lira Francas Schoen-Newspaper Room
University of Oregon Library
tugens, Oregon 97403
PORTLAND
O B S E R /E R
Volum e S No. 28 Thursday. July 13.1978 10c par copy
M iddle schools out
Area 1 completes reorganization
W ith the Wilson and Roosevelt
attendance
areas
objecting
reorganization into middle schools,
the reorganization plan for Area I is
complete. O f the four attendance
areas involved, only Jeffeon accept-^
ed a middle school organization.
The School Board accepted the
recommendations o f the Roosevelt
Study Committee that: the school
organization remain as it is; that
Portsmouth Middle School function
as a voluntary part-time program
with special programming; that trans
portation to Portsmouth be pro
vided; that the enrollment at Ports
mouth not exceed building capacity.
A ccording to the com m ittee,
although “ some form o f program
deterioration was bound to occur in
the future o f our basic K-8 structure
was not changed'* . . . “ when con
fronted w ith this perception, the
majority o f parents in the Roosevelt
area indicated a willingness to pay
the price o f better programming in
order to keep major changes from
occurring at this time. Stated d if
fe re n tly, it appears that the
emotional investment o f parents in
their perception o f the role of the
school took precedence over their
acknowledgement o f the school's
inability to provide program options
to students.”
Currently three schools have over
thirty percent minority enrollment —
Ball, 44 percent; Portsmouth, 40.7
percent; and Clarendon, 31.5 per
cent. Reorganization would not have
changed the enrollment at Ball or
C larendon,
but w ould
have
decreased m inority enrollment at
Portsmouth.
The Wilson High School commit
tee submitted its plans for the futurCj
having already rejected m iddle
school reorganization. The Wilson
Cluster Committee recommended
that three schools — Bridelm ile,
Gray and H ayhurst remain K-8
schools as they are now.
For the ,978-1979 school year they
would shift Wilson Park (K-6) seventh
graders to Gray rather than to M u lt
nomah. The following year Wilson
Park would become K-5 and feed in
to Gray.
Maplewood would remain K-6 and
Multnomah K-8 next year, but the
following year one would be closed
and the other become K-5 with upper
grades going to H ayhurst. Ter-
w illig e r w ould remain K-5 and
possibly receive students from the
old Couch area now attending
Chapman. This would make three K-
8 schools with enough upper grade
students to provide strong programs
and three K-5 schools.
The Lincoln area also rejected
reorganization, with their proposal
to continue the schools as they are
accepted at an earlier School Board
meeting.
The only attendance area in Area I
that accepted M id d le School
reorganization was Jefferson, which
recommended that Ockley Green
become the middle school for Chief
Joseph, Applegate, Kenton and
Beach and that Pennisula continue as
a year round K-8 school.
Students in Hum boldt and the
Aiea 1 sections o f Boise, King and
Woodlawn would not be included.
Anthony Amado, Jr., William Taylor, Jr. and Andre
Taylor show medals and Western Championship
trophies the trio won in recent wrestling competition.
The young men will compete in the Grand Nationals in
Nebraska, hoping to win places on the U.S. national
teams.
Portland wrestlers win titles
Three young men have returned
from the Western AAW wrestling
meet with honors and are on their
way to national and possibly world
championships.
A nthony Am ado, j r . won the
Western Championship in freestyle
wrestling and came in second in
Greeco-Roman in the Advanced
group, fourteen and fifteen year
olds. A nthony, fifteen, has just
completed his freshman year at Ben
son High School. Where he earned a
letter as a member o f the varsity
team. He is the son o f Mr. and Mrs.
Anthony Amado, Sr.
William Taylor, Jr., who is th ir
teen years old, won first place in
freestyle and in Greeco-Roman in the
Intermediate group, twelve and thir
teen year olds. W illiam w ill be an
eighth grader at Fcrnwood Middle
School.
Andre Taylor, eleven, was second
in Greeco-Roman and fifth in the
freestyle at the Western Champion
ship. Andre w ill be in the fifth grade
at Laurelhurst Elementary School.
W illiam and Andre are the sons of
M r. and Mrs. Bill Taylor.
The young men all started their
wrestling careers at Pennisula Park
in the Park Bureau program directed
by Roy Pittman, W illiam and Andre,
five years ago, and Anthony four
years ago. When they outgrew the
park program they moved on to the
Oregon Athletic Club where they are
coached by Mark Sprague.
The next competition w ill be the
G rand N ationals in L in c o ln ,
Nebraska, where winners o f the
W estern, C entral and Eastern
regions compete fo r the national
championships. The Oregon Athletic
Club sent 25 young people to the
regionals in Salt Lake C ity and
returned with eighteen champion
ships. A ll 25 participants qualified
for the national meet.
W restling is divided in to five
categories: Elite; Advanced (14-15
years); Intermediate (12-13 years);
Junior (8-9 years); and Bantom (5-8
years). The National Champions in
the Advanced and Interm ediate
divisions w ill represent the United
States in the World Championships
to be held in Albequerque in August.
O f course Anthony and William
are looking to representing their
country in the World Championships
— Andre is still too young. The next
goal, besides achieving their best in
the meantime, w ill be the 1984
Olympic Games.
W restling also brings other
benefits — besides com petition,
honors and travel — there is the
possibility o f college scholarships
and a good education.
Woods advocates economic, diplomatic pressure
by N. Fungal Kumbala
Mayor Neil Goldschmidt takes a tour of Housing
Authority of Portland property prior to discussion of
methods that can be used to restore teh children's play
area sold by HAP. With the Mayor are Alvin Batiste,
Chairman of the Concordia Neighborhood Association;
Carolyn Palmer, resident manager of Dekum Court;
Shirley W agner of the Dekum Court Tenants
Organization; and Claudia Fisher, Concordia Neigh
borhood Association.
Mayor agrees playground needed
by Claudia Fisher
The need for retention o f adequate
play and recreation space at Dekum
C o u rt was the firs t to p ic o f
discussion at a Concordia Neigh
borhood Coffee w ith M ayor Neil
Goldschmidt Monday night at the
Dekum Court Community Facility.
Ms. Caroline Palmer, H A P resident
manager at Dekum Court and Con
cordia C o m m u n ity A ssociation
representatives led the Mayor and
neighborhood residents on a tour.
Stakes marking the property line o f
land sold by H A P to private
developer J.W. Bray son were point
ed out with emphasis that the only
space left to Dekum Court tenants,
besides 35 feet west o f the com
munity facility, was steep unusable
slope.
Mayor Goldschmidt in responding
to questions stated that he had
received a detailed city memorandum
about the June 27th C oncordia
Community Association meeting at
which Bureau o f Planning Park
Bureau and H AP representatives,
along with a representative o f the
developer, were present. Represen
tatives listened to and answered
questions from Dekum Court Tenant
organizations and C C A Dekum
Court Task Force representatives as
well as neighborhood residents in at
tendance.
The Mayor spoke o f the difficulty
in “ eliminating the dead hand of old
decisions that made it hard to get
things changed.” He stated that the
neighborhood had solved the largest
part o f the problem at Dekum Court
(with the downzone from an apart
ment to a single fa m ily-d u p le x
zone). The remaining problem, he
said, would not be easy to solve “ but
I think you are rig h t." Goldschmidt
indicated he would have conver
sations with people from the city.
G oldschm idt
favored
CCA
recommendations that some means
be worked out to return ownership
o f the property to H AP or the CCA.
Possibly, he said, the city could
provide land bank money to HAP to
purchase the property. “ There has to
be some way to work it out, you’ ve
done a good job and the city w ill
w ork w ith the C C A and other
groups.”
In responding to neighborhood
questions the Mayor discussed the
W ittenburg one-and-a-half percent
property tax limitation measure. He
said among other things the Oregon
constitution would be amended to
say that “ no measure may be passed
unless two-thirds o f all eligible voters
» 7 yes.” This “ no turn o u t -
provision would result in increased
state service responsibility rather
than city responsibility predicted
the Mayor.
A lso predicted was that the
legislature would, i f the Wittenburg
measure passes, cut programs such
as the HARRP program providing
for homeowner property tax relief
for the fifteen percent o f people now
eligible.
The Whacker plant was another
to p ic o f discussion w ith neigh
borhood residents voicing support
for the proposal and the guarantee
that unemployed and underem
ployed city residents would be hired
firs t. The M ayor quoted a bank
president as saying the city had gone
into a partnership and had made a
9
commitment so its reputation was on
the line. I f political squabbles end it
then the city shouldn’t go out there
into the market again said the bank
official.
Another concern was the PUD
b a llo t proposal which received
Mayor support because “ it takes out
provisions that hinder PU D
development."
Resident concerns returned to the
neighborhood at the close o f the
meeting with questions roused about
the program schedule o f the Housing
and C om m unity Developm ent
(H C D ) program. The M ayor in
dicated that Lents and Sellwood
neighborhoods would be the first
two priorities with Concordia com
peting effectively with other neigh
borhoods next. Big projects w ill no,
be run i f the one-and-a-half percent
tax measure passes said the Mayor.
Goldschm idt predicted, however,
that spending in Lents would be the
highest in the c ity ’ s history and
“ would make Model Cities look like
a city picnic.”
One sour note sounded by the
Mayor was that Oregon Fair Share
had said that they didn't care about
what occurred in neighborhoods
other than the ones in which they
were organizing. A fter the meeting
one person in attendance said the
Mayor had failed to mention that
Fair Share organizes in Portland
neighborhoods that are generally low
income areas that have more needs
for programs and services and which
need organized pressure groups to
bring about responses to their needs.
Also stated was that attempts made
to generate hostile feelings toward
other neighborhoods should be
resisted.
Last Friday evening, at the con
clusion o f the 69th annual conven
tion o f the NAACP, a dinner was
held at the H ilton Hotel downtown
and the featured speaker was M r.
Donald Woods, the exiled South
African journalist and former editor
o f The East London Daily Dispatch
(South A fric a ). The speech,
delivered to a full house, was very
well received and Woods was in
terrupted several times w ith ap
plause.
The address could be broken down
into two separate segments; the first
dealing with the role o f the NAACP
in the continuing struggle for justice
and equality here at home and the
second, dealing with South Africa.
“ Racism has three m anifesta
tions,” said Woods. One is legi
slative racism, w hich combines
race and discrimination in statute
law.
“ Another is economic racism and
a third is attitudinal racism exhibited
through
a
persistence
of
psychological superiority and in
fe rio rity dispositions.” Statutory
racism has been eliminated, Woods
continued, but that is only one third
o f the struggle.
There remain vast econom ic
inequalities related to race, and these
in turn are related to the persistence
o f a ttitu d in a l and psychological
in e q u a litie s.” He said he was
shocked to see such ghettoes as
South Side Chicago, South Bronx
and Harlem. These 'graveyards of
hope are at once a challenge and an
affront to every American o f any
race and it should be the ideal of
every New Yorker to make Harlem,
a place o f which even some back
ward nations would be ashamed, the
showplace o f Manhattan.* He said it
can be done because America can do
anything it sets out as a nation to do.
’The renewal o f the ghettoes should
be accompanied by the regeneration
o f hope, energy and aspiration in the
ghetto dwellers themselves. It is no
use rebuilding the houses without
regenerating the people.*
To fight poverty, Black Americans
w ill need the support o f their white
brothers and sisters. W ith ten whites
for every Black, once Blacks supply
the initiative, if the whites rally to
their side like they should, there need
be no poverty in the U.S. as there is
none in Australia and Sweden. He
also said he hoped the "NAACP,
which has been in the forefront of the
civil rights struggle from its incep
tion, should be the vehicle through
which this can be accomplished.
M oving on to the question o f
South Africa, Woods started by ex
plaining that apartheid is not
something happening only to Blacks
in South Africa, but that it involves
all o f us, every person o f every race
on the face o f the earth.
“ It is an outrage against all
humanity that in this year, 1978, there
is still a society in this world that
deprives people o f basic human
rights because o f skin color.”
In explaining what the U.S. should
do about apartheid, Woods said that
he was echoing what all the authentic
Black leaders o f South Africa from
the late Nobel Peace Prize winner
C h ie f A lb e rt L u th u li, through
Nelson Mandela, a prisoner for the
last sixteen years on Robben Island,
founder o f the A N C , Mangaliso
Robert Sobukwe, founder o f the Pan
African Congress who died earlier
this year to Steve Biko, who died in
prison last September have said.
“ Their constant plea, spanning
twenty years o f Black resistance to
apartheid is that America should
divest and disengage from economic
and diplomatic contact with South
Africa until apartheid is removed.”
The message is simply that every
dollar invested in South Africa yields
tax revenues for the white minority
government to continue oppressing
the Black majority. O f the highly
touted Sullivan principles which
A m erican companies have been
using as an excuse for continuing
business operations in South Africa,
he asked, “ When 22 m illion Blacks
are held in subjection by fewer than 5
m illion whites, what relevance can a
code o f business principles affecting
less than a hundred thousand em
ployees have?
“ What would the Jews in Nazi
Germany have thought o f U.S. com
panies continuing investments in
Germany under a code o f principles
for the employment o f Jews?”
Black South Africans see present
American policy as being supportive
o f apartheid. Consequently, they are
turning to the East for help. They
point out that the Russians have:
neither businesses nor embassies in
South Africa and from the Russians
to o , they are getting arms and
money. Thus the Russians and
Pickets protested official invitation
of David Soles, South Africa Am
bassador to Portland.
Cubans have cleverly aligned them
selves with the Black movements and
aspirations while the U.S. is seen to
be on the wrong side in Zaire, Zim
babwe, Angola, Namibia and South
Africa.
“ When your administration im
plies that Castro is calling the shots,
for example over the invasion o f
Zaire, it is insulting to all Africa.
Events have shown that Africans do
not make good puppets. In which of
the fifty countries in Africa is there a
puppet of the East?”
He went on to mention that much
o f the confusion about Africa is the
result o f s k ilfu l propoganda f i
nanced by the South African govern
ment. Public relations firms in New
(Please turn to Page 6 Column 3)