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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1978)
page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. September 7, 1978 In integration process We see the world through Black eyes An eight year record children's academic achievement or their social adjustment. The district still has no adequate multi-cultural curriculum and teachers still do not receive adequate training in human relations and in croes-cultural communications. Stand together for equity, understanding hv Herb Ht»rh L. I Cakilhnrni» by Cawlhurne After nearly ten months o f con tinuous research, the Com m unity Coalition for School Integration has released its preliminary findings. The “ discussion document" lists several items which are revealing. It also o f fers a set o f possibilities for change. The list o f facts w ill remain stable, while the possibilities arc subject to alteration. For the next tw o m onths, the C oalition w ill strive to fu lfill its commitment to return to the com m unity w ith rough ideas and preliminary options. The discussion process w ill involve several com m u n ity fo ru m s , lik e tow nhall meetings, w hich w ill be held in seven d iffe re n t high schools throughout the C ity. In addition, presentations w ill be made to all o f the C o a litio n 's 38 member organizations, as well as to the media, special interest groups, and concerned citizens. It is important that citizens in the Black community take part actively in this process. We have now a chance to be heard. O ur voice has been stifled before. We have here an op portunity to learn. Inform ation has been kept from us before. We have in this procedure a wonderful means to influence the treatment o f our children. This should be sufficient motivation. But i f it is not, the preliminary findings o f the Coalition's research committee should be the last bit o f persuasion required. 1. Racial Segregation S till Exists in Portland's Public Schools. Seven schools in the Black community have more than fifty percent m in o rity e nrollm ent; and, perhaps more noteworthy, eighty percent (36,000) o f the district's white students are “ racially isolated" in that they at tend schools w ith less than the average minority enrollment in the district. 2. Portland Is N o t In Compliance W ith State B oard o f E ducation Guidelines. The guidelines stipulate that schools with more than fifty percent m in o rity enrollm ent are “ racially isolated." Even with such massive changes as the removal o f grades and the offering o f magnet W hy are Black citizens so angry with Gladys McCoy? W hy are they fighting the popular image No one would hold Ms. McCoy solely respon that Ms. McCoy speaks for Blacks? In 1970. while sible for the district's failures. But has her pre running for the School Board position she now holds. Ms. McCoy told the Oregonian of her can sence on the Board had a positive effect? Ms. McCoy has not served the "watch dog" role that didacy: "I want to state that my most urgent reason is to represent on the School Board a one might have expected of the only Black mem ber and she has not provided leadership on the voice for the community, therefore unheard and too little acknowledged." Board in any of the areas of special concern to Black citizens. Has the Black community been heard and acknowledged through the efforts of Ms. M c Two issues face the Board this week and in Coy? Judging from the facts about the education both cases, Ms. McCoy's role has been negative. of Black children reported last week by the The Board will appoint an individual to fill a Board Community Coalition for School Integration, one vacancy. Ms. McCoy's role has been to select the would have to say no. Judging from the hostile appointee and extract from the other Board and flippant attitude of certain School Board members their agreement to appoint her can members and administrators during the past year didate. With the Board agreeing that a minority — a year marked by controversy over racial would be desirable, Ms. McCoy did not seek issues — one would have to say no. the advice and guidance of Black citizens who It was in 1970 th at a Coalition of Black have expressed an interest and concern in the organizations called a boycott and filed a court schools, but chose to speak for them — behind suit charging discrimination in discipline. This ac closed doors. The other matter of immediate concern is a tion led to some policy changes, but in 1977 the Minority Business Enterprise proposal that Ms. U .S . Departm ent of Health, Education and McCoy has presented to the Board for its accep Welfare found that the district was discriminating tance. Although she met with minority contractors against Black students in suspensions and ex pulsions and threatened to w ithdraw federal to hear their ideas, the proposal she submitted has funds if the situation was not amended. This year, no resemblence to their request. This proposal, however, does not deal with the 1978, information provided by the school district to the Comm unity Coalition for School In need for the district to adjust its contracting tegration shows that during the last school year procedures to allow for inclusion of minority con in some schools with minority percentages of less tractors and vendors. It defines "m in o rity than tw en ty percent, half of the students business" as any business with fifty percent minority managers, or six percent minority crafts suspended were minorities. In 1970 Dr. Blanchard told the City Club that he men, so does not deal with minority o w n e d would recommend the closure of inner city business. Now "Minority Business Enterprise" is schools and that the buildings be used for Early defined by the federal and state government, as Childhood Education Centers and other pur well as others, to mean businesses that are fifty poses. Over the objections of Black parents, percent or more o w ned by minorities. So in af schools have now been stripped of their upper fect what Ms. McCoy is attempting to do is use grades and the children living in those school minorities to make it look like the district is doing areas scattered throughout the district in num something for minorities that it is not. The factual information gathered by the Com bers so small as to isolate Black children in white m unity Coalition fo r School Integration is schools. It was in 1970 in response to Dr. Blancnard's shocking in its indictment of the school district. "Schools for the City" program, that the NAACP One can only wonder why the Board's only Black protested the district's plan to allow continued member has remained so silent. It can be said that Ms. McCoy has done no segregation in grades one through five in Albina's worse than many other Board members. That is t elementary schools. In 1970 seven schools were true. But when she was elected, Black people A quiet revolution has been taking over fifty percent Black. And in 1978, seven hoped she would have a special sensitivity to the place in American politics over the schools are over fifty percent Black in grades one past few years. This revolution has problems of Black students, that she would be through five. tended to be overshadowed by such How much progress has been made in the last close to the com m unity — hearing and ex hotly debated issues as C alifornia’s eight years, and what has been the effect on pressing its concerns, that she would ask the tax lim itation measure, the Bakke right questions to reveal inequities, that she case and the resurgence o f the so- Black students? After fourteen years of desegre would be a bold voice speaking out on behalf of called New Right. gation, the district has no information to assess U ntil a few years ago, Africa was the im pact of its desegregation effo rts on a community that is still "unheard and too little still pretty much a mystery continent. acknowledged." program s fo r early childhood education, seven schools arc above that percentage. 3. Desegregation in Portland Is N ot Equitable. Nearly 33 percent of the Black students are getting on busses every day to attend a school outside their neighborhood. Only two percent o f the whites do so. O f the 900 whites involved, 400 are enrolled in the E arly C hildhood Education Centers (ECEC). And most o f these arc concentrated in the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms at Eliot, Vernon, Hum boldt, King, and other schools in the predom inately Black com m unity. However, “ the d r o p -o ff rate o f bused in white students produces a s itu a tio n where the upper grade levels at these ECECs still remain highly segregated,” asserts the Coalition. For example, at the Pre- K indergarten grade level, King school is fifty percent whites. They are bused. At the third grade. King has only two percent whites who are bused. The C oalition found that, w hile the creation o f ECECs displaced 800 students from the Black com m unity, the magnet program has also “ increased the educational options for the white community while reducing those op tions for the Black community.” 4. Desegregation Is N ot Totally Voluntary. Although it is promoted as though it is, the voluntary transfer program is not voluntary for many Black students No grade level exists in neighborhood schools for more than 800 Black students. W ith no grades to attend, they were forced to transfer. That’s not voluntary. 5. Desegregation Scatters and Isolates. Black students are bused all over the system. Even to the person most sympathetic to the management problems school personnel have, it is hard to excuse the scattering and isolation o f Blacks. The desegregation workers, who claim to be the ad vocates fo r Black students, have been silent. One wonders what their advocacy is worth. The children iron King, for instance, are scattered to 39 different schools. The 44 children from Eliot attend twenty different schools. Clearly some are scattered by grade level. Third grade students, for example, from Humboldt go to thirteen different schools. Indeed, Coalition research indicates that “ a sig n ifica n t number o f transfer students fin d themselves fn classrooms with no friend or peer from their neighborhood." 6. A D is p ro p o rtio n a te ly H tg h Numbei o f Transfer Students Are Suspended or Expelled. In a survey conducted by an independent research organization, 33 percent of the Black transfer students indicated they had been either suspended or expelled. Admittedly, suspension is less drastic thun expulsion. It may be unwise to speak o f the two in the same breath. Nevertheless, there is reason to be alarmed, even though the district has tightened its procedures a fte r a recent investigation by the U.S. O f fice o f Civil Rights. This constitutes only a brief listing o f some o f the findings. There are others which deserve your attention. They focus on a variety o f concerns, including those in vo lvin g achievement, white flight, teacher training, affirm ative action, along with legal and legislative constraints. The “ discussion document” also contains possibilities fo r an im proved program. It is worth your time to read it. The history o f desegregation reveals that a special burden has been placed on the Black com m unity. Consequently, in this discussion process, the Black com m unity shoulders a unique obligation to rec tify a situation which does damage to our children. What has been found is extremely detrimental. In some cases, it's disgraceful. The C o a litio n 's discoveries serve to prove that a passive people gain very little . Schools have been changed, grades removed, children disbursed and scattered, and teachers separated. Now is the time to participate in the dialogue. The Board o f Education is listening. They have been cooperative throughout the Coalition's development. The school administration needs to hear your thoughts. The time is now to insist on equity and on a better oppor tunity for interracial understanding. America’s quiet revolution The o n ly news we ever got was p ro b a b ly an occasional, one paragraph story on page 27 about a coup d'ete somewhere in A frica . Even today, very few people can 1st Place p o in t out Benin, Rwanda or Community Servies Swaziland on the map. This was ONPA 1*73 because the all powerful media had la t i decided that A fric a was small Beet Ad Resulta potatoes. ONPA 1*73 Come 1974 and 1973 and the Published every Thursday by E x it Publishing Company, 2201 North P A IO C in Guinea Bissau, Kilhngsworth, Portland, Oregon 97217. M ailing address: P .O . Box Sth Placa 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208 Telephone: 283-2486 F R E L IM O in M ozam bique and Best Editorial M P LA in Angola threw out the Por NNPA 1*73 Subscriptions $7.50 per year in the Tri-County area. $8 00 per year tuguese and suddenly the w hite outside Portland Honorable Mention power structure was threatened. Herrick Editorial Award Most o f us African affairs fanatics Second Claes Postage Paid et Portiand. Oregon NNA 1*73 are w ell aware o f the n otorious NSSM memorandum No. 39. What The Portland Observer's official position is expressed only in its 2nd Place Publisher’s column (W e See The W orld Through Black Eyes). Any is said, in a nutshell, was that the Beet Editorial other material throughout the paper is the opinion o f the individual W hite regimes in Southern A frica 3rd Placa writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion o f the were there to stay and that what the Community Leadership Portland Observer ONPA 1*76 U.S. should do is pay lip service to the liberation movements while con National Advertising Representative 3rd Place tin u in g to support the m in o rity Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. Community Leadership New York regimes economically. ONPA 1*78 The defeat of the Portuguese less six months after this memo was released put a hole in this theory the MEMMk size o f Clackamas county. The Oregon ‘domino theory’ whereby the fall of Newspaper Publishers one country would trigger a chain AMOciaben - founded 11 Association V reaction was back in vogue again. Now nobody doubts the fact that both Zimbabwe and Namibia should be able to throw o ff the colonial -solves within a year, at most. Even South A fric a , w hich somebody in Tri —County A re a O th e r called the “ go d fa th e r o f the m in o rity , racist re g im e s", is no longer regarded as invincible. A ll this activity has spilled over in PORTLAND OBSERVER to the U.S. o f A. where, since the an P.O. Box 3137 ti-w a r and c iv il rights dem on Portland. OR. 9720U strations o f the 60’s, there has been a kind o f vacumn. The victories o f the Africans have triggered a whole new wave o f support. Once more, Blacks across the country are rallying to the aid o f their brothers and sisters PORTLAND OBSERVER ALFREDL HENDERSON Editor/Publia her X NêWAp $7.50 Nam e Address City $ 8.00 by N. Fungai K um bula across the big water. A num ber o f A fric a support groups have sprung up all across the country from Seattle to Los Angeles, San Francisco to New York, Chicago to M obile and they are becoming very active. The American Friends Service Committee just concluded a Southern A frica Summer program w ith a conference in Allenspark, Colorado and all the participants in the program agreed that the ter mination o f the program would by no means mean the end o f their Southern African involvement. Hcte, in the Portland area, we have just had a summer that seemed to be w h o lly devoted to A fric a . There was the very successful Africa Liberation Day May 27th (successful in spite o f the rain!). It, for the first tim e, was planned, organized, publicized and carried out entirely by the Black com m unity. Then there was the Oregon investment Council hearings at which several people urged the OIC to divest itself forth with o f all OSBHE stock in com panies that continue to cooperate with apartheid. Also there was the rigorous op position to the visit to Portland of the South African ambassador in the U.S. In this, even though the Black and white groups involved worked from different angles, they had the same goal and their strategies com plimented. Such classic Southern A frica n film s and slide shows as 'Last Grave at Dimbaza,' ‘ A Luta Continua,' ‘ South Africa: Freedom Rising,’ 'South Africa: The Rising T id e ,’ 'T here Is No C ris is ’ and 'Banking On Apartheid' were shown over and over again. A t the government level, the City C ouncil voted and passed a resolution discouraging the sale of the Kruggerrand in Portland. When the NAAC P came to town, one of their resolutions it considered was a call for economic sanctions against South A fric a — a p o sitio n the organization had never endorsed before. The last activity o f the sum mer that I participated in was South A fric a n W om en’ s Day, an event which everyone agreed was the high point o f the whole summer. The group, P o rtla n d Citizens Against Racism, has worked very closely w ith AFSC on all our Southern African Summer programs and has also been the m ainstay behind our “ C lothing D rive” — collecting clothing for the refugees displaced by the wars in Southern Africa. They are now living in such financially strained countries as Bots wana, Zambia and Mozambique. Similar activities have been taking place throughout the summer in such places as Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Mobile, P h ila d e lp h ia , K a la m a z o o (M ich ig a n ), Greensboro and C harleston (South C a ro lin a ), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Youngstown (O h io ), D e tro it, etc. Not to be overlooked are the efforts o f the Congressional Black Caucus. In Los Angeles, one Musekiwa Kumbula, a student from Zimbabwe is forming a Pan African Students Union which would be focusing its attention on African affairs as they relate to the U.S. I have been invited to help launch an A frican Study Group in Portland and this would be “ A frican” in its broader sense when it refers to all people o f A frican o rig in . N ot only w ould this organizatio n focus a tte n tio n on events in the M otherland but it would also look into such local issues as housing, redlining, jobs, police — community relations, the family, etc. etc. This is one area where the Africa support groups need to strengthen themselves — building local ties and dem onstrating that the struggle taking place in Africa is not at all removed from the struggle in which we are all involved right here. The enemy’ s m o tto is: “ D ivide and C onque r” — Ours should be: “ Unite and Trium ph.” P.S. And we all heard about the Vanderbilt (Texas) University Davis Cup matches between South Africa and the United States which were so disastrous — there were more demonstrators than spectators — that the Vanderbilt University o f ficials really admitted they would never do it again. Not only was it a financial disaster, it was also very bad publicity and who needs that???
