M rs F ra n c s « S c h c e n -N a w a p a p e r Roo«
U n ív a r s i t y
o f O regon L i b r a r y
L o g o n s , O reg o n 9 7 4 0 3
PORTLAND
V d .7 No. 15 Thursday. March 10, 1077
adopts minority set-asides
The Port of Portland Commission has
adopted a policy that will enable minority
contractors to participate in that agency's
public improvement contracts.
10c per copy
The Port’s Minority Set ASide Pro­
gram will "set aside” at least ten per cent
of the dolhr amount of all public im­
provement contracts of less than $50,000
and minority contractors will bid among
themselves for these jobs.
The Minority Incentive Program ap-
lies to contracts in excess of $50,000 and
serves as an incentive to major contract­
ors to sub-contract with minorities. Con­
tractors who agree to sub-contract at
least ten per cent of the job to minority
companies will be considered low-bidder
Representative Wally Priestley has if the bid is within one per cent of the low
introduced a bill to make the birthdate of bid by contractors not making the agree­
Martin Luther King, Jr. a state holiday in ment. Bids received from minority busi­
Oregon. The holiday would be commem­ ness enterprises also qualify under the
orated on the second Monday in January. incentive program.
Those contractors who plan to bid
Co-sponsors of the bill are Representa­
under the Minority Incentive Program
tive Robert Marx, Democrat of Mon
mouth, and Senators Vern Cook, Demo­ must designate the minority contractors
crat of Gresham, and Bill McCoy, Demo­ they will use and the dollar amounts of
subcontracts awarded to them. This
crat of Portland.
Priestley introduced similar legislation letter of intent to sub-contract with
in the 1973 and 1975 legislative sessions. minority businesses will become a part of
D r. King was born on January 15,1929 jhe contract with the Port of Portland.
Failure to meet the stipulations of this
and was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Leader of the non-violent civil disobed­ agreement can lead to disqualification or
ience movement for civil rights. King was penalties.
Stan Jones, Purchasing Manager for
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Many municipalities, school districts the Port, said work on the proposal began'
and agencies across the country have last April when the Port was approached
designated King’s birthdate as a holiday by the Northwest Minority Contractors
and there is a movement in Congress to Association. Jones found the Commission
make it a national holiday. Among local to be receptive and the only major
groups recognizing January 15th as a problem was defining minority business
holiday are the Portland Metropolitan enterprise so that non-minorities could
Steering Committee and its delegate no* use the designation unfairly. When
agencies, the Child Care Coordinating the State of Oregon passed its Minority
Council (4 -0 ) and Ti-M et.
Business Enterprise Program, Jones was
able to use the state’s definition of 51 per
or more minority ownership.
Jones said the port will spend about
$40 million on construction this year. The
lr
Priestley
introduces
King bill
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il J
GENE HOLMES
MES
World performer stops here
by Ulysses Marshall
Gene Holmes is a young, talented,
single Black professional entertainer who
is the new Social Service Supervisor for
PM8C Child Development Division.
Holmes has performed world wide, his
meet recent tour being in 1976 to the Far
East - China, Japan. Korea, Thailand and
Okinawa where he performed as a Disco
singer and dancer. In the past he put
together the Gene Holmes Dance Troupe
and is founder and director with “Mixed
Company", a modeling troupe in Port­
land.
Holmes is a choreogrpaher, dancer,
actor, singer, model and musician. He had
done various T V specials, radio broad­
casts. several television pilot films and
television and magazine, commercials.
Also he has performed in hundreds of top
night spots throughout the United
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States, Europe and Canada and is active­
ly performing many shows here.
In the movies “Candy Red apple” and
“Summer Run", Holmes was the starring
actor; he was in movies “The Learning
Tree" and "Climb to the Top". He was
lead actor in “The Other Side of the
Coin", recently performed in Portland.
Holmes was bom in Seattle and grew
up there. He obtained a Bachelors degree
in Music and Dance and a Masters degree
in Pysychology at the University of
Southern California. He also has studied
at Julliard School of Music in New York
and has received several honorary de­
grees.
He recently came to Portland to relax
after a tiring tour of the Far East, taking
a job as bus driver for the PMSC Child
(Please turn to page 2 col. 3)
Jones said the program does not cover
service contracts or other purchasing but
the next step will be to include supply
items.
The Minority Set Aside and Incentive
Program is based on the fact that past
and present discrimination makes it
impossible for minority businesses to
participate on an equal basis in compete
tive bidding. Federal regulations require
that minority enterprise be included in all
federally funded or assisted projects and
set-aside and incentive programs are an
effort to meet this requirement. Since the
State of Oregon adopted its program last
October, local governments, public agen­
cies and school districts have followed
suit.
Martha Payne selected
1977 Oregon Mother
“She represents so many things the
description never ends. She’s nurse, wise
adviser, and truly your best friend and
though she defies descriptiea -* -
I sure thank God for Mother."
Clayton Hobart Fox
Mrs. Martha Payne, a twenty-six year
volunteer worker for United Way has
earned the title of Oregon Mother of the
Year. The annual contest is sponsored by
the Oregon Mothers Committee.
As
Mother of the Year, she will compete for
the national honor come May in New
York. She will receive her citation from
Governor Bob Straub, March 29th in
Salem.
Mrs. Payne was bom in Montalba,
Texas and has been married 47 years to
Isaac S. Payne in . Their son Isaac S.
Payne IV is a Major in the A ir Force and
works as a system control manager.
Their daughter, Mrs. Margret Isaacs, is
a nurse.
Isaac S. Payne II I. Their son, Isaac S.
Payne IV , is a Major in the A ir Force,
working as a system control manager in
Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the
A ir Force Academy, the only Black from
Oregon to attend the Academy. Their
daughter, Mrs. Margaret Isaccs, is a
community health nurse with the Visiting
Nurses Association, Inc.
Mrs. Payne was surprised to receive
this honor. “W ell I think it’s the most
exciting thing that has ever happened to
me, and I can't say that I was in shock,
but it was just excitement.
I really
couldn't believe that it had happened to
me, and the excitement has continued
from that time to this. I ’m very pleased
about it and happy and I thank the Lord
for this happening.”
Mrs. Payne has been a Christian since
the age of eleven and involved in the
church ever since. She has served as a
Sunday school teacher. Director of the
Baptist training Union, and has been
president of the missionary society. She
(Please turn to page 2 col. 1)
bill
M c D onald
McDonald supervises shipyard
by Gregory L. Gudger
When the shipping business is booming,
the Swan Island Drydocks of the Port of
Portland are bustling with activity 24
hours a day. During the night shift at the
Dellingham Ship Repair facilities, Travis
“Bill” McDonald supervises the mainten­
ance of the massive tankers, cargo ships,
barges and naval vessels 30 vital to the
state's and the nation’s economy and
defense.
McDonald, 48, a 32-year veteran of the
ship building and repair trades, is one of
the few, if not the only, Black supervisors
of an entire shipyard. He is the only such
supervisor on the West Coast.
A native of Paris, Texas, McDonald came
to Portland in 1944 to visit his father who
had come to Portland to work in the
shipyards, as did many other Blacks, at the
call of opportunity, Henry Kaiser and
national defense.
Bill McDonald first worked for W il­
lamette Iron and Steel until 1950 when he
joined Albina Engine and Machine Works.
“I worked about 10 days as a laborer,” he
recounted, “then they asked me if I would
go on night shift and build up their labor
department, which I did. and I ’ve been on
night shift ever since - 27 years."
(Please turn to page 2 col. 4,
Andrus praises Joseph nomination
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T-v
program will be applicable in about thirty
days. In order to qualify, minority busi­
ness enterprises must file a Minority
Certification Form with the Port.
The Associated General Contractors,
which represents most building contract­
ors, was included in the preparation of
the program and Jones believes AGC will
participate in the Minority Incentive
portion of the project.
Secretary of the Interior Cecil D
Andrus has expressed pleasure at Presi­
dent Carter's nomination of James A.
Joseph, 41, of Columbus, Indiana, to the
poet of Under Secretary of the Interior.
Joseph would occupy the second high­
est position in the Department of the
Interior and would be the first Black ever
to hold that post.
Born in Opelousas, Louisiana, Joseph
was graduated from St. Landry Parish
High School and holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Southern University, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, and a Bachelor of
Divinity degree from Yale University. He
has also been awarded the degree of
Doctor of Humane Letters.
Since 1972, Joseph has been Vice
President of Cummins Engine Company
a
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dujì&k ¡¡M utiti
by Ulysses Marshall
Women are God's gift to earth, They are beautiful, not only on the
outside, but on the inside, too.
Janet Johnson, an intereMing, intelligent, and beautiful lady, is an
example.
Janet is a Capricorn. H er favorite activities include hiking, partying,
knitting, basketball, enjoying people, playing pool, and movie going.
Janet to a student. She would like to become a medical assistant or flight
attendant, do some travelling, and gat m arried in the future.
She warns a family of two.
Her ideal man is -- “Someone who lean communicate with, and who won’t
mistake my Undnesv and generosity for stupidity. Someone who likes to do
»he same things I like to do, and to a neat and good dresser. His looks are
not all that important, joat aa long as he has a charming (sweet)
personality."
“SHE IS EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING IS SHE"
and President of Cummins Engine Found
as a teacher and assistant chaplain at
ation, both based in Columbus, Indiana.
Pitzer and Claremont Colleges, Cali­
Cummins is the world's largest independ­ fornia.
ent producer of heavy-duty diesel en­
He has traveled widely throughout the
gines. In addition to exercising corporate
Middle East, Western Europe, Latin
responsibility for manufacturing units in
America, the Soviet Union, Japan and
seven countries and for service outlets in
Africa. In 1966, he led the Crossroads
more than 100 countries, Joseph is Africa Group engaged in a study project
charged with determining key environ­ in the Ashanti region of Ghana. In 1970
mental aspects of all corporate long-range
he met in East Africa with representa­
planning.
tives of the Organization of African Unity
Prior to assuming his current posts, to discuss African political developments;
Joseph was involved in a number of and in 1973 he conducted research in
major activities relating to religious and
South Africa on political/social conditions
minority affairs. These included serving and their impact on the business environ­
as a trustee of Union Theological Semin
ment.
ary; as President of the National Black
He is involved in a wide variety of
United Fund; as Chairman of the Associa
philanthropic efforts to improve the
tion of Black Foundation Executives; and delivery of services and conditions affect
ing American Indians and is an editor of
Three Perspectives of Ethnicity, an an­
thology of studies of the experiences of
Blacks, American Indians, and Chicanos.
He also served on a minority coalition
that included Indian leaders.
Joseph has lectured widely and has
published numerous articles in such mag­
azines as the Afro-American Journal, the
Yale Alumni Journal and the Journal of
Contemporary Business.
He is listed in a number of national and
international publications including
Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in
the World
Mr. Joseph is married to the former
Doris Taylor of Plainfield. New Jersey, a
graduate of Vassar College. They have
two children, Jeffrey and Denise.
The Mideast’s new Jews
(first of four parts)
JE R U S A L E M (PNS) - In Israel It is
said there never was a “Palestine."
Palestinians were merely a “peasant”
people, with no national culture, no
historical traditions, no special skills.
Rather than being the victims of Zionism,
in the Israeli view, the Palestinians were
actually passive beneficiaries of it.
But-as both Israelis and Arabs have
forgotten to their mutual peril since
1948-to drive peasants from the land is to
make them peasants no more. To destroy
a traditional society is to conjure up a
new one.
However valid the stereotype of the
Palestinians prior to 1948, the 1977
statistics show how different they are
today.
The Palestinians now have the highest
literacy rate in the Mideast, except for
the Israelis themselves, according to data
assembled by UNESCO, the Red Cross,
the U N World Relief Agency and other
international bodies. They also have the
highest proportion of children in school,
the highest proportion of university
students and the greatest ratio of skilled
laborers to total work force of any
Arabic-speaking people.
Like the Israelis, the Palestinians have
become a nation of apartment dwellers;
together they are the two most urbanized
peoples in the Mideast. Next to the Jews,
the Palestinians are also the most socially
mobile, the most geographically dis
persed and the least traditional people
involved in the entire Arab-Israeli con­
flict.
Despite being divided for 30 years by
the lines of military confrontation, the
Palestinians have become an increasingly
homogenous nation.
The irony is immense While fighting
alongside the Arabs, the Palestinians less
and less resemble Arabs. While combat­
ting Israel, they more and more resemble
Jews.
Even the stereotype of the Palestinians
as a people of the refugee camps is no
longer valid.
Of the more than two
million Palestinians living outside Israeli-
controlled territory, only 448,278 - about
a fifth - actually inhabit refugee camps.
And the vast majority of those are
women, children and old people, many of
whom are refugees not from 1948 but
from the 1967 Six Day War.
Thus the real problem for the Palestin
ians is that in spite of the declining role of
the camps, in spite of their rising
incomes-which now often exceed the
peoples among whom they have settled-
they remain a people who the more they
wander the more they dream of returning
home: the more cosm opolitan they be­
come the more they want some small
corner of the earth to call their own.
This former population of sedentary
peasants has become a nation of itinerant
schoolteachers; this supposed cabal of
saboteurs now is the principle source of
skilled labor and trained management for
the non communist world’s moat import­
ant oil reserves.
Nearly a quarter-million Palestinians
work in Kuwait; the oil would stop
flowing to the factories of Japan and
West Germany without them.
The
Palestinians are also the single most
numerous group of technicians and teach
ers in Saudi Arabia, the small Gulf states
and Libya.
The result is that, deprived of their
own land, the Palestinians have become
an increasingly powerful force in other
lands. Denied nationhood, they play a
greater international role than many fully
(Please turn to page 6 col. 1)