fishing could produce over $10 million annually. There is a small group of residents who wish to remain British subjects. Some of these people are descendents of loyalists who left New York in 1783 when they de sired to remain loyal to the Kind of England. Pindling does not forsee any threat to his government because of the opposition. Of his priority for social justice, Pindling said. "It has taken considerable time for us to evolve in this new system of life -- a way of life whereby we can regain our self-respect, hold our heads up, and be fully recog nized and accepted as men in our own right, no necessarily as men of color, but just as men in our own right. Still, that recognition is not uni versal and it is still neces sary. too often I think, still to prove that one has the feelings, the same hopes, the same aspirations, the same capabilities as others, and that all one really needs is 1) the preparation, and 2) the opportunity. One of our jobs is to see that the preparation and the oppor tunity continue to be impor tant parts of our own de velopment so that we as men can develop and can realize our own full potential." Brenda Knapper chosen Brenda J. Knapper. 21. has been named Miss Oregon World for 1973 74, according to Jerald D. M iller, State Director of the International Pageant. She will compete in the national Miss U.S.A. World Pageant to be held in New York September 15-21. Miss K n ap p er is the daughter of W illie J. Knap- per. She is a senior at Portland Slate University, majoring in Business Ad ministration. Miss Knapper is employed by the M etro politan Hum an R elations Commission at City Hall. Rebecca L e rc h n e r and Teressa Harris were selected as first and second runner- ups. L E W IS r. M E R R IT T Merritt reaches 100 living. He has 23 grand children, 28 great grand children, and 16 great great grandchildren. He moved to Portland two years ago and is spending his time visiting his four daughters and their families: Mrs. Vethel Hall, Mrs. Christelle Shelton. Mrs. Estelle Milton, and V»» 7eoV Thompson. He has three daughters and two sons in other areas of the country. M e rritt will b«- honored on his birthday by an open house birthday party at the home of M r. and Mrs. Folia T. Hall. Lewis T. M e rritt will cele brate his 100th birthday on July 13th. M e rritt was born on July 13, 1873 in Homer, Louisiana, where he lived until two years ago. He worked in the oil fields of Louisiana and was a farmer. M e rritt joined the Union Grove C .M .E. Church at the age of six and is still a member. He has been a m em ber of K in g D a vid Masonic Lodge and Order of Eastern Star for over 75 years. M e rritt is the father of 14 children, nine of whom are Black officials respond to Nixon list Black officials - those who were on the list and those who w ere not - have responded to the White House's "enemy list". The most spectacular com ment came from California legislator M ervyn Dymally who wired the President to ask why his name was not on the list because "the top Nixon officials have always been on my list”. He said “I consider it a definite snub." R everen d Ralph A b e r nathy, whose name was on the list, said he was “hon ored". Abernathy said he is an enemy of injustice and inequality and any of the o ther in e q u itie s p resen tly being practiced by the Nixon administration. "But to be placed on the master list just because we disagree with the present administration under scores what a terrible state the nation is in,” he said. Black Panther Huey New ton’s name was spelled "Hughie" and Julian Bond, a frequent critic of the Nixon administration, was omitted from the list. Bond said of his omis sion. "I feel highly insulted. I'm proud to say that Presi dent Nixon has no greater enemy in the United States than myself, and I'm humili ated, mortified and ashamed that I did not make the list.” Congressman Ronald V. Dellums (D-Calif.) issued the following statement in Wash ington on June 27. "In view of the testimony released in the E rvin hear ings, I was not surprised to find myself among the group of individuals designated by President Nixon as 'enemies of the W hite House', "I came to Washington three years ago to deal with the serious issues that face this country, to make this government responsive to the desires of the American peo ple and to represent the needs of my constituents. Many critics of my position have charged that my poli tics were not to be taken seriously; I can think of no better proof of just how seriously my views are taken being named to this list, and I shudder to consider the politics of those who might be thought of as 'White House friends'. "To what depths have we descended when the Chief Executive can no longer face political opposition without the aid of 'enemy lists' to intimidate opponents? How many other illegal F B I or C IA lists are circulating to harass citizens? The votes we cast, the petitions we sign, the views we express, the very exercise of our constitutional rights are now termed enemy activity. "Elected officials, journa lists, e n te rta in e rs , p riv a te citizens - no one is im mune from this executive compulsion to purge the country of those who dare to disagree with this adminis tration. "Black Americans have al ways know the degree of repression and lawlessness practiced by the govern ment; now perhaps other Americans will become more aware of it. There must not be a 1984 in 1973 in A m eri can society. “Even before I came to Congress, Spiro Agnew saw fit to level personal attacks at me, and I am therefore forced to wonder about the degree to which Nixon and his cohorts were futdely in volved in my most recent campaign. It was a cam paign characteriz«*d more by vicious attacks than political issues. My voting record was distorted, my attendance record lied about. I know the phones in my district office were being tapped. "I intend to discuss with other members of Congress whose names appear on this (Please turn to pg. 6, col. 6) Telegram d jp s tp rn u n io n Of MO WO» -Cl Of cæ 0o»n NKjMT mro» am U N IE » » «O« A » o v t >S CHECKED TH IS MESSAGE * 8 1 «E SENT AS « K l f O R i W facsimile PRESIDENT RICHARD NIION THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, O.C. IT WAS WITH DEEP RE6RET AND A FEELING OF HURT THAT I READ IN THE NEWS ACCOUNTS THAT I WAS NOT 1NCLU0E0 ON THE OFFICIAL LIST OF PRESIDENTIAL ENEMIES, WHICH HAS SURFACED FROM THE WATERGATE HEARINGS. WANT WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALS HATE SEEN Ok Mt LIST I KNOW OF NO REASON WHT I SHOULD NOT BE INCLUDED Ok TOUR LIST. AS A BLACK LIBERAL STATE SENATOR, I FEEL CERTAIN Nt POTENTIAL FOR CAUSING TROUBLE IS GREATER THRU HR. HAMATH'S. I NOTE THAT BLACKS ANO ME 1 1CAN-AMENICANS ARE NOT AOEQUATELT REPRESENTED ON THE LIST IN THEIR PROPORTIONS IN THE POPULATION THIS VIOLATES TOUR PROMISES TO OPEN UP EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES TO MEMBERS OF MINORIT» GROUPS. IR CLOSING. I URGE THAT TOU CONSIOER RE-OPENING THE LIST FOR FURTHER NOMINATIONS. NOT TO 00 SO IS A VIOLATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES WHICH WE 80TH HOLD OEAR. SENATOR MERVTN M. OTMALLT CHAIRMAN CALIFORNIA SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS I « • I
