Thursday. July 28. 1977
W? see the world
through Black eyes
I
School Board offers 'trick bag’
The people spoke — but the Board of Education did
not hear. It is simply amazing to observe these
intelligent, educated people — attorneys, social
workers, etc. — hear organization after organization,
individual after individual give the same simple
message and not understand what is being said.
After four hours of public testimony. Board
member Frank McNamara actually said that the
community is only concerned about the elements of
the Newman plan that would hove barred students
from king and Boise from attending Jefferson. This
after repeated testimony requesting a study of the
entire desegregation program and the establishment
of a committee to recommend a new desegregation
program, complaints about treatment of students,
questions about the quality of education. It is just
further evidence that the Board has not the slightest
intention of allowing citizens and parents any voice
in their operation.
The “third Newman plan" was read and approved
at the beginning of the meeting - with copies passed
out to the public after it was passed. Although this
plan was written on July 20, it was not presented to
the public or the press prior to the Board meeting.
Although stripped of some of its more negative
aspects, it is still a "Newman plan" and does not
speak to the issues raised by the public. No, the
Board has not heard the message.
The arrogance of the Board was demonstrated as it
said, in effect, “You won't accept our plan so make
your own. If we don't like it, we will pass our own
next January." Not only did the Board dump the
problem in the lap of the Black community, but it was
set up to fail. Where is the technical assistance, the
information and the communication our taxes
purchase. These were not offered. We doubt that any
such move has been mode by any responsible public
body. It con only be seen as a petty reaction to those
organizations who refused to support the Newman
plans.
in anger and frustration. This anger and frustration
must now be directed toward positive action.
We predict that the MHRC, the Urban League and
the NAACP will get together with all other concerned
organizations and individuals and will appoint a
broad-based committee that will carry out the
functions requested by the people — to make an
in-depth study of the twelve years of desegregation
in Portland, including the related areas of achieve
ment, curriculum, discipline, social adjustment,
staffing, etc., and to prepare a comprehensive
long-range desegregation/integration plan. This
activity of course will require the cooperation of the
school district in supplying data — something the
district has been reluctant to do.
Because this type of study will take longer than the
December 12th deadline set by the Board, the Board
must hold any action until the study is completed. If it
decides to go ahead with this or any other Newman
plan, the battle lines will be drawn.
Another threat that was made Monday night was
the elimination of Boise school. Many parents
predicted that if a stand was taken against the school
district, the retaliation would be made against Boise.
Boise is still a “ racially isolated" school, but we have
seen no positive activity on the part of the Board to
bring white students into Boise. The responsibility for
this should not rest soley with the Boise staff but
should be shared with the district administration and,
if necessary, with the Board.
It can be considered a slap in the face of the voters
that Monday's meeting was also the meeting at
which a two-year extension was added to Dr.
Blanchard's contract — a contract that would not have
expired until 1979 anyway. With growing concern
and discontent across the district, this move was
irresponsible at best. Where tis the concern and
responsibility of the Bord — to the superintendent or
to the students and the people who elect them.
JatíM lo tke, Edito,
More on prison Justice
To the Editor:
Thank you for printing my letter.
"Justice a Game or Chance". There to no
simple solution to the complex problems
of prisons. But the first step toward any
answer, I believe, to to look at both sides
of what to happening in here, as you are
doing.
What to the staff of the Oregon
Penitentiary trying to hide?
Recently, the staff said they had been
told by "confidential reliable informant«"
that I hit a roan over the head with a
piece of steel in the weightlifting room. I
was taken before the disciplinary com
mittee (three staff members); they read
the charge and asked if I had anything to
say. Listed as one of the rights of an
accused prisoner in the prison "Rules of
Procedure" to: "An inmate has a right to
submit questions to be posed by the
Disciplinary Committee to any person."
So I asked for an investigation of this
charge brought on by whomever it to that
the staff puts its confidence in and feels is
reliable. I told the disciplinary committee
that there were several witnesses who
would testify on my behalf. After several
minutes of arguments they granted me
an investigation.
The Disciplinary Committee's investi
gator, Mr. Stone, was given a list of
fourteen witnesses and a list of specific
questions to ask them. The questions are
¿A
simple, my handwriting to legible, and I
felt confident that it the investigator
would read the questions to the witnesses
and record the answers, the informants
would be proved wrong. I felt confident
of this until I found out how M r. Stone to
conducting the investigation.
Joe Bishop, one of my n ¡tussent,
recently came to the Segregation and
Isolation Building where I am being held.
Mr. Stone had already seen him in
regards to my case. I asked Joe if he had
been asked the questions I submitted.
In my case the time element to crucial
to establish where I was on the prison
yard. My questions to the witnesses
bring out the fact that I aras at the
opposite end of the yard when the man
got hit. Mr. Stone to asking his own
questions, questions designed apparently
to put me anywhere else on the prison
yard at that time.
In a few days I will appear before the
Disciplinary Committee again.
The
questions I submitted will be read into
the record and the answers of the
witnesses will be read into the record. No
mention will be made that the answers
are not answers to the questions I
submitted, but rather answers to
questions of M r. Stone.
Much has been made about a prisoner's
right to appeal the decision of the
Disciplinary Committee to the Court of
Appeals. Several newspapers have had
articles on the fairness of this procedure.
A t first glance it does seem fair. But the
only facts the Public Defender or any
lawyer has to work with on appeal, are
the ones recorded by the Disciplinary
Committee. I f these records are not
accurate, there is little chance that the
Disciplinary Committee's decision will be
overturned.
I feel that what the Disciplinary
Committee to doing would not be con
sidered ethical in a public trial. I have
asked the staff to take the case downtown
and try me in a criminal trial. I f they
have the facts, evidence, and informants
to accuse me of a felony, then let's do it. I
have nothing to hide, my witnesses have
nothing to hide, and if the staff has
nothing to hide, there should be no
objection. The Penitentiary has never
been reluctant to prosecute in cases of
physical assault before.
Recently I accused two staff members
of criminal conspiracy. I wrote to the
District Attorney and asked to appear
before the Grand Jury. I wrote to the
State Police. Friends have called both
the District Attorney and State Police.
I accuse them of a felony, they accuse
me of a felony. There's a difference,
though, between what they do and I do: I
want the farts in the open.
Sincerely,
Donald Danford
1st Place
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°beervers official position to expressed only in
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individual writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect
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Rangel condemns blackout m edia coverage
©■
N .Y .) condemned the media coverage of
U m looting which resulted $ft$r the
a tour
on Saturday,
July 19th, stated that “while the press
dsaifnatod funeral areas where looting
took place by boroughs, in my Congres-
sxioal District they went out of their way
to designate the areas of Harlem and
East Harlem. I believe that this was done
solely to identify the racial and ethnic
composition of some areas and not others,
sines it in common knowledge Jiat Cen
tral Harlem is Black and East Harlem is
Spanish spanking. I am outraged because
n»y surveillance of the areas after the
crisis indicates that this arsa had Isas
Idwikhhgr a n d arm ■admit—w »Km it ggy
area in the City."
In praising the citizens of his district,
Rangel stated, the truth to that through
out the City of New York most citizens
concerned themselves with the welfare of
their neighborhoods." In Harlem and
East Harlem citizens wars even directing
traffic and assisting the elderly who
where trapped in their apartments with
out elevator service.
Community leaders throughout Har
lem and East Harlem congratulated the
cooperative efforts shown by the resi
dents during an hour of crisis. The
percentage of news reports in no way
the true reactions of the people
within my Congressional District which
has been visited by a Congressional
Delegation as well as the Deputy Mayor,
officials from the Small Business Admin
istration and Federal Disaster Adminis
tration.
Manhattan Borough President Percy
Sutton was in the streets throughout the
entire blackout encouraging the people to
remain on their stoops in avoiding contact
with the looters. He was a primary force
during a moment of fear and panic.
Governor Hugh Carey to to he congratu
lated for his decision not to call in the
National Guard and thereby further
exposing our community to outsiders
armed to do combat.
In explaining the reasons for his
concern Rangel stated, "thia misrepre
by the pram had caused a
letback in the economic
development of our community which had
just begun to take a step forward in spite
of the indifferences shown toward urban
communities and inner cities. Developers
who were interested in investing in the
East Harlem and Harlem communities
are now hesitant to consider joining
endeavors and programs to rebuild be
cause they sense additional problems.
Nevertheless. Rangel went on. "The
merchants that I met with are « munittod
to stay within the community and hopeful
that the assistance received from the
Federal government will allow them to
rebuild, recover and move forward. The
fact to that politicians find it so easy to
refer to the blackout as a night of terror
and although Harlem and East Harlem
residents were singled out as being
animals very little concern has been
placed on the fact that it was Consoli
dated Edison and not the people that
brought this crisis upon us." When asked
about his response to the media's use á
the ward “animals" to describe a
the eonstituenU. M r. Rangel
by Joel
(PNS)--The scene of citizens gone wild
in the New York blackout of 1977 has
recalled the long hot summers of the
1960's, with looters carting off their
plunder against a background of arson.
But there were key differences: the
looters of 1977 were much younger than
the rioters of 1967; and there were no
Malcolm Xs or Martin Luther Kings
walking the streets to cool things down.
While the New York blackout brought
out thousands of opportunists who went
back to obeying the law 28 hours later,
thousands more belong to a lost gener
ation of inner-city youth whose turn at
lawlessness did not begin or end with the
latest blackout.
I t to ironic that this nation's worst
outbreak of urban violence occurred
exactly 10 years after President Johnson
appointed his National Advisory Commis
sion on Civil Disorders, the group of
prominent Americans who warned that
the country was "moving toward two
sodeties-ooe Black, one white - separate
and unequal."
While many educated, middle-class
Blacks have since been integrated into
the American mainstream, a large num
ber-perhaps a majority-did not substan
tially benefit from the civil rights
movement.
They remained poor and
continued to live in Harlem and Watts
and Hunter's Point.
Most of the indices of poverty, illegiti
macy, unemployment and drug abuse
that were a national scandal in the 1960's
are even worse now? And what has made
the situation even more explosive to
youth; half the Black population in this
country to under 24 years old.
Young Blacks are at the core of the
greatest concern of city dwellers today:
crime.
According to the F B I, half of those
arrested for violent crimes are under 18.
Nearly 80 percent of these juveniles are
Black.
While the population of New
York City has declined since 1960, the
number of youths under 16 arrested to
nearly 10 times what it was 25 years ago.
But the racial aspect of this problem
makes it a tickilish public issue for social
scientists and politicians. Recently, a
number of national magazines have
published stories on juvenile crime, but
without confronting the implications of
race.
Some are not so reticent, however.
Francis Ward, writing in First World, a
Black intellectual magazine, calls young
Blacks "an endangered species."
He
warns that an entire generation of Black
youths in the inner cities may be lost to
lawlessness, violence, and unemploy
ment. And he points out that both Black
and white victims of juvenile crime are
calling for more repressive measures.
Already, a number of states have passed
laws lowering the age for treating juven
lie criminals as adults.
One economist estimates that a million
young Blacks in 25 major cities form an
underclass that simply has no future in
America. Most of those who commit
faceless, lawless and
violent crimes, robberies and muggings
There is little national outcry about the
and most of those who were out looting
huge increase in drug use since the 1960's
during the blackout come from that
about the fart that murder to the greatest
underclass.
cause of death among young Black men.
The prediction made by the Presiden about the fart that four of 10 Blacks in
tial Commission a decade ago has nearly
ghetto high schools will never have a job,
come true. W e have two societies-but
will never earn a living or support a
neither to completely Black or completely
family. Even most of those who do get
white. A sizeable portion of the Black
jobs will lose ground as the income gap
population has moved into the main
between Black and white continues to
stream, but an equally large number has
widen.
joined the class of expendables.
A decade ago, most white Americans
Young ghetto toughs in New York,
understood the violence of the riots
Detroit and Chicago may never have
because the political message was dear.
heard of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but
Blacks would no longer accept second-
the principal architect of benign neglect
class status. But after a doaan years of
now represents Harlem, Bedford Stuy-
trying to understand each other, we
vesant and the rest of New York in the
experience lawlessness on a broad scale,
U .8. Senate. Moynihan and other social
without political content, without anger,
revisionists have successfully sold the
without purpose other than personal
concept that large segments of the
gratification.
Blacks and the poor in this country are
Having been stamped as outsiders,
irretrievable.
those young Blacks and Puerto Ricans
The young people in these blighted
have done little more than behave like
communities may not be able to read
outsiders. They have formed their own
magazines of social commentary, but they
sodeities, gangs, dubs and packs, with
are aware of the new attitude. They see
their own values and standards of be
it in schools that no longer pretend to
havior. Their dreams are still the dreams
teach them, in law enforcement whose
of America: the good life, money, the big
only concern to containment and in the
car and nice clothes.
admission by their government that four
There to a small miracle in the fart that
of 10 young Blacks in their communities
so few are willing to steal and kill for the
will never enter the labor market simply
things they will get no other way.
because there to no room for them.
But there is also tragedy for those who
Ten years ago, the President’s Com
only wait and watch. They have no one
mission on Civil Disorders urged inte
who will listen to them and no one to tell
gration as a solution to many of America's
them to stop. There was only a mayor
problems. The irony now is that inte
expressing his "outrage” at actions that
gration has done much to destroy the
should have created no surprise.
Black communities and institutions of our
To see a group of people art against all
large cities.
conventions of law and decency to fright
The Black middle class, which gave
ening. But there should be greater fear
those communities stability and provided
for a society tht has created a group of
role models for the young, has moved to
people that listens to no one, follows no
better jobs and better neighborhoods.
one and respects no one. It should tell us
Those who remain are the poor, the
that the degree of lawlessness in this
losers, the underclass-and what happens
country goes far deeper than stolen
to them to not of concern to the majority.
television sets and burned-out store
Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson now
fronts.
make headlines; but crime in Harlem or
Bedford-Stuyvesant to largely ignored
j o e i u r e y iv M , lo n M r iy a Man reporter
unless the victim to white. We hear
covering urban affairs far the Washing
glowing reports on the revitalization of
ton Post, New York Post and Asoedatod
cities, but little on the human cost of
Press, to a m trn k ir of PNS’s«— u n
displacing the poor. The residents of
funded city project. He has aloe written
Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant are still
for Black Enterprise, New York Times
Sunday Magazine, i
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N N A 1973
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Address
memmr
ER
"those that find it so easy to i
‘animal* in describing the reaction of
certain people to the blackout should
have the decency and honesty to evaluate
what to expect from people who find
themselves living in tenements where the
streets become their only vaeationland or
health spa and the only hops from the rat
and roach infested apartments, t h ese
streets swarming with residents who are
80% unemployed, full of energy yet
without work, unable to participate in
and enjoy its benefits now find the City's
lights turned out.
As a lawyer and
former Federal prosecutor I can find no
justification for violating the laws, laws
that are made to protect those people
who live under these conditions, but 1st
no politician feel secure or no government
feel relaxed that they can economically
ignore the plight of large numbers of poor
people who live in economically suppres
sed areas. Whether it be ignited by some
conduct of policemen, a misunderstand
ing between people influenced by alcohol,
a rumor that sonic Black or Hispanic was
wrongfully struck, this tinder box of
anger and suppressed frustration holds
no threat to those that have no fear of
violating the law and feel the anger or
revenge to strike back. No one justifies
this anti-social behavior but no one can
ignore it. Any phenomenon, whether the
assassination of a prominent leader or a
citywide blackout exposes *11 of us to this
anger. We can get on with the recovery
and the rebuilding of our image but until
we deal with those factors that create
such a climate all of us live in fear of it or
when we might be subjected to another
retaliation.
A lost generation of American youth
"Nothing is particularly hard
if you divide h into small
lobs "
Henry Ford
New York
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John Dswsy
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