Ellis Crsson has announced that he will
not be a candidate for re-election as Presi
dent of the Portland Branch of the
NAACP.
Casaon was elected to a two year term
in 1970, and took office in January of
1971. He was re-elected to two additional
terms.
'Since we will be starting the required
“election procedures" for new officers
and board members, I felt that the No
minating Committee and the community
at large should be informed that I do not
seek re-election." Casson stated, “There
comes a time when one must evaluate and
set goals and priorities for himself and his
family, and for me that time has come.”
However, I take this means to inform
you, and to make it perfectly clear for the
record, that I am not being pushed out,
for I could run again, and have confidence
that I could be e'.rrted.
“Six years is a long time, and I have are used on ail federally funded highway
tried to serve well and represent NAACP I construction. He was recently appointed
pastor of A .M .E. Church in Everette,
with dignity and respect locally, region
Washington.
ally, and at the national level."
Casson also urged that the community
“Mine is a record I am proud of."
The branch election process - which support the national NAACP in its time
will choose all officers and an executive of crisis. The organization has had to
board - begins with the October 17th raise $1.6 million cash to appeal a Missis
meeting, at which a nominating commit sippi judgement. Although the money
tee will be selected. The nominating was not raised in time the AFL-CIO and
committee will report at the November others made loans to meet the quota. A
meeting and the election will be held in temporary injunction by federal court
postponed payment.
December.
I f this bond must be paid, this will tie
“We are looking forward to hosting
the NAACP National Convention. I wish up all of the NAACP’s operation funds
the new branch leadership well and 1 am and the loans must be repaid.
If every Black American had contri
proud that I was able to play a small part
in making the dream of hosting a National buted 15 cents, the $.16 million would
have been raised with ease, but this was
Convention here a reality.”
Casson is Civil Rights Director for the not the case. Members and friends of the
U.S. Highway Department in Portland, NAACP still have time to contribute to
responsible for insuring that minorities the survival of the organization.
Harper recruit* minorities for PFD
U m vators ta her district-
[Photo: Daa Long]
Candidate meets voters face-to-face
Jane Cease, Deomocratic Candidate for
the State House of Representatives in
i District 18. is a strong proponent of per
sonai canvassing during the political
campaign. “Not only do people get a
chance to meet me, and evaluate my
«stands on a person-to-person basis, but I
get a firsthand working knowledge of
their major concerna,” Cease said. "It's
the beet way of doing your political home
work - the best way of becoming a truly
"representative” representative."
J i 1
open-ended survey conducted during the
primary campaign, the Cease campaign
discovered seven major issues of concern
in the district.
The most pressing concern of citizens
in her area is the environment. “People
were worried about questions of energy
resources and conservation, nuclear
safety, land use. mass transit, the pro
blem of motor vehicle emissions testing,
population growth, water and air quality,
solid waste disposal and recycling,” Cease
stated.
Following hard upon the environmen
tal question were issues involving Human
Resources, included Senior Citizen pro
grams, child care, child support pro
grams, welfare reform, youth employ
ment and Health care.
Government was a third sea of inter
est, and voters stressed the need tor
careful spending, the desire for new faces
and talent, improved responsiveness in
(Please turn to p. 5 col. 3)
dear and unmistakeable difference
hy Bayard Rustta
More than anything else it is the elec
tion of the president which determines
whether Black Americans will go forward
or backward. The Black struggle for
equality, after making impressive gains
during the nineteen-sixties, has been at a
stand-still for the past eight years. But
this November Black Americans will
have a unique opportunity to get things
moving in the right direction again.
The problem is that even many of the
victims of present policy - the teenager
who can't find his first job, the worker
who has been laid off - are saying it
doesn't make any difference who is elect
ed. This cynicism is understandable after
eight years during which government
policy has seemed only to make things
worse, but it couldn't be more wrong. For
without the right kind of President,
things will continue to get worse.
In a race that is extremely close there
are clear and unmistakable differences
between presidential candidates Gerald
Ford and Jimmy Carter. They differ not
merely in style and personality, but in
their approach to the basic issues con
fronting the nation. On every important
issue - from the cities to taxes to health
care - Carter is obviously superior.
President Ford is running on a record
which deserves to be thoroughly repudi
ated. His platform flaunts an ultra-con
servatism and disregard for human
problems that was out dated when it was
the creed of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert
Hoover.
Analysis
Ford's election would mean the contin
uation of policie initiated under Richard
Nixon that have been diaastrous for all
working Americans, and especially for
Blacks. Nearly eight million Americans
are unemployed, two and a half million
more than when Ford assumed office.
And there is little hope of improvement
given present policies. In the last year
alone, the number of Americans living in
poverty increased by more than two
million. Since 1970 Black unemployment
has averaged more than 10 per cent.
Today nearly one out of seven Black
workers can't find a job. The gap between
Black and white income which was nar
rowing in the sixties is growing again.
The average Black family is worse off
than it was six yecrs ago.
I t would be bad enough if Ford had
simply followed a wrong course of
economic action. But what is worse is that
he seems totally oblivious to the human
and social cost of unemployment. Rather
than being a leader in civil rights, Ford
has attempted to exploit racial tensions
for political advantage. Overall, his per
formance has been dismal. He has substi
tuted obstructionism for program. He has
shown no capacity for the imagination
and viuon needed to inquire and unite the
American people.
In contrast to Ford's insensitivity and
lack of sympathy for the poor and unem
ployed, Jimmy Carter offers compassion
and* understanding. Carter forged an
admirable and courageous civil rights
record as governor of Georgia. He pro
mises to be a dynamic and aggressive
President who can work effectively with
Congress to pass much needed legislat-
tion.
(Please turn to p. 6 col., 3)
Larry Harper, 28, a resident of Port
land for two years was recently ap
pointed by the City of Portland as Minor
ity Recruiter for the Fire Bureau. Larry
was born in Detroit, Michigan, attended
college in Pasadena, California, and when
asked why he chose Portland, said, “I felt
that opportunities for Blacks here were
better.”
Larry was chosen above 6 other appli
cants for his present position after spend
ing fourteen months as a firefighter.
Harper explains that there are oppor
tunities for Blacks in the Fire Bureau, but
only for those that are both interested
and willing to put out.
As Minority Recruiter, Larry will
assist minorities in their training as well
as recruit them. “The Fire Bureau can be
a very rewarding career and offers many
fringe benefits.” Harper goes on to say,
“but it takes dedication and is very de
manding.”
There are certain requirements to be
met such as: age for non-veterans - 21
through 25 years; for veterans - 21
through 30 years. A person would have to
pass a written examination, physical
exam and an oral interview. M r. Harper
states that there are numerous fringe
benefits and the starting salary is
$1,007.07 per month upon entrance and
increases annually to peak out at
$1,475.07 as a firefighter.
Larry is a member of the International
Association of Black Professional Fire
L A R R Y H A R PER
Fighters and recently attended their
fourth Biennial Convention held in San
Diego,
California,
September 24th
through October 1st.
The Northwest region is represented
by only Portland and Seattle.
Names in the News
Ivaa Cannady, Los Angeles real estate
man, son of M r., and Mrs. Edward
Cannady prominent Portland pioneers.,
has donated many issues of The Advocate
and his Mother’s scrapbook to the Oregon
Historical Society. Mrs. Cannady was the
first Negro to be admitted to the Oregon
Bar.
Mrs. Edith Harrison is administrative
vice principal at Roosevelt High School.
Mrs. Harrison will travel with the
women’s athletic teams and coordinate
some social functions. A Teacher Corps
graduate, former teacher at Tongue
Job Corps, and researcher at Grant High
School, she brings varied experience and
an interest in young people to the posi
tion.
LeRoy
Randolph
celebrated
his
seventy-third birthday, October 17th.
The remarkable M r. Randolph is active
on the usher board of Bethel Church and
is a member of the senior citizens.
Mrs. Helen McCollogh visited in Port
land for three weeks and has returned to
her home in Houston, Texas. Lillian
Spiller and Nellie Folwkes arrived
Sunday from Houston, Texas. All three
ladies are sisters of Mrs. Alice Robinson,
Jewel Bowman and Manie Murphey.
Those in Charge of the Annua*. Banquet
of the Railroad Senior Citizens to be held
October 29th at the M att Dishman
Center, hope to make this year’s event
the best ever held.
Recovering nicely at their respective
homes are Annabelle Caldwell and
Lenore Gaskins.
Tamela Woods, currently a Freshman
at Oakwood S.D.A. College, Huntsville,
Alabama, graduated in 3 years from
Wilson High School. She left early in
August to visit a friend in Denver, Color
ado and proceeded on to Chicago, Illinois
for the funeral of her paternal grand
father and to visit relatives. Before she
arrived at Oakwood she stopped by Taft,
Oklahoma to visit her aunt.
Tamela, the daughter of M r. and Mrs.
Herman Wood, sends word that things
are going well and she is enjoying the
new school year but she misses home and
friends.
Mrs. Alfred Cox Sr. and her son have
returned from an extensive trip in the
East.
I t’s not too late to register to vote
Hundreds face imminent executions
by Jon Stewart
(PNS) By Christmas 1976, Leon Troy
Gregg, 27, may already have become the
first man to have been legally executed in
the U.S. in almost 10 years.
Gregg - whose name is engraved on
the Supreme Court’s historic July 2nd.
1976, decision on capital punishment
(Gregg v. Georgia) -- shares the pale
green death row cells of Georgia's
Reidsville State Prison with 31 other
condemned men. All lost what may have
been their last and beat constitutional
challenge to the death penalty on October
4th, 1976.
On that date, the Supreme Court
refused, in a casual two sentence an
nouncement, to reconsider its decision to
permit the death penalty for murder
under certain statutory conditions.
While the court's decision to approve
the death penalty applies to only three
states (Georgia, Florida and Texas) with
147 death row inmates, attorneys for the
N AACP I^egal Defense Fund believe the
court's green light will probably open the
door for another 100 140 executions in up
to 14 other states with death statutes
Ironically, the large number of prison
“People haven't been thinking about
similar to those upheld in July.
ers on death row last spring -- nearly 600
these issues for 10 years,” says Deborah
Several hundred other death row
- was in part the result of a backlash the
Levy, director of the American Civil Li
inmates will remain in legal limbo in
Supreme Court's 1972 Furman decision.
berties Union's death penalty project.
states such as California (56 on death,
That ruling declared all death statutes
“Capital
punishment
is
understood
as
row), where the constitutionality of the
one of those questions that belongs in then in practice unconstitutionally cruel
statutes is uncertain.
debate class," she adds. “I t hasn't been a and unusual because they allowed judges
David Kendall, attorney for the
reality and people haven’t thought about and juries unlimited, arbitrary and
NAACP, says Gregg and 21 other in
"freakish" discretion in determining who
what it means for society to take life.”
mates in Georgia, Florida and Texas,
would live and who would die.
Levy
believes
that
at
least
one
exe
whose rehearing petitions were specifi
Such wide-open discretion had resulted
cution will probably have to take place
cally denied October 4th, represent “the
in
glaring racial and economic inequities
before people get aroused enough to turn
cases furthest advanced procedurally. In
in the use of the death penalty.
these cases executions could come as * the tide back. “I think that when we come
Between 1930 and 1967, when Louis
to that actual execution,” she says,
early as six to eight weeks.”
Joe Monge became the last person to be
“people are going to turn away from it
Within days after the July 2nd court
legally executed, 3,869 persons were
just as they did 10 years ago.”
decision - the week of the nation's bicen
either
hanged, shot, gassed or electro
The
sheer
number
of
people
on
death
tennial observance - workers at Reids
cuted in American prisons.
row may itself have an impact.
ville State Prison began rewiring the
Of them, 64 per cent were Blacks, who
“We’re not talking about one or two
electric chair.
constituted roughly 13 per cent of the
executions a year, like in the sixties."
population.
says Levy, “or even a couple of dozen a
Decision sparks New Debate
Nine out of 10 of the 455 persons exe
year, like in the fifties. We’re talking
cuted for rape during those years were
about hundreds a year, which we haven't
The imminence of an actual execution
Blacks.
had since the thirties."
in this country has unleashed a clamor
And nearly all those on death row have
In fact, the number of death row pri
over the legal and moral issues of capital
been
poor -- and consequently poorly
soners
in
Georgia,
Florida
and
Texas
punishment reminiscent of the early
represented by counsel in most cases.
alone exceeds the total annual execution
1960s, when crowds gathered for all-night
In efforts to redress such imbalances
toll in the U.S. for any year since the
vigils at prison gates to protest
following
the Farmaa decision, 35 states
1920s.
executions.
der, such as rape, airline hijacking and
drafted new death statutes along two
robery.
lines: some required mandatory death for
Observers predict that by this time
certain crimes (presumably removing all
next year at least 35 states will have
discretion and arbitrariness), while
others, such as Georgia's, set up judicial constitutional death statutes.
procedures requiring judges and juries to
Will Inequalities Persist?
hear all aggravating and mitigating cir
cumstances in each case before passing
Abolitionists contend that even the
sentence.
new death statutes requiring case-by
Despite the rapid pace of death sen
case limited discretion will fail to prevent
tencing under the post-Furman statutes,
the discriminatory use of the death penal
no executions were possible until the
ty-
Supreme Court stated what kind of
University of Pennsylvania sociologist
statutes are constitutional.
Marc Riedel reported last spring that the
This summer's ruling finally ended the
percentage of non-whites sentenced to
major
uncertainties
by
declaring
death had risen fom 26 per cent to 52 per
mandatory death sentences unconstitu
cent in the four years since the 1972
tionally cruel and unusual punishment
Furman decision. He also found that
(thus sparing some 300 death row
while most murder victims are non
inmates), while upholding the constitu whites, death sentences are most often
tionality of statutes requiring limited,
declared in cases involving the murder of
directed discretion.
a white by a non white.
Following the July ruling, nearly all of
“It's clear," says the NAACP's Kendall,
the 18 states with uhconstitutional death
“that even a constitutional stutute can be
statues began revising their law» in
applied unfairly or unconstitutionally."
accordance with the Georgia statute.
Kendall says future constitutional
The court will decide later this term on
the constitutionality of the death penalty challenges in individual cases will be
(Please turn to p. 3 col. 3)
for crimes other than first-degree mur