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U n iv e r s ity o f Oregon L ib r a ry
tu g en e, Oregon 97403
PORTLAND
When Joyce Swan needed help from
the police she did not get help, but
harassment.
OBSERVER
Volume 8 Ne. 15
Thursday, A pril
6,
1978
I was on my way home from work at
Montgomery Ward in Beaverton at about
10:30 Monday night when I ran out of gas
on the freeway. I didn't know where the
nearest service station w w so I walked
from the freeway up to College and
Broadway and called my mother from n
phone booth.
“While I was waiting for her to call
back and tell me if my brother could help
me, a lot of police came up the street,
appearing to be looking for someone.”
10c pet' copy
Persistence
pays off
A recent graduate of Marylhurst Col
lege is Bob Boyer, 38 year old father of
five. Graduation is of special significance
to Boyer because it took him ten long
years.
Boyer has been a warehouseman at
Waterway Terminals during the ten
years he has attended school - at
Portland Community College, Mt. Hood
Community College, Portland State Uni
versity and, finally. Marylhurst. He is
still at Waterway Terminal but is looking
forward to establishing his own business.
He considers his degree a key to fields
that previously were not open to him - a
way of unlocking doors. “It has been very
hard, with young children yet having to
work and go to school. My wife could
understand my goals and was a great
support to me. Often when a man wants
to go to school his wife doesn't want to
make the sacrifice or does not see the
long range benefits and that makes it
hard.”
Boyer has also devoted much time to
community service. He was chairman of
the Headstart parent's committee, was
on the Model Cities Citizen's Advisory
Board and was chairman of the Youth
Commission, represented Humboldt and
Boise neighborhoods and organized youth
sports. He served on the Portland Metro
politan Steering Committee board and
was a scoutmaster.
Currently Boyer is chairman of the
NAACP National Convention fiscal com
mittee. Regardless of family and employ
ment responsibilities, he will always find
a way to be involved in the community.
One officer yelled, “You better stop,
boy, or I’ll shoot.” The young Black man
stopped and they went up to him. “I was
still standing near the phone booth when
they came toward me. The first officer
who came up asked my name and started
putting his hands on me. I pushed him
away and told him not to touch me."
Mrs. Swan explained that she was
asked for ID and said she had left it home.
Asked by the officer if she had anticipat
ed being asked and already had checked
and she told him that she had looked in
her purse for credit cards and found that
her billfold wai not there.
About that time the phone rang and
knowing it was her mother, she answered
it. She told her mother what was happen
ing and talked to her until her brother,
David James, arrived. She signaled to
him and when he drove up she told the
police that this was her brother coming to
help her get gas. At that time she was
again surrounded by police.
“When one officer came up and asked
what was happening, the first officer
called me a 'bitch' and said I was giving
him trouble. I told the police that I was
going to leave so I could get gas and go
home.
“They said they were going to arrest
me and started grabbing. I tried to fight
them off. They twisted my arms, broke
my fingernails, cut my finger. They
started asking questions again but 1 said
if they were going to arrest me i would
say nothing.” One of them even pulled out
his gun.
Mrs. Swan was handcuffed and taken
to jail, where she remained until released
on bail about 1:30 a.m.
Wednesday morning she appeared in
court to plead not guilty to charges of
assault in the fourth degree and resisting
arrest. The charge read that she “did
unlawfully, knowingly and recklessly
cause injury” to a policewoman by strik
ing and biting.
“I don't know why they charged me
with assaulting her. She wasn't even
involved. Some time during the struggle
with the four or more men, she walked up
and told them they could arrest me for
assault. I didn’t do anything, but if I
assaulted anyone it certainly wasn't her.”
Mrs. Swan, 28, is married to Hank
Swan and is the mother of two small
children. “All I wanted to do was get gas
in my car and get home to my family.”
The police officers involved were not
available for comment.
Beaumont school opinion divided
As community meetings on the issue of
changing Beaumont to a middle school
continue, public opinion is divided. Some
community members are adamantly op
posed to the change and have organized
against it. Others favor the idea of a
middle school or believe it is inevitable
because of dropping enrollment and
school district policy.
Mr. Beck, Beaumont's principal, sup
ports the middle school for educational
reasons and his advisory committee
agrees.
Among the concerns voiced by the
audience at Wednesday night's meeting
were:
• Will there be a community vote?
Beck explained that there is no school
district policy calling for a vote but after
listening to community concerns he fa
vors a vote. He will consult with the
school advisory committee, which meets
April 12th.
Bab Boyer has reached < ! of Us goals, a college degree, after tea years of work aad
• Will the School Board listen if the
community opposes the plan? Will this
part-time school.
issue come up again every year until it
passes?
• If the lower grades are sent to
another school, where will they go and
will they stay at that same school? At
first parents were told they could send
their children to Alameda or Sabin, but
later were told that after the first year or
voters and areas where registration was
4th.
The tenth anniversary of the
two there will not be enough space for all
low. On the basis of this information, ten
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King,
predominately Black precincts were tar Jr. Phil McLauren, one of the AVREC ' at Alameda.
• Where will the children go during
geted for concentrated voter registration
organizers said this date was chosen to
efforts.
rennovation? Current plans are to send
remind citizens that voting rights was
them to the Monroe High School building.
The registration program included sta one of Dr. King's principle goals. “The
• What are the differences in academic
tions at frequently used grocery stores most revolutionary thing a Black person
achievement in middle schools? The dis
and a house to house campaign prior to can do now is to register and vote. The
trict has no data.
the Primary and General Elections.
only way we will be able to demand
The results were significant - a four political influence is to be able to produce
One parent from Alameda advised the
teen percent increase in the 32 precinct the votes."
parents to look at some of the primary
areas of Albina, and a seventeen percent
and middle schools and to broaden their
The success of the effort and the future
increase in the ten percent target area.
sense of community. “We in Alameda
of Black political power will depend on
The 1978 effort was announced April
aren't that different.”
the efforts of volunteers who are willing
Middle schools offer a program design
to help with the house-to-house registra* ed for that age group with special classes
tio or man registration booths.
in science, music and other fields. Teach
Persons who would like to help can call
er ratio in these schools is eighteen to
the King Neighborhood Facility (288-
one. In Kindergarten through eight
0371) and leave their names and address
schools the teacher ratio is twenty to one
es so they can be contacted.
and special classes are not provided.
AVREC co-chairmen are Eric Harper
Beaumont is faced with loosing teaching
and Dr. Lee Brown. Darrel Milner is
specialists for its upper grades and
coordinator of the location registration.
combination of lower grades.
Voter registration project seeks volunteers
The Albina Voter Registration and
Education Committee, Inc. (AVREC) is
seeking volunteers to canvas the Albina
area to register voters.
AVREC was formed in January of 1976
to coordinate and conduct voter registra
tion activities in Albina. Agencies sup
porting and contributing to the effort
included the Albina Ministerial Alliance,
the NAACP, the Urban League of Port
land and numerous other social clubs and
organizations.
A group of recent college graduates
conducted a survey to identify Black
Beaumont parents picket to show opposition to proposal to turn Beaumont into a
middle school for the Alameda-Beaumont-Sabin cluster.
Beaumont currently has approximately
400 students and according to Beck needs
500 to 600 students to operate a good
Kindergarten to eighth grade program.
Of the four hundred students, ninety are
upper graders transferred from Sabin. If
the school becomes a middle school, all of
Sabin's sixth, seventh and eighth graders
will go there.
The school advisory committee will
meet on April 12 to determine whether to
recommend the middle school or whether
to refer it to the people.
Desegregation coalition reports community forum findings
The Community Coalition for School
Integration reported last week on the
findings of its Community Forums and
related research.
The four major concerns expressed by
persons attending fifteen forums were: 1)
Inequity; 2) Lack of interracial under
standing; 3) Quality of education; and 4)
Neighborhood integrity.
Inequity
* u 1
Of all the Black students in the school
district, 34 percent are bused for desegre
gction while less than two percent of the
white students are bused for this pur
pose. Of 2,973 administrative transfer
students, 90 percent are Black and
include those who are transferred volun
tarily and those who are bused because
grades have been eliminated in their
schools.
Fewer than 800 white students are
voluntarily transferred to Early Child
hood Education Centers and of these, 444
are in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten
programs.
More whites than Blacks mentioned
inequity as a concern.
Interracial Understanding
Concerns included need for more com
munication and understanding, and need
for preparation in receiving schools.
Quality Education
This concern was expressed more often
by whites and was expressed by some as
a fear that desegregation could lower the
educational standards.
Neighborhood Integrity
All of those listing this concern were
white. They expressed a desire to keep
children in their neighborhoods with
their friends.
Some mentioned inte
grated housing as a solution.
Other concerns mentioned included:
need for Black staff, need for environ
ment where minority students can
achieve positive self image, need for
district commitment to desegregation,
need for education of desegregation ef
forts; need for desegregation/integraüon
goals.
Persons who attended the forums and
completed questionnaires were: 82 per
cent parents and 18 percent non parents;
74 percent white and 26 percent Black; 58
percent female and 42 percent male.
Parents were from all fourteen high
schools and 41 of the 87 grade schools.
The Coalition plans to submit its final
report and recommendation to the School
Board in June.
Bustos seeks Labor Commissioner position
Charles Ford has been a key telephone volunteer during the past four Easter Seal
Telethons, staff members report, and he was back on the job April 2nd to help raise
money for the physically handicapped during the 20-hour program. People who man
telephones record pledges called In during the event; p r e l i m i n a r y total of pledges
throughout Oregon this year was about (265,000. Money supports non-profit Easter
Seal services which include the Easter Seal School and Treatm ent Center in Eugene,
physical therapy services provided state-wide, speech and hearing clinics, an
equipment loan program. Camp Faster Seal on the Oregon Coast, and an information
and referral service.
Ford, an employee of Miller's Egg Ranch, said his child had been the recipient of
Easter Seal services. More than 95c out of each dollar he helped raise Sunday will stay
in Oregon to provide direct patient services to people who are physically disabled,
according to Easter Seal officials.
Jose Bustos is considered a minor
candidate among a field of eight vying for
the Democratic Party nomination for
I^abor Commissioner. Although Bustos is
not one of the "big three" who are
expected to pull the votes, he says he is a
serious candidate, and that he expects to
win.
I believe the l^abor Commissioner
should be strong and independent -
independent of the labor unions and
industry. A Commissioner too closely
identified with labor cannot have the
independence to take action in controver
sial rases involving the unions.” One of
Bustos' opponents is an AFL-CIO official
and another has heavy labor support.
"The Labor Commissioner has tradi
tionally been elected with strong union
support and as a politician has to depend
on receiving that support again.”
Bustos emphasizes that he is not
against labor unions, but that he just
feels that considering the discrimination
in unions and their important role in the
apprenticeship programs, the Labor Bu
reau should be more independent.”
Among Bustos' solutions for the unrea
sonable waiting period in civil rights and
wage and hour complaints, would be to
assign those cases that appear to have
simple solutions to an investigator well
versed in the law and in public relations.
“Many rases could be settled with a
phone call or a compromise worked out
between the employer and complainant.
Most employers don't want to go through
an investigation and possibly a hearing
over a small complaint. Thia would
greatly decrease the number of cases that
would require extensive work.”
Bustos, a former migrant worker, is
well versed in affirmative action/civil
rights law as well as in problems related
to wage and hour, apprenticeships, and
unemployment. Until March, he was
employed by the Oregon State Employ
ment Service as a minority representa
tive.
A Mexican American, Bustos has work
ed extensively with the Valley Migrant
league and other migrant organizations;
serves on the Washington County Council
on Aging and the Nutrition Council; is a
Spanish teacher and translator; and is a
commentator on KWRC in Woodburn.
As Labor Commissioner he would take
a leadership role in coordinating services
to migrant farm workers; would work to
include minorities and women in appren
ticeships; would use his office to influence
unions to include minorities more fully;
would work to insure better job training
for the unskilled and uneducated.
He is particularly concerned about the
working and living conditions of migrant
workers who must live in labor camps
provided by employers. This makes a
nearly “slave” situation where workers
are not free to change employers because
they would lose their housing, in this
situation employers can overcharge for
housing and food provided and to some
extent can limit outside contacts. He
would like to see the development by
non profit agencies (with federal funds) of
housing areas where workers could rent
and be free to select their employers.
This is the type of activity that he
believes the I^bor Bureau should encour
age.
JOSE BUSTOS