We see the world
through Black eyes
Portland needs NAACP
Return kids' playground
Ail is not weM in Portland
The public school system « still segregated although
much « said of Portland s "voluntary" desegregation
program The Albina elementary schools have been taken
over by "Early Childhood Centers" whe-e a fine education
is offered to bused in middle class white pre-school stu
dents while the elementary grades remain nearly all Black
The upper grade Isixth, seventh, eighth! children are bused
out aH over the city and it is called "voluntary." Because
the children are not treated equitably by the receiving
schools, they tend to drop out and we have a low percent
age of Black students graduating from high school.
A greater percentage of arrested Blacks are booked and
jailed as opposed to ttie percentage of arrested whites
This imbalance contuses through the courts so that over
sixteer percent of the inmates at the state penitentiary are
Black - in a state with less than a one percent Black
population.
Where s justice when a Black man is sentenced to twenty
years for the alleged -ape of a white woman but a white
man convicted of the "sexual abuse" of a Black woman is
not sentenced.
Numerous complaints have been filed charging the City 's
CETA program with discnminating against Blacks. The
county has been found in non-compliance; the state has
only two Blacx administrators and private industry, with
fe w exceptions, continues to ignore a ffirm a tiv e a c
tion equal opportunity requirements.
There are few viable Black businesses in Oregon - sup
port from both the Black and the white communities being
almost nil. The unions still discriminate in Oregon
A recent city livability study demonstrated that the
poorer areas of the Black community do not receive the
necessary city services — that rats, litter traffic, noise and
pollution are senous problems
Not long ago a cross was burned on the lawn of a Black
family.
Next weex several thousand NAACP delegates will be in
Portland for the 69th Annual N AACP Convention. This
organization, which for years has been in the forefront of
the struggle for liberation, will discuss these issues and
others on a national scale.
W hen all the excitement s over and the dust clears aw ay.
we would hope that the Portland Branch would begin to
address some of the serious prooiems found by the Black
community in Oregon.
The tennants of Dekum Court have a legitimate com
plaint against the Housing Authority of Portland. The
Housing Authority, when it sold surplus property next to
the housing project, sold the area that had been used for
play by the children living in the court.
HAP decided that there is sufficient recreation area, so it
left only a narrow strip of steep bank and a space next to
the recreation building. The recreation building itself will be
surrounded on three sides by the private housing that will
be built
HAP might have some theoretical basis in determining
how much space is enough, but however that decision was
made it is simple to see that there « no suitable place for
children from forty families to play
This sale demonstrates no concern for the tennants of
the project or their children. It smacks of retaliation against
the Concordia Community Association which has had
nearly a continuous battle with HAP over conditions at
Dekum Court and has opposed the sale of the property.
Com m on sense w ould dictate th a t H A P buy back
enough property to provide adequate play space.
One good thing that has come about is a closer relation
snip between the neighborhood association and the Dekum
Court tennants. This is enhanced by the recent increase in
communication between the tennants and their neighbors.
Closing off the avenue of communication by the physical
structure would be detnmental.
HAP should reconsider this decision.
Insults Black citizens
It is an affront to the Black community and all the sen
sitive. thinking citizens that the Portland Chamber of
Commerce and the World Affairs Council would invite the
Ambassador of South Africa to Portland as an official
guest
W hen a nian representing a government as evil as South
Africa is welcomed as an honored guest, what does this
dictate about those who are subjected and kilted by his
government. W hat does it indicate about the attitude of the
organization to the Blacks of this nation
As a new member of the Chamber we strongly object to
the invitation and wonder if our decision to join the august
"com m unity" organization was wise.
NAACP Convention
Highlights
Thursday, July 6th
Monday, July 3rd
Mass Meeting, Keynote address by Margaret Bush
Wilson, chairman of the N A A C P National Board, 6:30
p.m.
Negro Film Festival, 4:30 p.m.
Youth Freedom Awards Banquet — Benson Hotel —
Speaker, Clevon Little.
Friday, July 7th
Tuesday, July 4th
Plenary session. Speaker — Benjamin L . Hooks,
Executive Director, N A AC P.
International Affairs — Paul W'arnecke, International
Disarmamen; Commission, 2:30 p.m.
Mass Meeting — The H onorable Patricia H arris,
Secretary of U.S. Department o f Housing and Urban
Development (H U D ), 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday. July 5th
Negro History Film Festival, 4:30 p.m.
Mass Meeting — Youth Night. Governor Bob Straub
brings greetings.
Thursday, July 6th
Lawyers Breakfast — Portland Hilton — Tom Adkins,
President, Boston Branch — expert on school legislation,
8:00 a.m.
Plenary session — Arthur S. Fleming, U.S. Commission
on Civil Rights, 10:00 a.m. Veterans and Military Affairs
Luncheon — General Brooks.
Freedom Awards Banquet — Donald Woods, former
editor of South African newspaper “ East London Dis
patch,” who fled South Africa in 1977, 7:00 p.m. Hilton
Hotel. M r. and Mrs. N A A C P Coronation Ball — Benson
Hotel — 9:00 p.m.
Wednesday and Thursday — concurrent workshops:
Education, Voter Education, Membership and Fund
Raising, Economic Development, Legal Life Membership,
Veterans and Military, Labor, Public Relations, Housing,
Leadership Development.
The Public may attend all sessions as space permits. Only
delegates are permitted to vote and enter floor discussions.
Tickets for luncheon and dinner meetings are available.
All meetings unless otherwise indicated will be held at the
Memorial Coliseum.
Portland Observer
Published every Thursday by Ex»e Publishing Company. 2201
North Killmgsworth. Portland. Oregon 97217 Mailing address.
P .0. Box 3137. Portland. Oregon 97208. Telephone: 283-2486.
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Second CI m s Postage Paid at Portlaad. Oregon
The Portland Observer • official position irexpressed only in
its Publisher's column (We See The World Through Black
E yesi. Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion
of the individual writer or submitter and does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the Partlaad Observ er
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Observer
Box 3137
O th e r
With a vague sensation of sadness
inside, 1 listened the other day to a
Black teacher soaked to the core with
pessimism and discouragement. It
sounded as though the outright
destruction o f American prejudice
had been allowed to invade his very
soul. 1 could not help but reflect on
the disability in thought and action
that comes with a broken will. There
is no stronger antidote against the
motivation to fight than the sense
that our condition is too bad to im
prove. Beware of the one who har
bors the hopeless vision! Watch out
for the blatant concession: “ What I
do does not matter.*'
Hearing the tireless moans o f
others, one could, if one didn't know
better, think that Black Americans
today have it so very hard; that we
live under the worse circumstances
our people have suffered in the long
400 years of productive struggle in
America. The sound we hear today
are often the desperate sounds o f
mourning.
Undoubtedly, the struggle is big
and the days till victory are long. But
we have no right to weaken ourselves
with aimless weeping and stifle our
souls with weighted groans. The
spirit of our history forbids it. Those
of us with the education to forge a
good tomorrow out of an unhappy
today must allow no element o f our
psychology to hinder the thrust
ahead.
I f the great ones before us stood
tall, and gave genius to an indifferent
world in spite o f odds that make
child’s play out o f obstacles today,
then there is no reason for this
generation, or any hereafter, to
weaken its charge against prejudice
by bemoaning the inevitable uphill
journey. Facing obstructions strong
enough to bruise and batter the
toughest soul, there were those who
nevertheless met the winds o f
resistance head on. Dr. W illiam E.
Burghardt DuBois is a magnificent
case in point.
The odds against W .E.B . DuBois
were monumental. Yet the con
tribution o f his prolific Black genius
“ should occupy the most con
spicuous place” in the history of the
ideas o f Afro-America, according to
his biographer, Arnold Rampersad.
During his long life, spanning
from 1868 to 1963, DuBois fought
against the pervasive, irrational
hatred o f white citizens; a hatred that
was intensified by the irritating
“ agitation” o f an educated Negro.
He achieved, in spite of it all. Arnold
Rampersad writes that “ I f the full
history o f the impact o f Blacks on
the American mind is ever charted,
his education o f the whole nation
will be seen as significant indeed.”
As the dominant theme in his
ground-breaking challenge, The
Souls o f Black Folk, the persistant
and unavoidable conflict o f Black
life in America was expressed best of
all by DuBois. The clash of two op
posing forces — a Western crust and
an African core — is ever present in
the Black reality. Like the rest o f the
Black population, DuBois lived this
duality, and admirably put to words
the natural conflict o f Black
humanity in America: “ One ever
feels his twoness, — an American, a
Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two
unreconciled strivings; two warring
ideals in one dark body, whose
dogged strength alone keeps it from
being torn assunder.” The relentless
confusion o f this inescapable
“ twoness” was, in DuBois* prime,
enough to drive the psyche of most
darker people toward the refuge of
nothingness. But not DuBois. With a
fearless spirit and a near flawless
education, he fought endlessly.
He fought with valor to recreate
the Black past. His extensive writings
demonstrated an unshakable belief
in the importance o f history. He
knew that with careful calculation
W .E.B. DuBois
the slave society took unmerciful
measures to destroy the memory of
its Black laborers. A people unaware
of the past flounders aimlessly in the
present. There is little hope for the
revc'ution o f a new day. Long before
M alcolm X rekindled the A fro -
Am erican’ s awareness o f Black
history, W .E.B . DuBois had labored
to reconstruct the glorious journey
of a people determined to survive in
a strange and senseless land. He
asked in The W orld and A frica ,
“ Don’t you understand that the past
is the present; that without what was,
nothing is?”
Surely with a clarity seldom found
today, DuBois understood the
demands of his awesome challenge.
In Black Folk, Then and Now, the
world was made privy to the burden
he knew he had to carry: “ 1 do not
for a moment doubt that my Negro
decent and narrow group culture
have in many cases predisposed me
to interpret my facts too favorably
for my race; but there is little danger
of misleading here for the champions
of white folk are legion. The Negro
has long been the clown of history;
the football o f anthropology; and
the slave of industry. I am trying to
show here why these attitudes can no
longer be maintained.**
Though a political crusader, editor
and writer, DuBois was above all one
o f America's great educators. His
feet firmly rooted in understanding,
his arms sternly folded in grim
determination, W .E .B . DuBois
would not relent in his demand for
Black self-development. “ We daily
hear that an education that en
courages aspiration, that sets the loft
iest o f ideals and seeks as an end
culture and character rather than
bread-winning, is the privilege o f
white men and the danger and
delusion of Black.” On the right of
the Afro-American to have the op
portunity to achieve the widest
development. DuBois would not
compromise.
Characteristically, then, DuBois
would have no part in the concession
o f Booker T . Washington, who a t^
the turn o f the century advocated a
program o f industrial (raining and
commerce, combined with a strict,
self-imposed complacency as to the
agitation for social and civiYrights.
In opposition to Washington’ s
theory, DuBois brought forth the
unasked question. “ Was there ever a
nation on God's fair earth civilized
from the bottom upward?” he didn’t
hesitate to answer: “ Never; it ever
was and ever will be from the top
downward that culture filters. The
Talented Tenth rises and pulls all
that are worth the saving up to their
vantage ground. This is the history
o f human progress; and the two
historic mistakes which have hind
ered that progress were thinking first
that no more could ever rise save the
few already risen; or second, that it
would better the unrisen pull the
risen down.”
Today the theory is as sound as
rver. I f the percentage cause you to
cringe because o f its apparent
elitism, disregard the notion o f a
“ tenth,” and focus instead on the
idea of the “ talented.” Concentrate
on the principle which reminds us
that as a race o f struggling Black
people it is the highest duty to en
courage all Black youth in “ self-
expression and experiment; to test
their wings, to find ability and
strengthen character, and to learn
self-control,” as DuBois once said.
I f more o f those in education
would pause long enough to digest
the yet tim ely knowledge in his
collection o f essays entitled The
Education of Black People, there
would be fewer confused today as to
that which can be expected from
young Afro-Americans in the class
room. Once their historical handicaps
have been acknowledged, once the
sorrowful excuses made, many more
teachers should be encouraged to
stand firm ly and repeat DuBois*
truthful words: “ There may often be
excuse for doing things poorly in this
world, but there is never any excuse
for calling a poorly done thing, well
done.”
DuBois knew that no oppressed
race could manage its destipy
without a will to face the senseless
monster o f oppression “ breast for
ward,” with no whimper o f regret or
fear o f foe.” And he wanted all to
understand that his constant call for
Black higher education and for Black
leadership was grounded in the
unavoidable fact that “ Before the
Temple o f Knowledge swing the
Gates of T o il.”
Those fighting today are stronger
thanks to the work and teaching of
Dr. DuBois. We have no time to
moan and cry and shed our tears
ov^r the struggles o f today. We must
hear and live out his admonition: “ I f
the great battle o f human rights
against poverty, against disease,
against color prejudice is to be won,
it must be won not in our day, but in
the day of our children’s children.
Ours is the blood and dust o f battle,
their's the reward o f victory.”
Let us cultivate a believing vision
and bring the genius o f our
generation forward against all the
odds. Let us be honored by the
challenge our proud history has left
us. Proudly, we should Lift Every
Voice and Sing:
Facing the rising sun o ) our new day
begun
L e t us march on till victory is won.
Dekum Court playground
(Continued from Page 1 Column 3)
between the buildings would make
the noise unbearable.”
Although adequate play space was
frequently mentioned during the
discussions and hearings on the
property
disposed,
no
firm
requirements were set. “ We have
(icople buy houses that close to the
project, they will build a wall be
tween them and us and we will be
isolated again.” A wall and high
fence separate the project from
private apartment buildings on the
north. Residents fear that the new
owners, finding their back yards a
few feet from the project, would
build a wall or other features to
separate them. An open space, used
for a play area, would provide a
meeting place and help integrate the
project into the neighborhood.
Ail but three families (two were
not available) signed a petition
asking H A P to buy back the portion
of the property that lies north of
Saratoga Street.
J.W . Brayson has agreed to sell
the property to H A P or any other
public agency and will not develop it
until after June of 1979 in order that
these decisions might be made.
The C oncordia N eighborhood
Association’s meeting Tuesday night
w ith
the
Dekum
Tennants
Organization, voted to provide the
city with four options: 1) that the
C ity o f P ortland purchase the
property and either maintain the
property or contract for its main
tenance with H A P or CCA; -2) that
C CA apply for community develop
ment funds to purchase the property;
3) that H A P purchase and maintain
the property; or. 4) that H A P pur
chase the property and hold it until
C C A or the City can purchase it
from them.
Nolan o f the City Park Bureau
said it is highly unlikely that the Park
Bureau would become involved since
the current policy, in light o f short
age o f funds, is to develop large
parks or to develop school property
into parks.
Vern Lentz o f the City Planning
Bureau favored the third option,
having H A P purchase the property.
Bill Hunter, assistant director of
H A P , explained Lyndon Musoffs*
statement as expressed to the Ten
nants Association last M onday
night. He said that in H A P *s
opinion, when the property line was
redrawn and the property sold, was
that “ we have provided adequate
recreation space.” Although H A P is
not opposed to any deal between
Brayson and any other party to ob
tain the property for public use H A P
“ at present has no intention o f
negotiating to buy the property.’’
H A P , he said, has “ no stake in the
land at all.**
Mrs. Palmer stated that the ten
nants feel they have not been kept in
formed — they were not told about
city hearings about the property;
requests for information were unan
swered — they did not know <l»e
property was sold until informed by
the purchaser’s surveyor; they were
not told where the property line
would be; they were not involved in
any of the decision making. Hunter
assured her that the tennants will be
involved in the decision o f when to
move the swing sets.