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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 2, 1976)
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(Photos: Dan I-ong) Four men seeks local NAACP presidency OBSER/ER Four candidates are seeking the presi dency of the Portland Branch NAACP. they are: Reverend John Jackson, pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist Church; Tom Kennedy, Union Avenue Program Man ager for the Portland Development Commission; Harold Williams, Affirma live Action Officer for the State of Oregon; and Eugene Jackson, Executive Director of the Northwest Minority Con tractor's Association. Following are the statements of the candidates: THOMAS KENNEDY Why do you wish to be president of the Portland Branch NAACP? The reason I am running for the office of president of the local chapter is to try to bridge the gap between the organiza tional structure of the chapter and the community itself. I have been around for three years and I have been actually working behind the scenes helping the past president raise money -- letting go staff that was working in Community Services to assist as a community service. Through communication with the com munity, I have heard that the NAACP has not been able to reach new-comers to Portland or the younger sector of people here. I feel that in order for us to have a viable organization or community we must have all groups working together on some mutual issue. I feel my structure, the way I approach a problem with many, many people involved, is the proper approach to run the NAACP. What should be the role of the NAACP in Portland and in Oregon? It’s hard for me to define the role of the NAACP because the NAACP is many, many things to many, many people All I can do is maybe to help the vice presidents and the other committees to sit down and research the policies and programs that the National Chapter has and then to readdress our own issues in the State of Oregon and Portland to find out if we are right on course with the national policy. Then we can identify the posture of this chapter. What issues do you believe the Port land Branch should address? The NAACP is the epitomy of human relations and human rights and also civil rights, so in every issue that is in entitled under civil rights and human rights, the NAACP should play a major role. The issues are vast: education, when we are suffering from a misunderstanding of busing, to not getting adequate instruc- -Uiîc1 tion for young people in the school system. I think we should have a strong committee and vice president or. chair man look into that matter and do some corrective measures thgre not affirma tive measures but corrective measures in that area. Employment: I feel that We have enough affirmative action officers work ing for different agencies in the city that a committee from the NAACP, maybe chaired by one of the leading affirmative action officers who happens to be female or Black , could organize this group of people and give reports back to the Chapter for their action on employment situations. I believe that our housing situation is coming around but we also have to understand the housing laws. I think we should give people who are in housing the chance to play a role in giving th<- National and ha-al chapter proper inhu mation on what the housing program is all about. Community education in civil rights is one thing we are low on in Ihe Northwest. I think we as people of the minority community are suffering from an apathy or an illusion of integration. I think we are not working as hard as we can to bring this about through communin' I Please turn to page 2 col. 1) J Harvey Garnett joins the car sales business One of those present at the Grand Opening of Roth Motor* BMW on Union Avenue was Harvey Garnett. Garnett, one of Roth’* newest salesmen, has been with the company for about six months. For those who remember Garnett a* the owner and operator of the Alameda Theatre and wonder whatever happened to him, he has been in the community, going to school and looking at job opportunities. After closing the theater, Garnett attended Portland State University, pur suing a degree in Business Administra tion. He sold insurance, looked into real estate, then finally settled on auto sales. At Roth's, Garnett works at the com pany's three locations - 182nd and Divi sion, Union Avenue and Tillamook, and N.E. Portland Road in Salem. The com pany sells Vokswagon, Porsche, Audi, BMW, Subaru and used cars. “I can get a person any domestic or import auto, van or motor home at a nice savings." Garnett looks forward to having his own car dealership. “I still would like to get back into the entertainment field though”, he said, “with a large theater and a stage for live entertainment.” Rape 'victim’ receives pardon New York The NAACP began plan ning for a nationwide tour for Clarence (Willie) Norris to enable the last of the “Scottsboro Boys” to tell his story about his painful struggle to win a pardon for a crime most people are convinced he did not commit. For Norris, the receipt of news that Alabama Governor George Wallace had signed his long overdue pardon on Mon day, October 26th, for a 1931 rape conviction was probably the happiest event of his adult life. Forty five years ago Norris and eight other Black youths were ordered off a freight train in Paint Rock, Alabama, arrested and accused of raping two white women. In 1946, after 15 years on death row, Norris was released and left Ala ba ma without permission. Norris was sentenced to the electric chair three times, and each time the death sentence was stayed, until his sentence was finally commuted to life in prison. As Norris said during a news confer ence at the NAACP National Office in New York City on the day the pardon was granted, “a man should never give up hope.” His eyes were filled with tears as he told how it felt to be free of the fear of being a wanted man for 45 years. "This is a great day,” agreed NAACP Administrator Gloster Current. "He really has kept the faith." Only two days after Norris won his (Please turn to page 2 col. 4) k Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson visited Portland to speak at B’nai B'rith award dinner for Mayor Goldschmidt. ¡Photo: Dan Long I Zimbabwe: Muzorewa is the one by Fungal Kumbula In a recent article (Portland Observer November 4, 1976), Roger Mann (PNS) dubbed one Joshua Nkomo as the most acceptable leader for an independent Zimbabwe. Nothing could be further from the truth. True. Nkomo has been, at the most, a dominant figure in Zimbabwe's politics for the past thirty years but that political longevity, far from being an asset, is in fact a liability. You make an awful lot of mistakes in thirty years. Politically, Nkomo died in 1963 when Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and Robert Mugabe, who then were two of his lieutenants, broke away from ZAPU to form ZANU. Nkomo has been losing support with Zimbabwe's people steadily ever since and has probably reached his lowest ebb. At the same time he has been picking up a lot of support from Rhodesia’s whites, in Britain, the U.S., South Africa and Zambia. The teason fqr this sudden upsurge in popularity is his changed status from the most militant nationalist to the most moderate. By the same token Bishop Abel Muzorewa, currently the most popular leader, has been gaining Black support at the expense of white backing because of his shift from the most moderate to the most radical nationalist. Analysis All of us Zimbabweans are concerned that the powers involved may be deliber ately trying to impose Nkomo on us. He has no popular support to speak of. He allied himself with Mugabe because he could not take the Bishop singlehandedly. The alliance, the Patriotic Front which, according to Muzorewa, should really be called the Pathetic Front - is merely s vehicle for each man's political survival. Should the Front eventually win, Nkomo and Mugabe will then turn against each other because harbours the cherished dream of ascending to Zimbabwe’s pres tigious presidency. Why are all these countries so inter ested in seeing Nkomo become Zimbab we's first Black President? Britain, the U.S., and South Africa have vast mining, manufacturing and business interests in Zimbabwe. Among them they hold 90% of mining and 80% of her manufacturing interests. They are, therefore, most anxious te put in charge a man they can manipulate. Muzorewa is definitely out because he is so much his own man and will therefore take his directives from the people rather than from London or Pretoria. They are worried that, because of the present regime's ignoble record of exploitation, the first act of the new government would be to nationalize all foreign owned corporations. LONRHO, a British company with vast holdings in Zimbabwe, has been actively supporting Nkomo because ostensibly, he promised that should he become Presi dent, he will safeguard it's interests. This prompted a sharp rebuke from Messrs. George Nyandoro and James Chikerema, two of his one-time ZAPU lieutenants and currently two of the most influential and most respected politicians in Zimbabwe. They have since teamed up with Muzore wa, thus widening his already impressive base of support. Zambia supports Nkomo because Ken neth Kaunda, the president of Zambia and Nkomo have been personal friends throughout their respective political careers. Also, lately, Kaunda has been shifting in the same directions across the political spectrum as Nkomo, from ex trema left to far right. A couple of years back nobody would have imagined ever talking to Vorster (the South African “pretender"). So he, too, would like to see a moderate government in Zimbabwe. Already he is "squashed" in between Socialist Angola on the west and Marxist Mozambique and Tanzania on the east. He needs an ally badly. just another power hungry politician. Apart trom being the most moderate, Whereas what little support Nkomo Nkomo is also unacceptable because he is inextricably bound to ZAPU. This re has is based primarily in his home area of minds too many of us of the bitter, Matabeleland. Sithole is in the east and bloody, senseless ZAPU ZANU clashes of for Mugabe, it's hard to say. Muzorewa is the early 60's. So also neither Sithole nor as popular in the north, east, west and Mugabe would do because of their ties to south as he in in his area of Manicaland. Not too long ago, Nkomo came back ZANU. home from Mozambique and was wel Muzorewa has been around politically corned by 800 supporters. A few days only since 1971. He is not associated with later, Muzorewa arrived from Tanzania any of the old political parties. Therefore people from both ZAPU and ZANU, as and was swamped by 150,000 wildly cheei^ng supporters, the largest crowd well as the uncommitted, tend to rally ever to assemble in the history of behind him. They see him as a unifying Zimbabwe. force. To resolve the leadership crisis, Actually, the majority of us are fed up Muzorewa had suggested that they hold a with the old politicians because so far all referendum and let the people choose. Of they have done is fight among them course, all of them, Nkomo, Mugabe and selves. All we need is someone to lead the Sithole rejected the idea because they country out of its present chaos. That's knew they wouldn't stand a chance? where Muzorewa's popularity stems Considering that the guerillas have been from. He is a new face, brings new hope, a fighting for this self same one man vote, new spirit and the people tend to trust they will have to reconsider where their him more. They see him as being more loyalties should lie. interested in leading Zimbabwe because she needs a leader and not because he is (Please turn to p 2 col. 4)
