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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 1978)
Educating the Board of Education PORTLAND O B SER /ER Volum e g No. 81 Thursday, Decem ber 21,1878 10c per copy Coalition challenges Blanchard T w o Section« Harry Ward wins Peyton Award H arry C . Ward has been named (he recipien t o f the 6th A n n u a l Russell A . Peyton Award, which is aw arded by the M e tro p o lita n Hum an Relations Commission for outstanding contribution to human relations. W ard is perhaps best known for his three terms as President o f the N A A C P and his current chairman ship o f the Community Coalition for School Integration. W a rd came to P o rtla n d fro m Tulsa, O klahom a in 1954. Having been active in the Y M C A in Tulsa, he looked for something to do to fill the void. “ The Y here wasn’t doing much. The N A A C P wasn’t either, but I decided to run for President.“ W ard was elected for the 1961-1962, and the 1963-1964 terms. He also filled an unexpired term in 1968. One o f the most serious problems for Blacks in Portland was employ ment. Under W ard ’s leadership the N A A C P began contactin g chain stores — those that had stores in the Albina area and did not hire Blacks. “ W e went to Kienows first, and they agreed to hire im m ed iately. D an Kicnow was very cooperative. H e was a real Christian.” Safeway was not so easy. “ We had our signs made and were ready to picket the next day, but Safeway asked fo r 24 hours. T h en they decided to hire and we didn’ t have to picket. Fred Meyer was the worst. We boycotted them for four months before they finally hired.’’ C on tinen tal Bakery, located in Albina, also did not hire Blacks un til approached by the N A A C P , Jim Thompson, who is now a supervisor, was the first hired. Another struggle was against the H ousing A u th o rity o f P o rtla n d . Which at that time was operating largely segregated housing. H A P sought to build a low-income project in the heart o f the Albina district. " W e saw it as further segregation — building a housing unit for Blacks.” Strong opposition from the N A A C P and other Black organizations stop ped the project. W ard’s biggest fight as President o f the N A A C P was with the Port land School Board. In A pril o f 1962, the N A A C P p oin ted out to the Board that the Portland schools were segregated and asked fo r desegregation. " I was really naive,” W ard explained, " I thought when we advised them that the schools were segregated, they would just go ahead and correct it.” Instead the Board a n g rily denied the segregation existed. A fte r fu rth e r N A A C P pressure the Board appointed the “ Race and Education Com m ittee,” chaired by Judge Hubert Schwab, a former Board member. The N A A C P had no representation in the commit tee. The Race and Education Com m it tee found segregation in the Portland schools and made recommendations for its remedy: a limited number o f Adm inistrative Transfers (transfers at the Principal’s request o f students who w ould b en efit fro m deseg re g a tio n ); V o lu n ta ry . T ra n s fe rs , students transferred at their parents request and expense; Compensatory E d u c a tio n in “ M o d e l S c h o o ls ,” schools now not only segregated by race but separated administratively. “ The N A A C P stood alone in op posing the Race and E d u catio n Com m ittee. Bill McClendon spoke for the N A A C P explaining that the plan was unjust that it further segre gated Black children, and that it would not be successful. " O f course we were right, because here we are, sixteen years la te r, fig h tin g the same issues. I am especially disappointed in Jonathan Newman, who was a member o f ‘The Committee o f 100’ which supported the N A A C P ’s call for desegregation. I am disappointed that he has not supported a m ore e q u ita b le desegregation program.” “ Education is one o f my most vital interests. Some people wonder why I am so concerned ab ou t education when I have no children. But our children are our futures and their education is very im portant. We can’t allow the ‘silent lynching’ as 1 call it. Although there have been great gains in em p lo ym en t and housing — and 1 think in attitudes — there has been no change in HARRY C. W A R D education. The injustices children have to suffer in the schools are tra u m a tic experiences and it is something we have to deal w ith .” A fter leaving the Presidency W ard remained an active N A A C P board member. One o f the em ploym ent fights he began was continued under President M ayfield K . W ebb, that with the longshore unions. Because Blacks were denied union member ship, the N A A C P p ic k e tte d the docks and involved national union president H arry Bridges and Senator Wayne Morse. Some Blacks became members and a suit filed by others who sought employment was suc cessful nearly ten years later. As a board member. W ard picketed teh P ortlan d Post O ffic e fo llo w in g a complaint filed by Tom Vickers, who became President in 1967. “ The Post O ffic e had refused to p ro m o te B la c k s ,” so we file d a suit and picketed fo r several weeks. T h a t issue was also decided in favor o f thé Black employees. W a rd believes great steps have been made in the field o f employ ment. “ Few o f the m ajor companies hired Blacks then, now most do. You can see a great change since the early ‘60s.” W ard was elected chairman o f the Community Coalition for School In- (Please turn to page 2 col. 1) Photos: George Page Minority Contractors program sponsors job fair The Northwest M inority Contrac tors Association’ s Youth Em ploy ment Program held a Job Fair for youth last F rid a y . T he Y o u th Program, which is funded through the State o f Oregon, places young people in jobs and training positions. Among those participating were: Fred M e y e r Savings and Loan; Emanuel Hospital, U.S. Forest Ser vice, C ity o f Portland, U .S . Ban- co rp /U .S . Bank, The Oregon Bank, U.S. A rm y Corps o f Engineers, U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Seminars expia The Oregon Bureau o f Labor will hold a free Equal Employment O p p o rtu n ity and W'age and H o u r Seminar in North Portland as a con tin u a tio n o f the bureau’ s N eig h borhood Business Assistance Pro gram. The workshop, aimed at helping the smaller employer in North and Northeast Portland, will be held at the University o f Portland, Buckley Center. 5000 N. Willamette Boule vard, Decem ber 27th , fro m 9:00 a.m . to 4:00 p.m. Bell, Portland Job Corps Center, Boost Educational Talent Search, U .S . C ustom s Service, In te rn a l Revenue Service, Associated General C o n tra c to rs , Associated Builders and Contractors. Speakers included Curtis Ramsey, Youth Em ploym ent and T rain in g Program (Y T E P ) Recruiter; Lewis C a rre ll, Y E T P C oo rd in ato r; W ill A rc h e r, Associated Builders and C o n tra c to rs ; D on S tiffle r , A d ministrator, State Manpower Plan ing, and Noble Deckard, State Em ployment Service. Following the discussions, young people were invited to meet represen tatives o f the participating firms and when applicable to com plete ap plications for employment. Calling the Job Fair a huge success, N M C A Executive Director Eugene Jackson said 47 new clients were enrolled in the program, bringing enrollment to 84 persons. T he purpose o f the Y ou th Program is to place minority youth - the most underemployed group in the state — in m e a n in g fu l em ployment. to o k place this fa ll when Beaumont was designated a middle school, with Beaumont lower graders transferred to Alameda rather than to Sabin. A n o th e r exam ple o f refusal to “ inconvenience” white parents hap pened when the Coalition revealed that forms used for Administrative Transfer students required that the child stay in the new attendence area tho ug h high school w h ile w hite parents sending children to ECEs did not have the same re q u ire m e n t. Rather than ask the same commit ment from whites that it had from B lacks, the d is tric t changed the forms to encourage that the child re main in tahe new school through the grades offered. “ It is clear that ther is a behavior policy that says whites will not be assigned to schools close to 50 per cent Black.” It would be possible to use middle school reorganization to desegregate but that would mean assigning whites to m ajority Black schools. D r. Blanchard had stated that only 7.3 per cent o f the Black students are bussed involuntarily from school where no grade level is available for them and to him this was a minor problem. H e therefore charged that the Coalition proposal to meet this problem was an “ over reaction” . M s . Beach exp lain ed th a t the Coalition is not only concerned with the 351 students (a lth o u g h it disagrees with the num ber), but is deeply concerned about the 1,767 c h ild re n in p re d o m in a te ly B lack elem entary schools and the 1,413 vo lu n tary transfer students. Aside from the scattering and isolation of transfer students, how m any are really voluntary? I f Black students must be recruited to leave the Albina schools to make room for white Kin derg arten and p ie -K in d e rg a rte n children, is it realy voluntary? I f there is no room for a voluntary transfer student to return to his schoo, is it really voluntary? “ I f you have to do what you volunteer to do, then ‘volunteer’ is in question.” “ When you understand all that we are addressing you will understand it is not an over reaction,” she told the School Board. Ms. Beach also challenged Blan chard’s statement that the logistics o f pairing are “ perhaps unsolvable” . She told the Board, “ I need to say that the in fo rm a tio n you receive from the district is not always ac curate enough fo r you to «use for reflection and decision m aking.” She refuted the Superintendent’ s statement that 15,000 students would have to be bussed to pair schools at a 7 0 /3 0 ra tio . B lanchard later a d mitted that he had counted all o f the children in the schools involved, not just those that would be bussed. The coalition estimates ap proxim ately 5,000. She also advised that there would be no need to attempt to put all 15,000 o f those students into the seven A lbina schools, a fete Blan chard had called impossible, but that only the number necessary to balance the schools would need to be trans ferred. She also challenged the 7 0 /3 0 ratio since the district s current policy for the Albina schools is 50/50 (Please turn to page 2 col. 6) The Challenge of the Eighties by H erb L . Cawthorne (The following is an address to the Portland C ity Club o f December 15, 1978.) The Era of M atu re Discussion Tw o years ago, on the pages o f the Oregonian, I wrote in a critical tone that in Portland the assumption is that “ r desegregation program is best managed when public discussion and ed u c a tio n are kept to a m inim um .” I had quietly observed that, when it came to the integration process, the community was unin formed. Parents were confused and unsure about both the rationale and the process o f desegregation. M any teachers were infected with miscon ceptions. The integration thrust o f the district, lacking the unifying ef fect o f open com m unication, was fra g m e n te d and piece-m eal and poorly managed. W ith in this atm osphere o f calculated silence, the Black com munity was made to suffer drastic alterations in its schools. Its children were scattered and isolated throughout the city, m an y-o f them forced to take the bus to schools far away from their homes. Quietly, so that the white people o f Portland would hardly know what had hap pened, the Portland School District pursued a plan which sought to ad dress the elusive notion o f “ racial is o la tio n .” M y comments o f two years ago are no longer applicable today. W h e th e r the assum ption has changed or not, the district can no longer operate as though this com m u n ity is not m ature enough to discuss forthrightly the complicated issues o f school desegregation. The chief credit for this positive change belongs to the Com munity Coalition f o r School Integration. A Brief History of Desegregation The concern over racial segrega tion and the need fo r integration in the Portland Public Schools can be traced to the early Sixties. On A p ril 20, 1962, the Portland Chapter o f the N A A C P charged that racial segregation existed and was a detriment to the aspirations o f Black youth. In 1963, after fifteen months o f study, the Committee on Race and E d u c a tio n was u n eq u ivo cal in reporting that " O u r studies indicate th at o ur schools in th e ir present e d u c a tio n a l practices are not achieving their purpose for students from culturally deprived circumstances and this is particularly true for Negro students." In response, the Board o f E d u c a tio n set fo rth policies to achieve a reduction in the racial is o la tio n o f c h ild re n , as w ell as reduced class sizes, and g reater e d u c a tio n a l o p p o rtu n itie s fo r children in need. In 1970, with the advent o f the "Schools for the Seventies” plan, the voluntary programs stimulated by th e C o m m itte e on Race and Education were drastically altered. The “ Schools fo r the Seventies” plan , a fte r little m ore than three months o f public discussion, man dated two m ajor components o f the desegregation program, which were: 1. A n A d m in is tra tiv e T ra n s fe r Program to encourage open enroll ment and avoid the concentration o f m inority students; 2. The creation o f Early Childhood Education Centers resulting from the elimination o f up per grades from all schools in the A lbina community. The inequity which exists today began in 1970 and was the result o f purposeful action on the part o f the Board o f Education. Since voluntary plans did not sufficiently desegregate the schools, involuntary plans were implemented — and the disruption o f such involuntary plans was forced upon the shoulders o f the very people least able to withstand the negative impact. T h e C o m m u n ity C o a litio n fo r School In te g ra tio n developed in response to a substantial concern, a concern that has festered beneath the surface o f our daily lives for nearly fifteen years. Coalition Research Hndings In an extensive research process, the Coalition found that the Port land School District discriminates against B lack students in the desegregation process. As a result o f grade elimination in the schools in the Black community, upper grade children were forced to take the bus to schools outside th e ir neig h borhood. In spite o f D r. R obert Blanchard’ s weak contention that w hite students have su bstantially shared the burden for desegregation, the fact is nearly 33 V« o f the Black school population is bused, while only 2Vo o f the white population travels to school for desegregation purposes. Not only are Black children asked to shoulder the burden, but they are scattered and isolated in a manner insensitive to sound e d u c a tio n a l goals. The 451 children from King, for example, are dispersed to 42 d if ferent schools. There is no chance for coordinated neighborhood in volvement. This unmanageable and thoughtless scattering is so obviously unfair and inequitable. It is even worse in light of the fact that much o f the transferring is forced. The district claims that 351 Black students are forced to attend schools outside their neighborhoods because (Please turn to page 2 col. 4) Community celebrates African Kwanza festival dance with Oregon labor laws.” The seminar w ill cover specific problem areas such as hiring, mater n ity b enefits, in ju re d w orkers, payroll records and recent changes in the laws that regulate the employer- employee relationship. Kwanza is a holiday based on the tra d itio n a l harvest ceremonies o f West A fric a . Kwanza is a Swahili word meaning “ first fruits.” Tradi tionally African people worked hard throughout the year planting and caring for their crops. When it was time to harvest their crops, African people held a big ce le b ra tio n . Everyone brought what they grew to contribute to the festivities. African people came together to share in the fruits o f collective work and enjoy the common rhythm, harmony and peace so deeply rooted in the spirit o f the community. Em ployers and other interested parties are invited to attend. To register for the class, contact the Bureau o f L a b o r’ s Technical Assistance Division at 1400 S.W . 5th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97201, or call 229 5087. During the late 1960’ s Ron Karen- za identified Kwanza as a holiday which reflected the richness o f the A frican past, present and future. The celebration o f Kwanza lasts for seven days, beginning December 26th and ending January 1st. Each equal opportunity laws T he neig h bo rh o o d assistance workshop is a spin-off o f the highly successful V io la tio n P reven tio n Program instituted by the Bureau two years ago. According to B ill Stevenson, L a b o r C om m issioner, “ The business community’s response to the initial program has been en thusiastic. I am hopeful that the ex tension o f this program to the neigh borhood level w ill s ig n ific a n tly benefit smaller employers, especially (hose who cannot justify hiring a full-time personnel officer, but must operate their businesses in accor T h e C o m m u n ity C o a litio n fo r School Integration responded M o n day evening to the rem arks o f Superintendent R obert Blanchard that the C oalition’s recommendation fo r p a irin g schools to achieve desegregation is an “ over reaction” to the problem and that it is “ un workable” Charging that the school district has an unwritten policy that no white students w ill be assigned to a m a jo rity B lack school, C o a litio n coordinator Oralee Beach challenged D r. B la n c h a rd ’ s c la im th at the reorganization for m iddle schools has placed the burden o f segregation more heavily on whites. “ For the first six years, white children bear n early a ll the burden of desegregation that resulted from the creation o f middle schools,” Blan chard said on December 11th. Ms. Beach prointed out that the creatio n o f m id d le schools in Southeast and Southwest Portland and the resulting transfer o f children has nothing to do with desegrega tion. In four cases m iddle schools have been organized on the fringes o f A lb in a and have p ro vid ed desegregated m id d le schools fo r some B lack c h ild re n . H o w e v e r, creation o f these middle schools has revealed that “ two-way assignments are not acceptable.” These middle schools provided an opportunity to desegregate m ajo rity Black school but the opportunity was not used. In each case the lower grade children in the attendence area o f the middle school (nearly all white), who had to be assigned to a new school were sent to white schools. The latest example day o f K wanza represents one o f “ the” Seven Principles o f Blackness, a Black value system developed by Ron Karenza. Each day o f Kwanza is dedicated to thinking about the significance o f each principle in our daily lives. Ac tivities are held each night to em phasize the value o f the day. The seven days o f Kwanza and the values that are acknowledged are: first day — U m oja — Unity; second day — Kujichagulia — Self Deter m inatio n ; th ird day — U jim a — Collective W o rk and Responsibility; fourth day — Ujim aa — Coopera tive Economics; fifth day — Nia — Purpose; sixth day — Kuumba — Creativity; seventh day — Im ani — Faith. On the last day o f Kwanza a big celebration is held. This is a time for Black people to come together and make jo yfu l noises, give thanks and enjoy the blessing o f living and act ing together to strengthen the com munity. Black people in P o rtla n d have celebrated Kwanza for the past six years, and again it is time to collec tively celebrate this holiday. Kwanza is a time for Black people to acknow ledge the progress made through hard work in the community and set even higher goals for progress in the future. Kwanza is a real example o f the tr a d itio n a l u n ity which has existed am ong B lack people th ro u g h o u t h is to ry . K w a n za ex presses the true nature o f Black people sharing and working together for the positive development o f the Black community. For further inform ation on Kwan za please stop by the Talking Drum Bookstore today, located at 1634 N .E . Alberta Street. »
