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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1973)
l'r c i Univ c - r s lty -f (. . * i - e»«p*p«r * • ’on L ib r a r y Black trucker challenges state action, charges racism Otis Smith will (ropen his hearing with the Oregon State Public Utilities C om mission, which denied him a common carrier licenae laat August. Smith ia taking that the hearing be reopened to present new evidence. He will allege that the Public Utilities Commissioner has an affirm ative obligation to open the transportation in dustry in Oregon to m inc-ity people. Oregon law requires that an applicant for a PUC li cense prove public necessity and convenience for his li cense. There ia only one licensed Black trucker in Oregon. Bill Jones, who was awarded a dump truck license in April of 1973. Another Black, David Dawson, has applied for a dump truck license. Smith first applied for a contract license which would allow him to haul loads under contract to apeci fic companies in 1971. A t that time he was hauling for Steelco in Salem, and needed the license to main tain his job. Smith re applied, and took shippers to the hearing who said they had work for him and needed his services. He was turned down by the PUC, which said there was no need for his truck and that there were other trucks available to the shipper . Smith reapplied and this time was awarded a contract carrier licens» This license restricts him to hauling for one company. He hauls steel to Salem, but cannot accept any other loads. If he were to negotiate a contract with another company, it would have to be approved by PUC. On December 31, 1971, Smith applied for a common carrier license. This would enable him to accept any jobs within the state. This appli PORTLAND 4? OBSERVER Volume 3. No. * Portland. Oregon ________ AN «O U A I O»»O«TUNITY IM P IO T I» THI O NtY M IW tP A P |» IN tH |W H O U _ W IP t W O »tD THAT H A t t V ^Thursday, August 23. 1973 CA«IS City hires Hepburn C o m m is s io n e r M ild r e d Schwab announced the ap pointment of Erm a Hepburn as Assistant Director of Pro gram Administration for the City of Portland's Bureau of Human Resources. Miss Hepburn. 37. was previously Associate Director for Community Programs for the P o rtlan d M e tro p o lita n Steering Committee. She has also held the positions of Community Services Coordi nator and Community Action Programs Coordinator since joining PM SC in August of 1968. Previous to that time. Miss Hepburn was with the Albina Neighborhocxl Service Center. A graduate of Portland's Jefferson High School and the N o rth w e s t School of Business, Miss Hepburn is a member of the Urban League of Portland, the N A A C P . the Governor's Advisory Com mittee on Vocational Educa tion, the Portland Public Schools Review Panel, and numerous other civic, proles sional anil religious organiza tions. In her new post1 under HRB Director Ira Blalock, Miss Hepburn will be re sponsible for programs dir ectly administered by the Bureau, including youth pro gramming. and the possible future transition or purchase of other program services. “I am extremely happy that in selecting Erma we were able to continue our (Milicy of seeking out the best local talent for key positions in the Bureau." said Miss Schwab. "We could not have found a In-tier person for this position." A L L E N L. JO NES Scouts seek leaders Allen L. Jones, the new Associate District Executive for the Big Thunder District of the Boy Scouts of America, is looking for adults who are interested in working with Scouts. Jones, who is from Oakland, graduated from the College of Alameda in 1972. He was employed by the Boy Scouts in a New Careers program, and was the first man on the West ('oast to bo trained for the scout program through New Careers. He has been with the Big Thunder Dis trict for approximately two months. One program brought by Jones from the Bay area is the "Scoutmobile". The van is located in parks or on the street where boys gather and provide a program of activities for the boys. Ap proximately 200 boys have been attracted to Scouting and placed in existing troops through this program. There are about eight ac tive troops in the Albina area. Many boys would like to join a troop but cannot until adult leaders are found. Jones, who was not a scout himself, emphasizes that it is not necessary that a man have a scouting background to tie a good leader. All that is necessary is interest and the desire to work with boys, lead ers are provided training through a program designed to meet their needs and fit their available time. Jones believes the scouting program is valuable to boys and young men and to the community. The acout pro gram provides experience in planning and meeting goals, working together on p ro jects, a sense of comradeship and b ro th erh o o d , and in terests that can become hob bies or even careers. The many activities and the op portunities for responsibility and leadership give hoys a v e rs a tility th a t broadens their perspectives and allows them to make responsible decisions. For adults - the women who work with the rub parks and the men who work with o ld e r b oys s c o u tin g brings the opportunity to teach and provide guidance and understanding to young people. Government awards soldier The Senate passed a bill that would award $25.(XX) to Dorsie Willis, believed to be the sole survivor of the all Black infantry unit unjustly discharged in 1906. Senator Hubert Humphrey. D Minn., said he did not think the compensation was enough. He hoped the House would restore the $40,000 figure in his original bill, plus past veterans and pension b en efits to which W illis would have been entitled. Willis. 87. of Minneapolis, received his honorable dis charge on February 11, 1973 at a Minneapolis ceremony, after spending 66 years shin ¡ng shoes in a barbershop. He was dishonorably dis charged along with 166 other members of the 25th infantry regiment following a shooting incident in the border town of Brownsville. Texas in Aug ust, 1906. Townspeople claimed five to 20 soldiers in the regiment were involved, but investi gations failed to identify any of the guilty. All the troops were then Law requires child immunizations A new -state law enacted r the 1973 Oregon Legis lure requires all students trolling in the Portland ublic Schools for the first me this fall be immunized (ainst certain communicable diseases before s ta rtin g school, or they may be denied admission. Under the law. parents must give evidence that stu dents have been immunized, or that immunization would as a b a te r Beni.® Franklin Robert H Hazen, Pres. • 20 Offices • Phone 248-1234 Home Office Franklin Bldg, Portland. Oregon 97204 I be injurious to the health of the student, or obtain them through private physicians or the public health office of the county. Parents will be given 30 days to arrange for immunization from public or private sources. The law also provides the list of immunizations to be prepared by the state Health Division and to be adminis terod by the county health offices. They are to set up a system to make immuniza tions available to students either in school buildings or areas close by at no cost. Affected by the law will be every child five through 14 years of age prior to initial enrollment in any public, private or parochial school. Parents or guardians who object to immunizations on religious grounds may have children exempted after filing a certified statement. Detailed information on the procedures to be followed in Portland schools will be an nounced as soon as they are set up by the Multnomah County Health Department, accoi ding to John H. Nellor, Director, Public Information Department. Portland Public Schools. Nellor said he was certain procedures would be developed well in advance of the start of school. The new law affects all students in the state. assembled and the com mander ordered the guilty to step forward. When no one did. P re s id e n t Theodore Roosevelt discharged the en tire unit for it's “conspiracy of silence”. l.ater evidence cleared all the troops. The bill passed by the Senate would compensate the survivors of Willis' regiment with $25.000 each and theii u n m a r r ie d w id o w s w ith $10.000. Humphrey said “not only were those soldiers sum marily removed from the Arm y, but they were also fo re v e r b arred from r e enlisting in the Arm y or Navy of the United States, as well as from employment in any civil capacity from the Government. “I t was the Government who injured these men, and it is up to the Government to right that terrible wrong." When he received his hon orable discharge, Willis sug gested that he be paid the equivalent of $1,000 a year, or $66,000. in compensation. In recent testimony before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. W illis said “some people feel the world owes them a liv in g . I never thought that, and I never took a dime in welfare. "I did figure the world owed me an opportunity to earn a living myself, but they took that away from me. That dishonorable dis charge kept me from im proving my status. “Only God knows what it did to the others.” A8OUT P IQ P tf plied for his dump truck license and was met with white opposition, he pre sented evidence showing that contractors holding federal contracts and therefore re quired to hire minorities could not obtain Black dump truckers in Oregon. He alleged that the licensing re g u latio n s p e rp e tu a te d a condition of racial exclusion that existed before the regu lations were passed. The PUC licensed Jones based on his proving need for his truck and avoided ths issue of race. PUC Com missioner Richard W Sabin said race was not at issue and that he believes the granting of a license on the basis of race would be an "unjustifiable d evia t'o n from the la w ." Smith will challenge this as sumption by alleging that the state has a responsibility to open an all white industry, th at it reg u lates, to mi nonties. l«e P*r copy ____ Berkeley recalls councilman Dawson claims right to license Black Berkeley city council man D 'A rm y Bailey was re called from office Tuesday night. His chief opponent, William B. Rumford. Jr. won the race to replace Bailey. The campaign to replace Bailey stemmed from the strident style of the 31 year old graduate of the Yale School of Law. Bailey bad gered city officials for what he claimed was their slow ness to hire Blacks. He de nounced Mayor W arren Wid ener. who also is Black. Bailey was elected in 1971 by a coalition of Blacks and radical students. Rumford, who is a member of a prominent Black family, is on leave from his position as assistant chief of security for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. Fair gets soul food The Oregon State Fair will have its first Black-owned booth this year when Mrs. C lara Peoples opens her "Soul Food" booth. Mrs. Peoples will sell all of the traditioiiai vtuarlies of soul food and plans to give people from all over the state an opportunity to sample these delicacies that they will never find in their home towns. Clean-up scheduled A community clean up cam paign will be held in the Humboldt area on Saturday. August 25th. Drop boxes will be provided by Baldwii Sanitary and the A rm y Na tional Guard heavy equip ment unit. Food w ill be served a t th e H um b o ld t Neighborhood D evelo p m en t office, 4000 N. Mississippi. The clean up committee mem bers are Mrs. Opal Strong. Greg Watson, Brozie I-atham and Mel Hamilton. "I was born in 1943 at Emanuel Hospital and grew up in Portland, and in all my life 1 never looked up and saw a Black driving a dump truck. Now I have a little boy who talks about nothing but dump trucks. I didn't have the opportunity to ride with my father or uncle. I want him to have that chance. Then someday. I'll transler my license to my son.” That was the closing testimony of David Dawson. Black appli cant for a Public Utilities Commission dump truck li cense at his hearing Wed nesday. W hite members of the Dump Truck Association had testified that it was common practice for truck owners to buy and sell existing licenses for as much as $3.000, but that they object to the is suing of new licenses. Two of the three protesting ow ners has assisted their sons to purchase licenses. Dawson, who by law must prove that the addition of his truck is necessary for public convenience, based his case on two factors: that there is a need for additional dump trucks and that there is a need for Black dump truck owners to enable contractors to meet their affirm ative action needs. Alexander Hicks, Director of Civil Rights and Urban Affairs for the federal En vironmental Protection Agen cy. Region X. is responsible for seeing that civil rights laws and federal compliance regulations are followed in all EPA construction jobs in the Northwest. Hicks said the contractors in Oregon, as a whole, fall far short of meeting even modest affirmative action re quirements. Executive Or ders 11246 and 11625 require that general contractors and subcontractors actively seek, train, employ and “upgrade" m in o rity em ployees and assist the development of minority-owned businesses. Hicks said one of the Alexander Hicks (center). Civil Rights officer for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, explains contract affirm ative action requirements. Hicks advanced the idea that public regulatory agencies have a responsibility to open industry to minorities. Dawson is at left, his attorney. John C. Barnett, second from left. major reasons that contrac tors in Oregon are not meet ing their minority require ments is that few racial minorities have been allowed into the construction and su b co ntractin g ind u stries. Another reason is that con tractors do not take the trouble to find out who is available. Hicks warned that although there are a great number of E PA jobs planned for Oregon, there might be delays or even cancellations if contractors do not meet their compliance obligations. As for the need for addi tional trucks in Oregon, Hicks said the social need for Black owners should be regarded as a legitimate need. Jack McDonald of Todd Building Company described the affirm ative action needs of his company and affirmed the fact that his company has (Please turn to pg. 6. col. 61 UNICEF feeds Africans In an emergency program to help combat the disastrous effects of the prolonged drought upon the health of millions of West African chil dren, the United Nations Children's Fund has rushed Farmworkers Union sues Fred Myer The United Farm Workers filed a lawsuit and restrain ing order against Fred Meyer Stores, Inc. recently. The lawsuit arose because of a Farm Workers Union label from an old table grape b-vX mounted above the I .pe section in the Fred Meyer store at 39th & Hawthorne. A t present there are no union grapes being produced, and the Union felt Fred Meyers was fradulently mis using the label. Because of this misrepresentation, the lawsuit charges Fred Meyer's with violating Oregon laws on deceptive sales practices and interfering with con tractual relations. A third violation is made under Fed o ra l tr a d e m a rk laws. For cation was denied. The finding of the commission was that Smith did not prove the present trucking service is inadequate. The shippers who te s tifie d th a t they needed and would use Ms services were told that other companies were available to them. Smith will now reopen the hearing, alleging that the PUC requirements are per petuating an all white in dustry. When William Jones ap each charge the Union is seeking $5.000, in damages, plus an additional $15.000 in punitive damages, for a total of $30,000. The temporary restraining order, signed by Judge Al fred S u lm o n e tti, prohibits Fred M eyer from continuing these deceptive practices. Mel Huey. Oregon U F W U re p re s e n ta tiv e , commented on the lawsuit: “The super market industry has been ignoring the grape boycott since they know we are locked into a nation wide boycott of Safeway stores. We hope this lawsuit will convince Fred Meyer and other chains that we mean business." t tons of high-protein food supplements and medicines to the six stricken countries, according to Paul Larsen. U N IC E F Emergency Opera tions Coordinator. The shipments are part of U N IC E F ’s emergency relief program for the children and pregnant mothers of Mauri tania. Mali. Niger, Chad. Senegal and Upper Volta, to which the Children’s Fund has already committed over $1,000,000. Although latest reports in dicate that other countries and international agencies are now sup plyin g su fficien t grain to avert death by star vation on a massive scale, m a ln u tritio n , d e h y d ra tio n and greater susceptibility to diseases, particularly spinal meningitis, still threaten the lives of these children. Here, as it has in Nigeria and Bangladesh, U N IC E F is concentrating its efforts and expertise to establish child feeding program s, supply anti biotics and other medi cines. and aid well-digging projects to increase the avail a b ility of clean d rin k in g water. By September, it is anticipated that 72.000 pre school children and pregnant or nursing mothers will be receiving daily allotments of CSM. a mixture of corn, soya and milk that supplies suffi cient protein to meet the body needs. K M ix I I, a liquid high protein mixture that is fed intravenously to ch ild ren h ospitalized w ith kwashiorkor, an acute form of malnutrition, has been air lifted from Senegal. U N IC E F is also su p plyin g heavy trucks for the distribution of relief supplies and drilling rights, steel rods, transport and other technical equip ment for the well-drilling brigades. Contributions to support these emergency operations and future long-term child care programs for the sub- Saharan region may be sent to U N IC E F West Africa Re lief. United Nations. New York, New York 10017. NAACP sets picnic The Vancouver Branch of the N A A C P will hold its annual picnic on Sunday, August 26th, at Lewisville P ark near B attle g ro u n d . Everyone is invited. Come before 1:30 p.m., and bring food to share and your own David Dawson ponders complaint of his chief adversary, truck driver-owner Arnold Johnson. Black-owned firm gets federal contract A $5,767,000 contract for construction of a new U.S. Courthouse and Federal Of fice Building in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, was awarded to Luther Benjamin Asso ciates, a Black-owned Virgin Islands firm, the General Ser vices A d m in is tra tio n an nounced recently. The contract is the largest ever awarded by the Federal Government under special provisions of Section 8<al of the Small Business Act. A rthu r F. Sampson, head of GSA, cited the contract as "a milestone in GSA's coopera tive efforts with the Small Business Administration to encourage growth and de velopment of firms owned by socially or economically dis advantaged persons. The Courthouse and Fed eral Office Building will be located within the Barracks Yard Urban Renewal project, Charlotte Amalie. St. Thom as, the Virgin Islands. The four story, brick faced struc ture will house the U.S. Courts, Department of In terior. and nine other agen iies which will be consoli dated from their present lo cations in Charlotte Amalie. The building was designed by the joint venture of H .D . Nottingham and Associates, Inc. and Reed, Torres, Beau champ and Marvel of Arling ton, Va. Section 8(a) of the Small Business Act permits the Federal Government to award co n tracts to a m in o rity owned firm on a non-competi tive bdsis for up to three years. Contracts are awarded to the Small Business Ad ministration, which then sub lets them to the minority firm. GSA has awarded more than 1,200 service, con Struction. concession and manufacturing contracts to minority owned firms under the program since its incep tion in 1969: total value of these contracts is more than $103.7 million. )
