State offers Swan Island traffic solution
INSIDE:
Black History Special
A newly completed Draft Environmi-n
tai Impart Statement on Swan Island
Transportation Access has been released
by the State Department of Transports
lion.
PORTLAND
OBSERVER
TWO SECTIONS
Volume » No. 9 Thursday, February 23, 1978 10c ;ier co;iy
The I iepartinent of Transportation has
t wo alternatives to release the congestion
in Swan Island and the adjacent area.
They are: construction of ramps connect
ing Greeley Avenue with Interstate 5 and
roadway improvements at the Basin and
Going Street intersection.
North Portland residents and business
es have been anxious to alleviate noise
and traffic problems on Going as well as
to provide easier access to Swan Island.
Currently, access to Swan Island is
limited with most of the traffic using
North Going, a four to six lane arterial
which runs through a predominantly
residential area. With increasing de
velopment of Swan Island as an industrial
park, increased traffic has created safety
and noise problems in the neighborhood.
North Going has heavy congestion
problems at peak traffic hours because of
its limited rapacity and bottlenecks at the
Basin and Interstate crossings.
The proposed solution is the develop
ment of roadway improvements at the
Going/Basin intersection and construe
tion of ramps to connect Greeley Avenue
and 1-5 near the Fremont Bridge inter
change. This would improve flow of
traffic to and from Swan Island and would
reduce traffic on North Going by divert
ing traffic to and from 15 to the south via
Greeley.
A public hearing will be conducted on
March 15th at Humboldt School, 4915 N.
Gantenbein at 7:30 p.m. Persons unable
to attend the hearing can submit written
comments to Robert Rothman, Oregon
Department of Transportation, 5821 N.E.
Glisan, by March 25th. For locations of
plans for review call 238 8226.
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Tennis Town emphasizes teaching
by Sally Bibbs
Marion Black bur » Tennis Town ,iro;irie4or. ,wuaes in the lounge aron of the
Raleigh Hill, facility.
"Build a better mousetrap." Marion
Blackburn almost uttered the words as an
aside, explaining a business philosophy as
old as business itself.
Applying the
mousetrap formula to teaching tennis is
what he is doing. Or. as he put it, “I was
dissatisfied with the way tennis was
being taught and I knew a better job
could be done.”
The job Blackburn has done is amply
evidenced by either an outside or an
inside look at his Tennis Town facility in
Raleigh Hills. The attractive structure,
bareiy six months old. contains six
non glare plexipaved courts, a day nur
sery, lounge, locker rootns, and a fair
share of Blackburn's approximately 900
devotees.
But the pleasant surroundings do not
sell tennis lessons. "Our emphasis is on
teaching from a personal standpoint,”
Blackburn says. He compared his or
ganization to social/athletic organiza
tions where sports lessons, including
tennis, are available. The difference is
that Tennis Town exists to teach tennis.
Tennis is not an additional offering,
according to Blackburn, tennis is the
reason to be here.
Success appears no stranger to Black
burn. Before seizing the tennis opportu
nity, he had successfully founded and
operated Wood Arts, a wall plaque
manufacturing company. In 1965 Black
bum was the first Black salesman at
Nabisco. Through 1973 he was frequent
ly ranked in the top ten of the Northwest
tennis tournament circuit.
Blackburn, Portland, and tournament
tennis became acquainted in 1961, when
Blackburn arrived here compliment of
the U.S. Army. A native of Alabama, and
a graduate of Alabama A&M, Blackburn
started playing tennis while with the
Army's Mental Test Service in Portland.
Blackburn competed in service tourna
ments and when discharged, stayed in
Portland working as a recreation director
before going to Nabisco.
Blackburn continued with tennis, and
with his concept of Tennis Town, until the
means of realizing his plan were avail
able. In 1975 Blackburn founded Tennis
Lessons, Inc. in a portion of a S.W.
Macadam Avenue building best described
as a vacant warehouse.
Blackburn
obviously knew his product and the
demand for it because the Macadam
Facility lasted barely two years before
groundbreaking ceremonies took place at
the Raleigh Hills location.
An Observer photographer inadver
tently visited the Macadam Avenue
warehouse where Blackburn started his
current enterprise. Although the Tennis
Lessons, Inc. site obviously was the
success upon which Tennis Town was
built, it is perhaps a mark of Blackburn's
business acumen that the Raleigh Hills
plant was financed by a warehouse space
now put to its apparent best use, a
perking lot.
Portrait painting promotes artist’s creativity
Henry Frison ho,ies to s.iend more
time st .lortrsint .minting after recent
unveiling of the first ,mnel of the Albin«
Mural Project. Frison designed «the
mural'« first .mnel and did much of the
brunii work.
Henry Frison, whose most public con
tribution to an art work is visible on the
finished panel of the mural at the Albina
Human Resource Center, wields his
brush in possibly the most difficult and
certainly the most diplomatic of artistic
endeavors: portrait painting.
Historically, portraitists enjoyed and
suffered the whims of favor or disfavor of
patrons, royalty and politicians. Frison
needn't fear for his safety or his reputa
tion. but a portraitist of today must still
reconcile his own vision with the client's
self vision. Frison's satisfied customers
«test the veracity of his conversions from
vision to canvas.
But the success evident in some of
Frison's portraits is only the beginning on
the road he hopes to follow. This initial
success, however, was achieved under
difficult circumstances and the man's
tenacity is clearly established.
Frison is a Texan by birth. In 1965,
after a stay in New Mexico, he arrived in
Portland and took employment for a
number of years as a foundry worker. In
1970 an. as yet, still undiagnosed illness
of the upper spinal column semi-paralyz
ed a portion of his left side and it was
obvious his family's income would no
longer come from the foundrys.
And, although Frison had suffered an
on the job injury to the small of his back,
the location of this undefinable illness or
injury voided the possibility of work
men's compensation. But Frison was
James advises Linfield students
BOBBY JAMES
Bobby James is the new ethnic and
student activities advisor st Linfield
College.
James, 31, graduated from Linfield in
1970 with a bachelor of arts degree. After
a year of leaching in Florida, he returned
to Linfield to work on his masters in
education in 1971 and 1972.
James has since worked in Fort Walton
Beach, Florida, as recreational director
for the Eglind Air Force Base. His wife
Jean will come west in June when her
teaching year is completed.
As ethnic and student activities advi
sor, James will help the admission office
recruit mino; :ty students, work with the
career development office, and help with
student activities. James also will serve
as an advisor in helping students plan
schedules and social activities.
James commented that, "Having more
students involved in activities at Linfield
will enhance our recruiting program,"
and he expressed the goal of drawing
more minority students to Linfield.
determined to provide his family an
income. He put his trust then in an
Frison says he prefers to work with
oils. But the time requirements of oil
portraits have prompted the innovator in
Frison, and he has developed a fixing
process for working with pastels. Pas
tels, Frison says, are faster, but the
delicacy of the medium often ends with
colors washed together and a finished
surface very fragile to touch, humidity,
accidents of transportation and handling.
Frison's fixing process results in a pastel
surface almost as secure as a photograph.
And Frison demonstrates by rubbing his
hand harshly over a finished pastel
portrait.
•
Frison's work with the Albina Mural
Project has kept his portrait work in a
state of semi-limbo lately. The project's
completed panel was designed by Frison
and his presence was required almost
night and day as he and other artists
worked to meet the deadline for the
recent unveiling. With the unveiling
past, Frison hopes to have evenings free
for portraiture and other painting.
His future dreams include a combina
tion gallery and studio, he explains,
standing in the portrait lined living room
of the dwelling which is now both of
those, as well as the home for him and his
family.
He looks forward to doing
landscapes. Frison loves childrens’ and
babies’ portraiture.
Words in a newspaper, of course,
cannot convey the visual world of a
painter. Frison's portraits and the Albina
mural provide their own testaments. Or
drop by the home of a vegetarian named
Lucas and view a scene unavailable at the
artistic ability he had possessed since
childhood and, with assistance from the
Employment Division's Vocational Reha
bilitation program, he entered Advertis
ing Art School.
Working without vacations, he finished
the four year program in less than three.
With his ability at painting and portrai
ture, Frison acquired a competence in
fashion drawing, silk screen, graphics,
lay-out and air brush painting.
While portraits are his pleasure and a
primary income producer, some of his
bread and butter work includes sign, van
decoration, tire cover insignias, CB'ers
call cards, etc.
But portrait work is where Frison's
creativity displays itself. Frison knew
portrait work was difficult, but he also
observed a failing in portraits by other
artists to adequately capture the essence
of the model. Frison thought he could be
better.
Asked to number the portraits he’s
finished since finishing school last June,
Frison hesitated, then guessed, "maybe
three hundred or so." But many of his
portraits are not commissioned. Frison
does them to improve his skill. Many of
these unsolicited' portraits have been
stolen, Frison says, because he is his own
salesman and his gallery is often the
trunk of his car. Where Frison goes, his
works go. and although he finds custom
ers in this manner, some of the portraits
which he speaks of proudly, while dis
playing photographs of them, are lost to
him for the present.
Coliseum.
Lynn Nelson’s television production instructor at Jefferson High School advised the
“Observer" photographer to first “awaken Ms. Nelson” before capturing this evasive
smile. Ms. Nelson is -ierha;is .Hindering uses for her current «1,000 Oregon
Association of Legal Secretaries Scholarship.
Jefferson student earns grant
Lynn Nelson, a Jefferson High School
Senior, has been awarded a $1,000 scho
larship by the Oregon Association of
Legal Secretaries. She also is eligible for
consideration for a national scholarship.
Lynn is a student in Jefferson's Legal
Secretary Magnet Program. Along with
two years in this program, which includes
learning to use the Mag Card II type
writer and field trips and speakers on
law, she has taken courses in business
naacp
education.
These include shorthand,
typing and personal finance.
She works part-time during the school
year and full time during the summer in
the law offices of Evans, Anderson, Hall
and Grebe. Her hobbies include camping,
biking and reading.
The daughter of Mrs. Vera Nelson,
Lynn attended Applegate Primary
School and Kenton Elementary School.
Her future plans are still indefinite.
youth plan conference
The NAACP Youth Council will hold a
Leadership Workshop February 25, 1978,
from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the King
Neighborhood Facility, 4815 N.E. 7th
Avenue. Youth People from Seattle,
Tacoma, Yakima. Bremerton, and Van
couver, Washington: and Salem, Oregon
are expected to be in attendance. Topics
to be discussed are: NAACP History and
Structure; Alternatives to College; The
Bakke Case; Effects of Interracial Dat
ing; Youth in the NAACP; The 1978
National Convention, and the National
Membership Campaign.
The purpose of the workshop is to
prepare the young people for the national
convention to be held in Portland, Ore
gon, July 2nd through the 7th. At this
time approximately 2,000 young people
will be attending the convention. The
workshop is open to the public.
Officers of the Portland Youth Chapter
are Brenda Knapper, President; Lucretia
Fuller, First Vice President; Julianne
Johnson, Second Vice President; Desiree
King, Recording Secretary; Tericita Po
well, Correspondence Secretary; Leo
nard Lamberth, Treasurer; Eileen Clark.
Membership Chairman: Spencer Barrett,
Chaplain; Benita Payne, Executive Com
mittee Chairman; Mrs. Ora L. Nunley,
Advisor.
Honor Collins
Miss Evelyn Collins will be honored at
a reception to be held at Concordia
College Sunday. February 26th at 3:00
p.m.
Billed as “Community Thanks to Moth
er Collins," the event is sponsored by
Commissioner Charles Jordan. The pro
gram will include a talk by Commissioner
Jordan and musical selections.
The public is invited to demonstrate by
their attendance the esteem in which
Miss Collins is held in this community.
AFSC nominates Biko for Nobel Peace Prize
The American Friends Service Com
mittee announced that it has nominated
the late Stephen Bantu Biko, the South
African activist who died in prison of
suspected police beatings last fall, for the
1978 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Quaker organization, as co reci
pient of the Prize in 1947, is entitled to
make a nomination each year.
“To recognize Stephen Biko for his
work is to acknowledge the love and
esteem in which he was held as a gentle,
yet forceful, leader," AFSC Executive
Secretary Louis W. Schneider said. "But
it may also serve to acknowledge the
labors and lives of Biko's colleagues, and
the tens of thousands of South Africans
whom he inspired.
"These people, many of them still
schoolchildren, through a conscientious
refusal to submit to an unjust social
order, have emerged as principal actors
in open of the key engagements for peace
in our times.
We think that the
struggling people of South Africa would
draw strength, and feel themselves re
cognized as a result of the award of the
Nobel Peace Prize to Stephen Biko.”
He died in South African police custody
last September. Biko helped found the
South African Students' Organization
(SASOI in 1968 and the Black Peoples’
Convention (BPC) in 1972, of which he
was to become honorary President.
Raised in the Anglican Church, Biko was
active in South Africa's University Chris
tian Movement; then in SASO.
There his spiritual leadings were fused
with a conscientious seeking of means to
bring self esteem and self confidence to
Black people through their own institu
tions. He encouraged the flowering of
these and other efforts that together
produced one of the most powerful forces
on the South African scene: the Black
Consciousness Movement.
Although arrested and restricted to a
small town in 1973, Biko continued his
leadership. He helped found the Black
Community Programs, a support organi
zation for many community activities
from clinics to cooperatives. His standing
in the Black community was such that, in
the height of the 1976 urban upheavals,
community leaders in Soweto asked the
Government to negotiate the country’s
future with three leaders then restricted
or imprisoned: Nelson Mandela, leader of
the African National Congress (ANCI;
Robert Sobukwe, leader of the Pan
Africanist Congress (PAC), and Stephen
Biko.
“Since the days of the late Chief Albert
Luthuli, the last South African to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize, it has grown
steadily more difficult to hear - from a
land of tragically deepening brutality,
oppression, and fear - the voices of South
African leaders who speak of both justice
and gentleness," Schneider said. “Steve
Biko was a leader who spoke and lived for
the liberation of all South Africans, and
for their unity as a people of one nation.
“His was a vision of peace born of
non racialism, saying. 'We believe that in
our country there shall be no minority, no
majority
there shall just be people ."
The AFSC has been seeking since 1917
to find nonviolent solutions to problems
at home and abroad.