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Portland Observer Thursday, August 31, 1978
Forests, ranches d ra w O regon’s Black pioneers
by M cKinley Burt
economic tie between generations
i sepat ate father from son) — and if
y o j can devise an educational system
which falsely teaches the youth that
their heritage consists only o f cotton
pickers and toters o f mint juleps to
the veranda o f the Big House, or
solely o f sports and entertainment —
then you have successfully created a
system o f b e h a v io r m o d ific a tio n
which w ill (as intended) reduce a
beautiful people o f genius to a Black
consum er m a rk et, the only such
ethnic grouping in America without
an economic base in the system.
Against this backdrop only the most
insensitive (o r barbaric) student or
w rite r on u rb an problem s could
reduce his evaluation to a citation o f
statistics o f Black poverty, crime or
health, while observing exactly how
the situation was manipulated.
N ow , here in the Pacific N orth
west there have been at least two
id e n tifia b le wares o f B lack en
trepreneurs w ith roots firm ly em
bedded in our matrix o f notable ec
onomic role models. When the writer
first arrived from the old country
(Dixie to you) as a late teenager at
the end o f the 1930’s he found suc
cessful B lack ranchers, fa rm e rs ,
food producers, loggers, wholesalers
and others. They were located on
mountains, streams and in C ity H all
— on the Snake River, along the
Rogue, and in valleys o f which you
have never heard.
P a rtic u la rly illu s tra tiv e is the
Black ranch couple, W alter and M a r
tha Anderson, located in the Juniper
Lake area o f the Steen Mountains in
eastern O regon. T ogether w ith a
nearby re la tiv e they owned and
operated over 1,200 acres o f prime
wheat and cattle land. A n interesting
follow-up is that a dozen years later
when 1 was a practicing public ac
countant in Portland, the very same
couple engaged me to set up an ac
co unting system fo r th e ir large
restaurant and hotel on North Inter
state Avenue in A lbina. They had
recently retired and sold their land
holdings
(to d a y ’ s
huge
and
profitable SX Ranch), but most im
portantly I was privileged to see first
hand how lan d , c ra ft and food-
Last week I documented just a few
o f the early economic accomplish
ments o f B lack p eople, it being
readily apparent that the enterprises
and techniques o f m anufacturing,
distribution o f goods, food produc
tion, foresty and machine develop
ment are a ll directly related and are
sustained by land. There can be no
“ Evidence o f Progress . . . ” if this
structure is not taken into account,
and a failure to do so is as impossible
a concept as a house without a foun
dation — a pyramid without a base
— a body without soul (or romance
without finance).
Analysis
Many of the last decade’s failures
in the area o f so-called B lack
cap italism may be traced to a
monumental failure to understand
this vertical, integrated reality o f the
Am erican economic system — it
makes no difference whether you
operate a fast-food franchise or sell
n a tu ra l combs, or i f you are
m arketing C hristm as trees, or if
designing m achine to o ls. In my
book, Black Inventors o f America
(1 9 6 9 ) I sought by a certain
classification technique (innovative
machines in general — agricultural
inventions — transportation devices
— pioneer m an u factu ring modes,
etc.) to make very clear to the reader
this interdependence o f each com
ponent o f our system. In addition I
added a separate section in the style
of Black capitalism: real or fancied,
where I pointedly spelled out the
possibility (and necessity) o f securing
the interaction o f the Black inventor
and the Black entrepreneur, and the
Black landowner.
It is a fact that 1 underestimated
the devastating impact upon Black
consciousness and m otivation o f a
century o f craft discrimination and
the deliberate, racist modification o f
Black history. The point being that if
you can destroy the c u ltu r a l/
processing skills are integrated into
each next step o f the economic lad
der. Mrs. Anderson survives and every
conversation with her is a touching
o f bases with my roots, and a remind
er o f what we have lost (and what
the system does not tell us — but
crime, that's different!).
Everyone should note that the first
part o f the names o f our giant wood
products firms signify their southern
o rig in or roots: G eo rg ia P a c ific ,
Lousiana Pacific, etc. When certain
types o f forest lands in the south
were depleted many decades ago
these c o rp o ra tio n s m oved th e ir
operations to the vast, virgin lands o f
the Pacific Northwest. A nd in the
cultural fashion o f many southern
companies they brought with them
m any o f th e ir w orkers and th eir
fam ilies, B lack as w ell as w hite:
fallers, buckers, sawyers, green chain
men, loaders, etc., and even mule
drivers. Older photographs o f these
m o tley crew s, re-em p hasize the
nature and reality o f pow er in this
country — the Oregon Constitution
forbade Blacks to enter the state and,
too, there were ‘sun down law s’ in
many o f the towns (still on books?).
He who owns land, pays taxes and
meets payroll calls the tune in our
system; others dance.
A n o th e r interesting connection
was t h a t w h ile w o rk in g in the
Willam ette National Forest for the
Southern Pacific Railroad, I met a
family o f these workers who were on
their way to eastern Washington to
visit a relative who was a wheat ranch
er. Three years later, and now with
the Union Pacific Railroad on the
Snake
R iver
near
R ip a ria ,
Washington. I met this Black land-
owner, a man o f perhaps sixty years
o f age. As a young man d uring
W orld W ar I (1918) he had been a
dining car waiter on a troop train for
Seattle which had been rerouted
through this area because o f
snowslides on the main line. He saw
new, expanded opportunities for a
man o f his “ drive and instincts” ,
and returning to Alabama packed up
his fa m ily and brought them to
Riparia (population 700-1,000 at the
time, 1 believe). Here, at this center
o f fertile wheatland, forty miles up
stream fro m L ew isto n , Id a h o he
launched a thirty-year career that
took him fro m an in itia l jo b as
cow boy, to w h eat-ran cher-o w n er
(2,000 acres) to grange master, to
M ayor. Most o f the heirs have long
since sold their lands and departed,
or have disappeared ethnically by
marriage.
A side note is th a t his fa m ily
visited often with members o f an all-
Black farm and ranching community
in Idaho, about sixty miles north o f
the State University, and which is
still intact and prosperous. In the
concluding segments o f this article I
shall try to make quite d ear why we
should be examining the economic
and educational potential o f such
available programs fo r our youth, as
the Young Adult Conservation Corp
(Y A C C ), a year-round program —
and the Youth Conservation C orp
(Y C C ), a summer program. These
projects, for which the U .S . Forest
Service is a sponsor, incorporate
many o f the economic components
o f exposure, d irection and tra in
ing which we once received auto
m a tic a lly
in
consequence
of
c u ltu ra l c o n tin u ity as has been
described — and which virtually has
been destroyed, it is imperative that
m any o f us re le a rn tech n o lo g y,
ecology and the p ro d u c tio n and
ow nership techniques o f fo o d ,
shelter and clothing. A nd I reiterate
fro m last weeks a rtic le , “ our
educational process must be stretch
ed to meet our needs; in a com
petitive system no one else is going to
do it for you.
Meanwhile, back fro m the ranch,
in the A lbina section o f Portland,
Oregon there seems little to indicate
that most o f the Black population
has any awareness that they still
retain portions o f some o f the most
valu ab le real estate on the West
Coast. Next week we shall explore
this situation further including an
e v a lu a tio n o f those econom ic
vehicles or structures which Blacks in
other areas have used to develop and
exploit their resources for their own
benefit.
Life, Health, Group Inaurane«.
Annuities, Pension Plans
PEGGY JOSEPH
287-0215 or 288-5692
The New York Life agent
in your community is a
good person to know.
JASPER L. AMBERS
A TTO R N E Y A T LA W
GENERAL PRACTICE
1525 N.E. WEIDLER
PORTLAND, OREGON 97232 - 288-8141
ECOLOGY AND CAREER
EXCURSION
By Greyhound Bus to the Beautiful site of the Wind
River Young Adult Conservation Corp. (YACC)
(Second in a three-part series.)
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
Class teaches
~ YA A C Is s U .S. Forest Service sponsored program for male and
fem ale youths age 18 to 23 w ho are high school drop outs and
unemployed.
self-defease
The conversation became animated when three
representatives from the Board for Service and Mission in
America of The American Lutheran Church (ALC) got
together during the constituting convention of the
Coalition of Black Members in the ALC. The Reverend
Kenneth Sanders (left) of Los Angeles and Galven Irby
(center) of Portland, Oregon, are both board members,
and the Reverend John Houck of Minneapolis is director of
the ALC division. The convention was held earlier this
month in St. Paul. Mr. Sanders was chaplain for the event.
(Photo: Paul Wychor)
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This is a FREE, guided tour for this group, and parents or
guardians are encouraged to com e along. The guides will e m
phasize the objectives o f the program In term s of career
preparation, com pletion of education, and the acquisition of
RELEVANT SKILLS
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Enroute, not only w ill ecenlc points of interest be pointed out,
but experts w ilt cite im portant examples of the N o rth w eet’e
grow ing and diversified econom y — and how im portant It Is
th a t urban youth be aw are of these trends In their career plan
ning.
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For registration and further inform ation call 221-2807 and ask
fo r M cK inley Burt or the YACC Representative. Register now to
be sure th a t you are included.
ALLEN TEMPLE CME CHURCH
i
( orner ol 8th and S kidm ore
1
Sunday School 9:30 a.m.
.Sunday W orship 11:00 a.m.
I
I
C hristian Y outh F e llo w s h ip 6:00 p.m.
(Second and F o urth Sundays)
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R eve re n d Thom as [,. St ray hand, M in is te r
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New Hope Missionary Baptist Church
CALDWELLS
REVEREND A. BERNARD DEVERS, PASTOR
THE CHURCH DESIGNED TO MEET YOIJR NEED
COLONIAL
Sunday School
M orning W orship
ATTEND CHURCH
THIS SUNDAY
Our 50th year of
personal service
to families
of all faiths.
9:34) a.m .
10:34) a.m
E ven ing Service 2nd. 4th and
5th Sundays
( om m union 1st Sunday
W ed. -- Fam ily P ra y e r M eeting
and Bible Study
F rid ay ■ Brotherhood
Fellow ship S ervice w ith
M o rn ing S ta r 3rd Sunday
P ra y e r and Pastor Phone 281-64 76
Church Phone 281-4)163
7:00 p.m
5:04) p.m.
7:34) p.m.
7:041 p.m.
3 7 2 5 N. Gantenbein Avenue, Portland, Oregon 9 7 2 2 7
N.fc. 14th Jf Sandy Hl\ J. & Hurn»id<
I’onlanJ.OR 972)2
l»«Yttft Mi II
D EFEN D OURSELVES, a program
o f fre e self-defense classes for Port-
land-area women, will begin offering
daytime and evening classes in early
September. Interested women may
call now to enroll. Self-defense in
structors will teach simple techniques
o f self-protection, escape, personal
defense, and a tta c k p re v e n tio n .
Classes will meet once a week for
eight weeks and will be held in the
gym nasium at Sunnyside U n ite d
Methodist Church, S .E . 35th and
Yamhill.
According to a spokeswoman for
D E F E N D O U R S E L V E S , “ many o f
us think we aren’t athletic’ enough
or ‘ strong’ enough to learn self-
defense, but you don’t need to know
karate or judo to avoid becoming a
victim of rape, assault, or battering
— your best p ro tectio n against
assault is immediate, firm refusal to
be intimidated.’ *
Call now to enroll at 236-9738 or
235-8726.
e
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You a r e Welcome to Worship at
232-4111
I HF. ARK OF SAFETY CHURCH OF GOO PEN TEC O STA L, INC.
ST. ANDREWS CATHOLIC CHURCH
1UGHE S M E M O R IA L U N IT E D M E T H O D IS t C H U R C H
•IV
806 N .E . A lb e rta S tre e t
R everend B ertram G riffin . Pastor
111 N.E. FAILING
W orship 11:1») a.m
10:04) a.m . C hoir
Sunday
12:01) p.m . Folk - Sunday
Church School 9:45 a.m
Office 281-2332
Specializ/ny In
Individual • Marriage and Family • Group Thtrapy
“T h e C hurch W h ere No S tra n g e r Feel« S trang e"
ST. ANDREW C O M M U N IT Y SCHOOL
491» N .E . 9th A ve.
N o rita K e lly , Principal
T.
'A warm spirit of fellowship always"
The Honorable Bishop D.V. Paterson, D.D. “The Holiness Preacher “ Pastor
Sunday:
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Sunday School
9:15 mn
Morning Worahlp
11:15 am
Showers of Blessings Broadcast”
YPB(R ,5 W
H » « « 12.30pm
Masses:
5:00 p m. V ig il - S atu rd ay
AUSTIN V »A» M IN IS T I*
D ial A P ra y e r 28-10 6 W
281 4129
Phone: 28 11 «20
Grade« I through 8
E van g elistic W orship
Tuesday-Friday
N
6:30 pm
8:00 pm
i Day Prayer
Tuesday:
Bible Band/Jr. Church
Wednesday:
7:30 pm
C h o ir R eh earsal
7:00 pth
Friday:
“T h e P aato r
‘-praks”
84 NE KiUingsworth
28144499
7:30 pm