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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1978)
Page 24 Portland Observer Section II Thursday. February 23. 1978 Æ D is c ip lin e F it F o r I lie T im e s Black Celebration During the month of February Black Americans, (or over half a century now. have dusted off their Black history volumes, p re pard pageants and orations, and have staged poetry readings and Blacks drama. February has become the month in which we have "remem bered our forefathers" because of the largely single-handed and the single-minded efforts of Ameri ca's most distinguished pioneei Black historian, the late Dr. Carter Godwin Woodson. The growing attention given in early March to Crispus Attucks. the first to die in the American Revolution "to secure America's liberties." and the birthday of Martin Luther King. Jr. in mid- January have enlarged this once month long observance gradually into something of a three months' celebration - during January. February and March - of Black history, pride and hope. Woodson was the first trained Black historian to devote full time to the scholarly re assess ment and re discovery of Black American history. He gave to this endeavor an unmatched pas sion. day and night, and year in and year out such that when asked why he as an attractive and irresistably commanding fi gure - never married, he could reply: “Negro history is my wife and family." The story of Woodson’s life and work is almost a legend in and of itself, revealing in autobio graphical form, much of the pain and degradation which have formed the stones upon which a growing beauty, brilliance and “readiness" to Black life have been honed. Carter G. Woodson stands out, then, as the shining symbol of Black history, largely because much of his life and spirit per vades the history and ongoing life of the Black community... even to our day. Dr. Edgar A. Toppin notes: "Woodson devoted his whole career to correcting misconcep tions about the Black man's past. ft (Emphasis added.) He had a missionary zeal to tell about the achievements of Afro Americans and their African ancestors so as to overcome the constant refrain dinned by newspapers, mags zines, textbooks, and racist poli ticians on the theme that Blacks were inferior people who had never accomplished anything worthwhile." You should know: Trojan is doing a powerfully good job for you. Black History s Prime Mover The prime mover and some how silently persistent - and effective - guide is still seen as the late Dr. Carter G. Woodson. He claims a continuing hold upon Black minds as the peripatetic and indefatigible scholar who preached from his originally rough hewn, and later Harvard burnished, lectern his constant theme that we were a people with an honest and worthy past. He hammered away in his many writings, speeches and in his organizational work that Blacks were not mere chattel defined and demeaned upon the auction block where human lives were transmuted into "things" of less than human worth. 772,915,000 n eed ed k ilow att hours in January power needs of PGE customers in electricity that Trojan provided to help We get questions everyday from custom January, and supplied nearly one- keep business and industry going and ers who are confused about Trojan’s op fourth of all the electricity used in meet the residential needs of your family. eration because of the scare tactics and Oregon. "what if" games that a few people are ■ The Trojan plant ran at a 100% service using in order to get attention and create ■ The average cost of Trojan power is factor in January and at a 96.2% ca doubt about nuclear power. Good news 16.5 mills; cheaper than almost any pacity factor. It produced 772,915,000 doesn’t create many headlines so we are other thermal replacement power kilowatt hours. taking this space to tell you about the available. a Trojan power met 40.6% of the total 6,500,000,000 k ilow att hours in 1 9 7 7 —seco n d h ig h e st ou tp u t o f th e 1 6 8 com m ercial nuclear p lan ts in th e Free World The drought dramatically demonstrated the importance of Trojan as a source of power, and the need continues as the region grows. In 1977 Trojan produced more than 6 .5 00,000,000 kilowatt hours ...enough to provide the residential electrical energy requirements of 1.3 million Oregonians for a year. ■ PGE's 67.5% of the Trojan plant out ■ Trojan's net total output lor 1977 was fait provided 34.5% of the total elec first in the nation, and second in the trical needs of our 4 4 0 ,0 0 0 customers Free World— a pretty good testimo in 1977. nial on Its performance. ■ Trojan produced more electricity We th o u g h t y ou sh o u ld k n o w . than any of the other 66 commercial nuclear plants in the United States during four months of the year, and ranked second in four additional months. The plant was down two months for Its scheduled annual maintenance. FGE ■k.
