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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1977)
i Mr# France# Schoen-Newspaper Poom University of Oregon Library Eugene, Oregon U7403 * Boise students impress evaluator In its first year as a "Basic Skills few older students at the entrance as Learning Center”, emphasizing reading, they waited for the bell. They were mathematics and language arts, Boise curious about the visitor and talked Elementary School has received its first freely about what I was doing there. evaluation from the school district’s eval They also answered questions about the uators. school and all seemed to like being there Boise's 399 students are grouped ac and looked forward to going to clais. I cording tc ability and receive intensive also observed the end of the breakfast work in basic skills. Primary students period in the Auditorium-Cafeteru. On spend most of the day on reading, this morning 104 breakfasts were served language arts and math, with seventy and children behaved at least as well as five minutes during the day for additional they do anywhere. classes in social science, health or science. “As school started youngsters pro Fifth and sixth graders spend most of gressed through the halls with the same their day in 'home rooms” working on basic skills. Seventh and eighth graders enthusiasm that you find anywhere but have five thirty-five minute periods, each nothing was seen or heard that was with a teaching specialist. Each student out-of-line. This was the case throughout also receives intensive individual and the day. Self-control of students was small group help in the reading labora observed at its finest in the cafeteria line. All primary grades appear to be released tory. The evaluator observed: “Content in simultaneously to line up. The serving classes observed appears to be approp line is in the kitchen at the far side of the riate to the interests and abilities of the gymnasium so the line begins there, students . . . Also, more emphasis snakes across the gym and out into the appears to be put on grammar, parts of corridor. A half hour later the same line speech, recognizing a complete sentence occurs with older students. In neither line than is usual. An amazing display in a 5-6 was anything approaching difficulty ob class of knowledge of parts of speech was served. In foost schools such a situation going on - teacher writing a sentence, would be avoided by staggering the students shouting out the parts of speech release schedule. It probably should be done also at Boise because this idyllic with great enthusiasm and accuracy.“ Of equal interest to the Boise commun situation can’t go on forever. ity were remarks on student attitudes “On the playground on a warm noon and behavior since Boise has long been hour children played at several games burdened with a reputation for disciplin with almost no difficulty. The one word of ary problems. Also, behavior problems profanity heard all day was heard here are often cited as a reason for low and I thought the little white so-and-so academic achievement in inner-city that got it from a larger black girl schools. deserved it. The profanity had a racial “I arrived at Boise before school tinge to it though and the girl, on seeing started in the morning and talked to a me close by, said, “Sorry”. When I asked OBSERVER V«L7 N e.l9 Aprfl 7, 1977 10c per copy Í TT MAYOR BRADLEY JOHN LEWIS Lew is loses LA retains Mayor Tom Bradley Tom Bradley, the first Black mayor of Loa Angeles, defeated eleven challengers to win re-election to his post. Bradley avoided a run-off election by garnering well over fifty per cent of the votes. The Mayor, a former policeman sue has reached a point of crisis in Los Angeles and some of his opponents injected racial issues into The campaign, Bradley ignored the issue and merely stated that he would obey court orders. and city councilman, has served two John Lewis, former director of the Voter Education Project, lost his bid for the seat in Congress vacated by United terms as Mayor. Although the school desegregation is Nations Ambassador Andrew Young. Lewis was defeated by Atlanta city council president Wyche Fowler. The two men were forced into a run-off election when neither was able to gain a majority in the March 17th primary election, in a field of thirteen candidates. In that election, Fowler led Lewis in the predominately white 5th District. ’Travel Roberts’ offers full travel service by Ulysses “Travel Roberts", located at 8415 N.E. Broadway, is a new Black-owned travel agency. Business partners, Robert A. Butler and R. Ronald Caflett, are long time Portland residents. The free ser vices at their agency include airline, bus, railway, steamship reservations, car rentals, hotel accommodations and tour packages. They also write tickets and assist in trip coordinations. “Travel Roberts” is a no-charge full service travel agency. The only cost is for the tickets they write. The cost for the ticket is the same as if the airlines would write it, but they also give ad ditional services. “Travel Roberts” is not only available to individuals, but also available for presentations to groups.“ Butler says. The planning of group excursions, and securing all of the necessary tickets and reservations and the planning of economi cal family or group vacations, holidays is also offered. “Travel Roberts“ is an Air Transporta tion Association and International Air Transportation Association approved travel agency. “When you need legal help you go to your lawyer. When you are sick you go to a doctor. When you want to travel you should see your local travel agent. We are professionals in the business. Our office manager, June Viggers, has had several years experience in the travel agency business and is well qualified to fill all your needs both local and abroad.” says Roland Catlett. Ebony Fashion Fair due Friday Ebony Fashion Fair will appear in Portland on April 8th, presented by The Links, Inc. The show, which has become one of the nation's outstanding fashion events, will address the theme “Carefree Living". The spectacular and varied garments were personally selected for the show by Mrs. Eunice Johnson who produces and directs the show. Mrs. Johnson visits the fashion cen ters of the world ~ Naples, Paris, London, New York, Chi cago, and Los Angeles seeking garments that will enhance the Fashion Fair. Among the designers whose works will be featured are: Marc Bohan for Christ ian Dior; Balestra, St. Laurents, Ungaw, Guy Laroche, Karl Langerfeld for Chloe, and Calvin Klein. Among the Black designers featured are: Stephen Bur rows, Jack Fuller for Nuance, James Daugherty, Scott Barrie for Barrie Sports, and Willi Smith. Models from the travelling show are selected from across the nation. Ten female models, two male models, a commentator, a music director, stage and business managers and wardrobe staff make up the personnel for the show. Over two hundred fashions, complete with accessories, are included. The Portland Chapter ot Links, Inc. sponsors the Portland show. In the past the Ebony Fashion Fair has visited Portland every second year, but a spring tour has been added, giving Portland the opportunity to have the show in consecu tive years. Traditionally, the proceeds of the event are donated by The Links, Inc. to community agencies. This year, contribu tions will be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Day Care Center; to the Volunteers of America Day Nursery in memory of Jessie Mae Johnson, a former director of the center and a founder of the Portland Chapter of The Links, Inc., and to the Shen Ryan Memorial Dance Scholarship at Jefferson High School. Shen Ryan was a Jefferson High School student to who participated in The Links, Inc. Fine Arts Program in November of 1976 and was later killed. Mrs. George V. Guy is chairman of the performance. Mrs. Olga Talley and Ms. Yvonne Williams are publicity chairmen. Tickets for the Fashion Fair, which will appear at the Civic Auditorium on April 8th at 8:30 p.m. are available at Stevens & Son Co. (Lloyd Center), the Civic Auditorium, and Eastside Bookkeeping Service, 525 N.E. Killingsworth. why she was sorry she said that aha wasn’t supposed to say things like that. “I hear more profanity and see more fighting than at Boise almost anywhere I go- “Frankly, I saw very little in the way ot discipline problems in the school, almost none in the classrooms and very little anywhere else. I’m sure that this condi tion has been achieved through a lot of hard work, through consistency and fairness, and through clear plans and procedures and an understanding b the neighborood that there are predictable results to offensive behavior. “In summary, I believe that the pro grams at Boise are consistent with the needs of the students attending, the procedures and materials appropriate to the goals, and the behavior of the students indicative of excellent self- control. The attitude of the teachers is at an unusually high level. Their liking of their job and the school indicates that they like the kids. With that and the excellent management team for the school, children should develop well." There has been much concern in the community about the future of Boise. It is the only remaining kindergarten through eighth grade school in the Albina area, the others having been converted to Early Childhood Education Centers and Boise still has a high concentration of Black students. Boise parents are adamant in their desire to retain the school and are of the opinion that rather than bus out all of the upper grade pupils to achieve racial desegregation, white students should be bussed in to Boise. Personal attack brings libel suit It is the opinion of many participants and observers of the Black community in Portland that whenever one individual or organization begins to have some success and accomplishments that will benefit all of the community, others will rise up in opposition. Many persons have indicated to the Observer that they will not work actively for civil rights or community development because they do not wish to subject themselves to the ridicule or the jealousy of other Blacks. Another example of this type of activ ity has come about in the last week - since Eugene Jackson, Executive Direct or of the Northwest Minority Contractors Association, has received public notice in the daily newspapers and in the Observer resulting from his organization's partici pation and assistance m the writing of the Port of Portland and Multnomah Coun ty minority set-aside programs and their efforts toward a similar program for the Portland Public Schools. A lengthy telegram signed by Robbin Mayfield, Acting Chairman, and Thomas P. Martin, Acting Secretary, of the Coalition of Minority Contractors and Vendors, and addressed to Jackson, states that the minority Coalition has voted “that you will not from this day forth act or speak as if you represent minority contractors and vendors per se in the state of Oregon . . . It has been established that your track record, atti tude and inability to communicate pro ductively with others has been a detre- ment to the success of minority contract ors and vendors . . .” who deal in services rather than in construction had been angry that the Port of Portland's set-aside program, negotiated by NMCA, did not include services. Stan Jones, purchasing mana- ger for the Port, told the Observer that the Port plans to ad program for services and supply items in the near future. The telegram states that henceforth Although Dr. Booth had known for the Coalition “will decide who will speak several months that NMCA was negoti for, and represent minority contractors ating a proposal with the Port, neither he and vendors in the state of Oregon.” nor his organization requested the inclu The telegram names Dr. Tom Booth, sion of service contracts. director of Contract Management As Jackson, through his attorney, re sociation. as its spakeamew until a direc quested a retraction and an apology since tor is selected. copies of the telegram were widely Dr. Booth said that although he was distributed. Dr. Booth said the Coalition aware that the new group was forming had asked his advice but he had not felt and had participated in some of its the letter was defamatory and had not meetings, he did not know about the advised a retraction. telegram until after it had been sent. He Jackson said he regrets that action is had later agreed to act as a paid necessary but feels that since the tele consultant to the group. He said his gram was made public and apparently activities will be confined to consulting in has been distributed among public agen the professional areas. cies, officials, contracting sources and the Dr. Booth expressed the opinion that press, he has no recourse but to sue. He is the problem stems form a group of presently in process of filing a libel suit contractors who vacilate between the two against the directors of the Coalition of organizations - the Northwest Minority Minority Contractors and Vendors - Contractors Assocation and Contract Robbin Mayfield, Thomas Martin. Manuel Management - and hold antagonisms Scott, Wendell Brown, George Baldwin toward both. Some of these and others and Jesus Carcosses. United Air Lines increases United Airlines reports record expen ditures of more than $5.6 million in 1976 by its Minority Vendor Purchasing and Minority Construction Programs. Warren Alberts, vice president-system operations services, said the results clearly illustrate the steady progress being made in communicating United’s needs for goods and services to minority entrepreneurs. minority purchasing “From the start of the company's Minority Vendor Purchasing Program in 1973 and development of the Minority Construction Program in 1974, results have increased dramatically in each sub sequent year,” Alberts said. As an example, he pointed out that last year's $5.6 million in minority purchases of goods, services and construction is more than one hundred times the 1973 total of $50.000. “We think these results illustrate United's leadership role in this important area within the airline industry and this company’s commitment to the minority businessman,” Alberts continued. “But beyond that, the company also benefits greatly through discovery of new sources of supply.” He said the nature of these new business relationships has progressed from the traditional minority service areas, such as janitorial, skycap, mainten was aimed directly at reducing their numbers. Deputy INS director in San Francisco Gordan Davidson, on the other hand, says, ‘The new law is more fair because it applies the same rules to both hemis pheres." And, he adds, other Mexicans will now have a better chance to obtain visas since parents of minor citizens had been taking up much of the previous allotment. But Davidson acknowledges that the new law probably won’t significantly reduce the number of illegals entering the country. "The reason Mexicans come* here is economic,” he says, “and no new immigration law is going to stop that. The only way to stop illegal immigration is to cut off their reason for coming-jobs-by prosecuting employers who hire them.” Whether intended or unintended vic tims of the new law, illegal aliens like the Barbosas whose children were born in the U.S. are caught in the middle: they can abandon their children to guarantee them the rights of life in the U.S.; or they can accept deportation for the entire family to guarantee their children the rights to natural parents. Under a new ruling issued by the INS in March baaed on a U.S. District Court ruling in Chicago last fall, the Barbosas may yet have one other chance. The court ruled that parents of minor citizens could not be deported under old immigra tion law if they had properly applied for visas before January 1 this year. The case is being appealed by the govern ment. But for those Mexican parents who did not apply before the Eilberg law took effect January 1, there is little chance of obtaining a visa-they must now wait in an endless line behind such more newly privileged groups as brothers and sisters of adult citizens. A U.S. District Court decision last year in New Jersey, however, could set an important precedent if upheld on appeal. In May 1976, the court ruled in Acosta vs. Gaffney that to deport the parents of minor citizens is to deport the child-in this case, a five-monthold girl. The court said that unless the Constitu tion was amended - |>erhaps limiting citizenship only to children born to parents legally In the U.S. that it would not “countenance the outright destruc ance and baggage delivery services. Min ority contracts now include sources in various manufacturing industries such as plastics, machined parts, metal fabrica tion end packaging. United’s efforts to increase business with minority firms began as a corporate purchasing project including the airline’s food services division and maintenance operations division and later expanded to the airline's three geographic operating divisions. The Minority Construction Program - initiated in 1974 - is designed to seek out minority firms which can provide build ing and engineering services to United on a competitive basis. Deporting illegal aliens - and American children by Carey Quaa Gelerater* SAN FRANCISCO. (PNS) - Armando Barbosa, a dark, stocky Mexican who had lived illegally in the U.S. for seven years, made one last appeal to the immigration judge to allow him and his family to stay in the country. “I got three U.S.-born citizen children, and this is a violation of my right«,” he told the court. “I’m going to write a letter to Jimmy Carter, tell him how these people treat illegal aliens like dogs -right here in San Francisco." But Barbosa (not his real name) and his wife had no rights as illegal aliens-not even as parents of three minor children who are U.S. citizens by birth. The Barbosas have since been deported to Mexico. And because they would not leave their children behind without care, the three youngsters were in effect also deported-despite their citizenship. Such de facte deportation of U.S. citizen children - by no means a new phenomenon - is escalating rapidly as a little-noticed side effect of this year's new immisration legislation. Until thia year the Barbosas - and other Western Hemisphere parents of minor citizens - could expect to win residence visas in the U.S. within two to two and a half years after applying (barring evi dence of criminality). But now their wait could take up to 21 years • or until their children become adults. Under the new immigration law, called the Eilberg law after sponsor Rep. Joshua Eilberg (D., Pa.), such parents have lost their special preferences in obtaining visas - while parents of adult children still have high priority. This provision* of the Eilberg law • which the Immigration and Naturaliza tion Service (INS, contends was passed not to increase immigration law discrim ination but to end it - falls especially hard on Mexican families. And as such it has become entwined in the complex and fast- growing controversy over the skyrocket ing illegal alien problem. The key provision ot the Eilberg law is that it applies the same restrictions to residents of the Western Hemisphere that have applied to residents of the Eastern Hemisphere. • Under the previous immigration law. Western Hemisphere parents of min^r children did not have to meet the usual tough requirement that a “labor certi fied” job (a job that no U.S. citizen could be found for) be waiting them in the U.S. And their visa applications were pro cessed separately. Since Eastern Hemisphere parents of minor citizens had no such privileges, those from the Western Hemisphere have lost theirs. The Eilberg law also limits to 20,000 the number of visas allowed any one country in the Western Hemisphere - as has been the case with the Eastern Hemisphere - instead of permitting resi dents of all countries to compete for 120,000 For most nationalities, the 20,000 is sufficient. But Mexico, a poor neighbor ing country from which tens of thousands come to the U.S. every year to seek work, is a special case. Forty thousand Mexicans alone have immigrated legally to the U.S. each year for the past eight. And ar many as 400,000 Mexicans are estimated to enter the U.S. illegally each year. With the new limitations, many Latino groups have contended the Eilberg law tion of the central privilege of an Ameri can citizenship already vested: the right to live in the United States for as long as one sees fit.” The court added that short of amend ing the Constitution, Congress’ recourse was to “expand the investigative and enforcement resources of the (Immigra tion) Service to permit the swift de tection and deportation of illegal aliens before they become parents of American citizens.” The court did, however, “envision cases where children were sufficiently mature and economically secure, and have sufficient family in the United States .’ to make such deportation of their parents legal. Meanwhile, for the Barbosa family, there is little to do but wait in Mexico. “I will see that my children learn English back home,” Armando Barbosa said be fore being deported. “So when they do come back to the United States-whenever that is~they will be able to speak.” •Carey Quan Gelernter is a Bay Area freelance reporter.
