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.