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.
»