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Portland Observer
Thursday. September 26. 1974
1 *
by Bayard Bust in
WE SEE THE WORLD
THROUGH BLACK EYES
ALFRED I. HENDERSON
Editor/Publisher
EDITORIAL FOCUS
A question of race?
The spector o f race has fin a lly been raised
p u b lica lly in the City Council race. We had hoped
that the people o f Portland w ould have been
enlightened enough to cast their votes on the basis
o f experience, education, know ledge, integrity and
the other factors that determ ine an individual's
fitness for office.
We trust that the voters w ill not be led by racial
slurs and inuendos. The issue of the appointm ent
was settled by the voters when they gave Com
missioner Jordan a p lu ra lity o f the votes for
nom ination this spring.
We saw no great o ut
pouring o f public or union concern at a hearing
held last week to determ ine a new m ethod of
replacing Commissioners in m id-term. In fact, the
public hearing drew only eight concerned citizens
(in clud ing the press). But now Mr Wilson raises
the issue again.
It is not surprising that a union leader w ould be
the one to bring up the issue o f race The unions
in Portland have certainly not w elcom ed Blacks
into their m embership. If the freew ay w ere to be
built, they w ould insure that it benefited fe w Black
workers.
Jordan was not o nly the best Black choice for
the position he holds, but was also the best
Portland choice.
Perhaps the unions are still
m iffed that their nom inee was not selected.
If the people o f Portland w ant integrity and
sound judgem ent in City Hall, they w ill retain
Charles Jordan as th eir Commissioner.
B
s ■ Another Point of View :
The Monstrous Pardon
Tear dow n Attica, Levenworth and The Tombs.
M elt the sliding steel doors and guards' guns.
There is no need nor use »or prisons so long as
Richard Nixon rem ains at large. Our ex-president
is not only u nconditionally pardoned but stands
to get $850,000 of our tax dollars to help him
"re a d iu s t" to life as a private citizen.
This is monstrous.
President Ford has shown
him self incapable o f the public trust not one month
after taking his oath o f office.
Am erica should no longer express concern about
the rising crim e rate since the architect of grave
crimes against democracy and freedom itself is
w alking the sunkissed beaches of his San
Clem ente mansion and rid ing his Secret Service
chauffered lim ousines to estates o f w ealthy
friends.
„
.
• „
How can we dare say w e are "fig h tin g crim e"
when Nixon not only escapes the bar of justice but
refuses to adm it he did anything w rong w hat
soever?
And how w ill prison re h a b ilita tio n officials
approach the offender from now on, since Nixon
and yes, Spiro Agnew, com m itted massive wrong
doing and w ill never spend 30 seconds on the
old, steel bench of a ■cell'’
For hardened "co n s", Nixon, A gnew , Connally
and the rest are heroes, the master crooks who
w en, for the big score and go, o ff sco, free
They
are now m odels for the subculture o f crim e
Bu, for the innocent or persons w ho couldn't
a ffo rd a bank of fancy lawyers, N ixon's escape
from the nets of |us,ice is another exam ple of the
dual standard of fairness in Am erica - the poor
are ¡ailed and the rich escape
So if the crim e rate skyrockets, le, us blame
none Other than tha, pious M idw esterner, that
c '' larva,ive law and order pronouncer Gerald
Ford, who had better no, utter one m ore hypo
critical w ord about controlling crim e for the res,
of his life in public service
(Reprinted from the Atlanta inquirer, September
,4. ,974.)
D O N ’T
MISS
THISI
Economic Policy and
the Black Community
EEOC celebrates 10 years
The Equal Employment O pportunity Commission
has been unusually busy in recent weeks com
m em orating the tenth anniversary o f Title VII o f the
C ivil Rights Ac, o f ,964
This is as it should be
Title VII, which prohibits em ploym ent d iscrim in a
tion based on race, color, re lig io n , sex or national
origin, is w ithout a doubt one o f the most im p o r
tant titles ever enacted by the United States
We now have Watergate
behind us
and it is a good
thing for Black Americans.
No longer can the nation's
olitical leaders
Demo
crats as well as Kepubli
cans
continue to dodge
the harsh realities of eco
nomic crisis. Real answers
and sound leadership must
be forthcoming if the nation
is to avoid the total collapse
that many are predicting.
President Ford has in
herited a devastating eco
nonuc legacy.
Recession,
compounded by skyrocketing
inflation, has eaten away at
the earnings of all working
Americans.
The suffering
has been particularly acute
for Negroes. Indeed, since
1969. the year former Presi
dent Nixon assumed office,
almost every measurement
of economic status has shown
a decline for the Black com
munity.
Unemployment for Blacks
has increased by over 400.IXX,
workers; in some ghettoes.
Congress.
Title VII became law on July 2, ,964, a, a tim e
when our nation was greatly concerned w ith
extending to a ll its citizens the basic freedom s that
are their birthright.
A, the heigh, of protest dem onstrations and
national civil disorders, there was great concern for
equal opportunity in housing, in voting, in educa
tion and in public accommodations. The greatest
concern, how ever, was for equal opportunity in
em ploym ent.
When the late President Lyndon B Johnson
signed the historic legislation, he called it a
"m ile sto n e in Am erican progress tow ard fu ll justice
for a ll her citizens." It was indeed a m ilestone,
bu, it was no, won w ithout a long, hard struggle
on the par, of m any civil rights groups and liberal
law m akers.
Title VII, which also established the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, m arked the
turning point in Federal efforts to end |0b dis
crim ination. The original provisions left much to
be desired, bu, i, was a star,. Because the EEOC
was required to settle charges o f discrim ination by
inform al methods of conciliation and persuasion,
enforcem ent was, in fact, left to the "g o o d w ill" of
those charged w ith violations.
As tim e passed, Congress recognized the short
comings o f the o rigin al provisions of Title VII. In
,966 and each year thereafter, liberal lawmaker?
attem pted, in vain, to strengthen the |ob bias law
Finally, in 1972, the Congress gave EEOC
a dd itional enforcem ent powers. The am endm ent;
gave the Commission authority to file suits in
Federal district courts against private em ployers
and unions when all other means of achieving
com pliance failed. The Commission s jurisdictional
coverage was also expanded
The vital 1972 am endm ents came as the Com
mission was beginning to strangle on a backlog of
charges i, was attem pting to conciliate, and gave
the job bias agency a new lease on life
Today charges are strll being m ade tha, EEOC is
choking on a ,00,000 backlog.
Bu, energetic
Commission Chairman John H. Powell, Jr. an
nounced a fe w weeks ago tha, his agency resolved
37,537 charges in FY 1974, an increase o f 17,350
over the previous year. He added tha, some 4,5,9
successful conciliations during the year ending
June 30, 1973, resulted in cash benefits exceeding
$56.2 m illio n to more than 49,000 workers.
A, the present, the average tim e for processing a
charge is about 26 months. C hairm an Powell has
vowed to reduce this tim e by at least 50 percent
during his stay a, the EEOC. Right on.
The Commission has also announced the estab
lishm ent of an EEOC Training Academ y to provide
thorough, professional and uniform train in g for
EEOC com pliance personnel. During the firs, year,
some 600 candidates w ill be trained in com
pliance, interview ing, com m unications, investiga
tion and conciliation techniques.
These forw a rd -lo okin g plans hold great promise
for Blacks and other m inorities w ho for too long
have been the victims of pervasive and systematic
em ploym ent discrim ination. We salute the Equal
Employment O pportunity Commission
on
the
occasion of its tenth anniversary and say " fu ll
speed a h e a d " in the next decade -
a period
which w ill surely tes, the destiny of Am erica and
her com m itm ent to true e qu ality in em ploym ent
and all other facets o f Am erican life
283 2486.
Second ( lass Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon
Portland Observer s official position is expressed only
Publishers column I We See The World Through
Eyes,. Any other material throughout the paper is the
opinion'of the individual writer or submitter and does not
•essarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer.
LETTERS
Amnesty
To the Editor:
On behalf of pacifists anil
war resisters throughout the
world I commend you (or
your courageous and forth
right editorial on universal
and unconditional amnesty.
Several years ago our
hearts and heads and souls
were shaken awake by a
radical religious pacificist
p ro p h et nam ed M artin
Luther King, Jr
Through
his ministry we awoke from
our slumbering acceptance of
racism, war, and economic
injustice into the emerging
dawn of brother and sister
hood, equality, and justice
for all of God's children.
The voice of this great
man of God has been silenced,
but our voices still cry out.
We are the war resisters.
We believe that every man
and woman has a holy right
before God to refuse to take
the life of another human
being or to cooperate with or
to support in any way those
who seek to do so. Further
more, every man and woman
has the moral responsibility
to actively oppose, resist,
and hinder the waging of
war in any way that does no,
endanger human life.
We have been shot down
at Kent and Jackson State;
we have been beaten and
maced; we have been im
prisoned and exiled for our
resistence. We now demand
unconditional and universal
amnesty so that we might
return home in order to
continue our work in re
directing our country into a
world of peace rather than
war.
Nothing less is ac
ceptable or just.
Steven Adler
Coordinator.
Fellowship of Reconciliation
__
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Ford
panft wok
(Continued from pg. 1. col. 4,
the base of the Republican
Party and broaden the scope
of the Black vote,” he added
The group continued their
meeting, after leaving the
Cabinet Room, in a con
ference room where the
special committees on poll
tics, economies, and per
sonnel
placem ent
were
formed.
Haas
Pubusned every Thursday by Exie Publishing Company,
221,1 North Killingsworth. Portland. Oregon 97217. Mailing
address: P.O. Box 3137. Portland. Oregon 97208. Telephone:
Subscriptions: $5.25 per year in the Tri County area. $6.00
per year outside Portland.
jo b lessn ess among Black
teenagers has reached 50
percent. The real wages of
Black families has been
eroded by rampant inflation.
The number of Blacks living
in poverty has increased for
the first time• in over a
decade.
And the earnings
gap («‘tween the average
white worker and average
Black worker has widened.
reversing a ten year pattern
of advancement.
The economic decline of
the Black community is not a
matter of mere happen
stance. It is the result of a
failure of policy
specifi
rally, the policies engineered
by a conservative Republican
administration.
In Gerald Ford we now
have another conservative
Republican. President Ford
has gone out of his wav to
project himself as a leader ol
all the people. He even met
with the Congressional Black
Caucus, a nice enough ges
ture. but one which was
unaccompanied by any speci
fic promises to deal with the
Black community's problems
BETTER BUYS
< 1
Mt MBÍ»
i! Oregon
Newspaper
I P ublishers
' Association
MEMBER
NNA
Association - Founded 1885
(Continued from pg. 1. col. 4)
dents taking the Oregon Bar
each year inhibit efforts to
hire and said he will request
funds from the County Com
mission for a recruitment
trip to California and through
the East. Civil Service regu
lations also inhibit the re
cruitment of non lawyer mi
nority personnel.
"While it has been a policy
of our office to take positive
steps toward equal employ
ment opportunity, we believe
this written rommitment will
serve as a continuing policy
for an office where leader
ship changes hands from
time to time," Haas said.
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