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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (June 27, 1974)
School Board demotes Black principal Mr«. Ellen Law, who was Portland's only Black high school principal, was <le muted to vice principal Munduy night, June 24th, and was uasigned to Franklin High School in Southeast Portland. Mr». l<aw had been principal nt Jefferson High SchiMil for three years, the first as acting principal and the next two as pro liulionary principal. Three probationary years are re quircd to achieve tenure. Portland has had only one other Black principal, who left after only one year. The new princip al of Jefferson is as yet unnumed, b u t S u p e r in t e n d e n t of Schools Hubert Blanchard told the Observer this spring, although denying knowledge that vacancy might incur, that race will not enter into the appoint ment and that he does not regard Jefferson, which is 40 percent Black, to be a "Black school”. The vote of the School Board came at the beginning of the school board meeting, following attempts by rom munity members to be heard. The Board explained that according to grievance pro cedures a closed hearing had been held with Dr. Blanchard as hearings officer. The only opportunity for public rom ment was at that meeting and at Mrs. laiw's request (Sources close to the school district state, however, that Mrs. I,aw was intimidated with threats of charges of insuliordination should she inform the community nr the press of the pending actions.) t ( The Board met Monday in closed executive session to consider the hearing record and Dr. Blanchard's recom mendations for demotion, but the vote was taken in the public meeting as required by Oregon law. Gladys McCoy, the Board's Black member, ab stained. Mrs. McCoy told the audience that she had a b s ta in e d fo r p e rs o n a l reasons, but that her a t stention should not be mis taken as a lark of faith hi fir. only Blanchard's judgement. She said that the quality of education in the Portland Public Schools has greatly improved since he became su p erin ten dent. In de fending the Board's derision she said "Racism is not the total, if at all. part of the derision." Many members of the audience were angry at not being allow ed to speak before the vote was taken, several stating that they had been told that they would In- heard. Others questioned the grievance procedure and the fact that the community had not been advised that an action of such serious nature was ,>ending. Reverend Thomas Stray hand and Rozell Gilmore, speaking for the Albina Ministerial Alliance, told the Board that although griev ances should be confidential, this matter transcended the ordinary personnel action and involves the community. “We feel it is a community matter and we are greatly concerned," Strayhand said. Isadore Many said that the problems at Jefferson were so bad in 1970, the School District brought in a Black man from California it had no Black administrators it could appoint to Jeffer son but he soon left. Then they appointed Ellen Ia«w and she has done a good job. There are no problems at Jefferson now so they have set her aside. "It's the same old game, baby. Charlie shoots us down the minute we get to the top.” Bob Nelson, community ad vo rate and long tim e Jefferson parent, asked the (Please turn to pg. 4, col. 7) Ci tizens exclu ded fro m school decisions (The following are excerpts from a statement by Sylvia Gates to a Portland hearing of the Commission on Eduea tional Governance of the National Committee for Citi lens in Education. Miss Gates, a recent graduate of Cleveland High School, was a student member of the Area H I advisory board of the Portland Public Schools.) Dr. Ernest Hartzog has been named Assistant Superin tendent for Staff Development and Community Relations for the Portland Public Schools. There is participation in Portland Public Schools, but very little derision making participation by students or citizens. There are several levels of citizen and student participation. These may be defined as: 1) tho local school; 2) the area; and 3) the district level. There are different kinds of participa tion: there is partial par ticipation, open participation and closed p articip atio n . Textbook adoption is an area of partial participation. Citi zens and students do not participate in the develop ment of criteria, but they are allowed to review proposed criteria. Students and citi zens are not members of Survey finds Eugene housing discrimination An OSPIRG mushg.ilinii of racial discrimination in Eugeni- rental housing has uncovered apparent viola lions ol state civil rights laws and Eugene City Code. (In Monday, June 24th, OSPIRG turned over the results of its prolie to the Eugene Human Hights Com mission, the Oregon Slate Bureau of l.almr, and the U.S. Department of Housing and I rb.iri Development lllCDl, asking lor lurther mvestiga tion. The audit of rental housing in Eugene was conducted by O S I'IR ti in conjunction with students from the University of Oregon Black Student Union. OSPIRG'» audit found that 5 of the 17 apartments from which complete results were obtained |29.4%) appear to have discriminated against the Black auditor. To obtain this data, first a Black and later a wbite auditor presented themselves at the apartment compl -xes, posin g as p r o s p e c tiv e tenants. The DSPIRG audi let f}te TPicfure by saving at the Benj. Franklin A neat little camera Is yours, free with a new deposit of $250 to $5,000 or more Free Snapshooters and Kodak's Hawkeye Instamatics. or buy Kodak s Hawkeye movie camera at $9 95 with a $5,000 deposit One camera per account, while supplies last, cameras cannot be mailed See them In person at any office 5.25% per annum on Passbook Accounts; Certificates ol Deposit at higher rates F ra n k lin M W S M • LWAM Home Office: Frank n Bids .Portland, Oregon 97704 Robert H Hazen, Pree. 70 Ottica» . Phone 748-1734 tors were trained to ask similar questions and offer similar personal Ivackgrounds to the manager. Any dis parity in the apartment manager's treatment of the auditors was analyzed for possible discrimination. In the three- instances the manager told the Black that there were no vacancies but told the white that an apart ment unit was available. In two other rases the white auditor received more favorable treatment than the Black. One apartment man ager offered to show the available unit to the white but was unwilling to show it to the Black. In the other rase, the manager informed the white of a reduced summer rent while failing to tell I he Black of that re d fiction. "In none of the cases did the Black auditor have any reason to believe, before the results for both Black and white were compared, that discrim in atio n had taken place," said Mark Evans, a University of Oregon student and co-supervisor of the study. The OSPIRG report con eluded that few housing dis crimination complaints are filed in Oregon because “the complaint system of law en forcement depends on the victim’s awareness of dis crimination." OSPIRG called the state's complaint system inadequate. OSPIRG asked the Eugene Human Rights Commission and the Oregon State Bureau of Labor to: Develop the resources to conduct audits and initiate (Please turn to pg. 4. col. 2) textbo o k selection rom mittees, but are permitted to review the books under consideration and request rejections and additions. In the areas of open par ticipation. participation is concentrated in au x ilia ry functions. The participation is in the implementation of jxiliry, but not in its develop ment or evaluation. These illustrations show the limited scope of public involvement in decision making. Some Po rtlan d Public schools have School z\dvisory C om m ittees composed of faculty, administrators, par ents and in some cases students. The local com mittees deal with school con cerns such as building needs, eco aesthetics and special studies, such as "Year Round Schools" and book purchases for a school from the teacher approved list. Student governments in high schools have varying capacities and powers. Many stu d en t councils sponsor e x tr a c u r r ic u la r a c tiv itie s such as dances, assemblies, special programs and fund raising activities. Students have been involved in the establishment of mini courses and pass/no pass grading. Recently the Portland As sociation of Student Councils tried to alter district policy concerning smoking on school property. The state of Oregon has given certain powers and responsibilities directly to school boards, In this com munity, the School Board has chosen not to delegate any responsibility therefore citi zen committee* may noi lake action -• they can only recommend and advise. The effectiveness of citizen com mittees is hampered because they are appointed by the School Board rather than elected by the community which they serve. Federal legislation such as Title IV and Title V II re quires citizen and student policy making input in local and district advisory com mittees. These committees are also appointed. Are these various com mittees effective mechamism for involvement? I,oral citizen groups such as V IP ’s, PTA. and Dad's Clubs serve the schools in auxiliary capacities, not in decision making roles. The public is excluded from derisions regarding per sonnet, contracts, and ne gotiations. Student government is in effective to change policy since its focus is on school centered e x tra c u rric u la r activities. Area Advisory Committees were not intended to make policy; they serve the func tion of sounding boards for citizens' complaints. The advisory committees for Title IV and Title V II are severely limited. Their effectiveness (Please turn to pg. 2. col. 31 Forestry Department guilty again For the second time the United States Forestry De partment has been found g uilty of d iscrim in atin g against Mrs. Jeanette Brown. The latest order, dated May 2, 1974, awarded Mrs. Brown backpay retroactive to September, 1973. The previous complaint filed by Mrs. Brown resulted in the F o re s try D e p a r tm e n t's agreement in October of 1972 to provide training and assignment of travel duties. These agreem ents w ere never kept. Following Mrs. Brown's return to work in September. 1973 from mater nity leave, she was denied assignment to two vacancies, so again filed charges of discrimination. Specific instances of dis crimination identified were as follows: Denial ol training (M TST on the job more complex typing) as specifically agreed to in the October 19, 1972 resolution; Denial of assignment of travel duties as specifically agreed to in the October 19. 1972 resolution; - Denial of being fully qualified for promotion with in 6 months and to compete for promotion because of lack of training and assignment of duties. (The job for which Mrs. Brown is now going into has the identical duties for which she was denied training and assignment of travel duties. I - Denial for full merit consideration for vacancies in Range and Wildlife, because of being branded as trouble maker or less than pro mutable when official record showed she was well quali fied. (Candidate selected in September, 1973.1 -- Denial for consideration for position in Training Branch when position was upgraded in violation of promotion plan. (Filled September 2, 1973.) Denial for promotional and upward mobility oppor tunities when special efforts were made to assign travel duties to a white person at National president visits Portland Ju an ita W h ite Brown, President of the National A s s o c ia tio n of C o lo re d Women's Club, will visit Portland this weekend, the first visit of a national President to Portland. Mrs. Brown will participate in the O re g o n A s s o c ia tio n of Colored Women's Club's An nual Meeting. Mrs. Brown was elected 19th president of the National Association of Colored Wo men's Clubs, Inc. in 1972. The Association represents 5 to 7,000 women and girls throughout the nation. Mrs. Brown received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music from Simpson College Indianola, Iowa. Her varied experiences in elude Instructor of Music at Wilberforce University, Dir cctor of Music Department at Arkansas A.M. & N. Col lege, and Director of a private studio in East Chi rago, Indiana. Mrs. Brown also served as Director ol a nursery school in East Chi cago for 15 years. the same time the Chief of the Forest Service was told no travel backup duties existed. Denial for promotional opportunities by not being honestly confronted in per formance and attendance while being ranked well qualified for promotion, that (Please turn to pg. 2. col. 5) O bserver wins F irst Place The Portland Observer won the Oregon Newspaper Publishers' Association's First Place Award in Com munity Service for Class B newspapers (weekly news papers with circulation over 3,000) The award was based on the (Zboerver’s role in the fields of affirmative action, housing and education. Other winners in the Com m unity Service C ategory were the Eugene Register Guard for daily newspapers and the laikeview Examiner for weeklies with less than 3,000 circulation. The awards were an nounced at the ONPA's 87th Annual Summer Meeting at Salishan I/xtge on the coast. Robert C. Notson, pub lisher of the Oregonian, and Wendell W ebb, editor of the Salem Statesm an, w ere winners of the ONPA's Voorhies awards for out standing contributions to journalism. A graduate of the Columbia University School of Jour nalism, Notson began work ing as a reporter for the the Oregonian in 1925. rising to night city editor, city editor and managing editor by 1941. After serving for three years as executive editor, he was named publisher in Decern her of 1967. A.L. Henderson. Editor and Publisher of the Portland receives award from Fran .McLean. Chairman of ONPA Better Newspaper Contest Awards Committee. Observer, Webb began his jour nalistic career as a reporter with the Daily Courier in Waterloo, Iowa, and then worked for the Des Moines Tribune in 1928. He served as managing editor of the Coos Bay Times, worked for the As sociated Press, and for the last 29 years has been editor of the Salem Statesman. The Salem C apital Journal won the general excellence award for daily newspapers. The E u g e n e - R e g is t e r Guard was given second place in the general ex- cellence division, and the A lb an y D em o crat-H erald won third. Second place was awarded to the Independence Enterprise Herald and third went to the John Day Blue Mountain Eagle. The general excellence award for weeklies with 3,000 or more circulation went to the Lebanon E x press. Second prize was awarded to the Hood River News and third to the Newport News-Times The winner for weeklies with less than 3,000 circula tion was the Toledo Leader. Court denies injunction NNPA presents aw ard The United Affirmative Action Commitee's request for an injunction to halt county lav offs was turned down by ILS. District Court Judge Morell Sharp. The suit, filed by U A A C . the United Minority Workers, former Multnomah County employees A rt Dilworth and Elaine Piper, charges Mult nomah County with dis crimination against minorities and women. The suit is still (■ending and will be heard at a later date. The injunction was re quested to halt lay offs on June 30th due to budget • lit- T'b«- UAAC claimed these cuts affected minority workers in greater propor tion than white workers because they are based on seniority and most minority employees have been hired recently. Of an estimated 124 minority employees, ap proximately 20 will lose their jobs. Judge Sharp determined that the layoff according to seniority was not illegal even though it unfairly effects minorities because it is the usual and accepted practice. The U A A C also brought out the fact that county per sonnet records are incom plete and an accurate ac counting of minority em ployees exists. la-e Henderson, Editor and Publisher of the Portland Observ er. was notified that the Observer won 5th place in the National Newspaper Publishers, Association's M erit Awards for "Best Editorial". The annual awards were presented at the NNPA Annual Convention in Pitts burgh this weekend. Dr. C.B. Powell, Editor Publisher. Emeritus, of the Amsterdam News, was the recip ient of the N N P A "Distinguished P u blish ers' Award". The Sacramento Observer, one of the younger members of the N N PA, walked away with four first prize awards. As a "baby" of the organiza tion (just over 10 years old) the Observer took first prize in the following categories: Best Newspaper Promotion: Best Use of Photographs; Best Special Edition; Carl Murphy Community Service. The Observer also on second place in "Best Ty pograhy £ Make-Up", and third place in "Best Womens Page" and "Best Youth Page" categories. Other award winners were: Hazel Garland. Editor, the New P ittsb u rg h ( n u rie r. "Editor of the Year", spon sored by Gulf Oil: the "Russ wurm Trophy" and $1,000 for general overall excellence to F ran k S ta n le y , E d ito r Pu blish er, the L o u isville Defender; and the "General Excellence Aw ard" to the New Pittsburgh Courier. The "N N PA Distinguished Serv ice Award" was pre sented to the Honorable Damon J. Keith, U.S. Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. Emanuel breaks ground Emanuel Hospital s Opera tion Update will officially break ground for its new building program on the front lawn of the School of Nursing. The first construc tion will be a connecting link between the hospital and the School of Nursing. The celebration, w hich will be held Friday. June 28th. is open to the public. Members of the hospital staff and the neighborhood have been in vited to B.Y.O.S. i Bring Your Own Shovel). Union Avenue: W hat does the future hold? The blighted conditions and continuing deterioration of Union Avenue had an economically frustrating and psychologically demoralizing effect on the residents of the area, and Union Avenue was excluded from virtually all of the planning and project development underway in Model Cities in the 1960's. Finally in 1971, the Avenue became the focus of con siderable attention. Three independent studies (trans portation, traffic circulation and economic development! identified Union Avenue as a central factor in the solution of a whole series of physical, economic and social prob lems. Neighborhood plans also recognized the impor tance of Union Avenue and its impact on surrounding neighborhoods. In October of 1972. Mayor Neil Goldschmidt met with re p res en tative s of Model Cities and various bureaus of the City to discuss the status of Model Cities planning of needs for long term commit ment on the part of the city to this area. He personally felt that Union Avenue represented the key to the long term physical and eco- lomic improvement of the com m unity. W ith the Mayor's endorsement, there began a concerted effort to initiate a redevelopment pro gram for Union Avenue. Ixx-ated at the geographic •enter of Portland, Union Avenue is the city's longest North to South thoroughfare. After first gaining impor- tance as a major ferry route to Vancouver, the Avenue has continued to serve as a major transportation route throughout the course of its history. Although Union Avenue is the main artery for the Vernon. Woodlawn and King neighborhoods, because resi dents of the area have never been able to support more than minimum neighborhood business, the primary orien tation has not been toward neighborhood use. Instead. 80% of the street frontage of Union Avenue has been devoted to non-residential use. The Union Avenue area Please turn to pg. 6, co| (| 1