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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1979)
4 Three white women nominated for School Board ' W W ■ A screening com m ittee o f the Portland School Board has nom i nated three white women to till a va cancy on the School Board. The screening committee, comprised o f Jonathan Newman, Joe Rieke and Bill Scott nominated Helen Casey, Sarah Newhall and Paul-ne Ander son. Rejected by the screening commit tee were five Black candidates. Herb Cawthorne, Portland State Univer sity educator who has strong support >'n the Black com m unity, received ■ . Scott's vote. Newman and Rieke questioned Cawthorne closely about his involvement in the Black United Front and its proposed boycott o f the public schools and neither voted for him. Newman and Rieke voted for Ms. Brenda Green, personnel director for the Northeast Regional T ra inin g Lab, but Scott would not. The compromise reached between Cawthorne, a Black man, and Ms. Green, a Black woman, was Pauline Anderson. Pauline Anderson, who lives at the Oregon Yacht Club, is the wife of Lloyd Anderson, executive director o f the P o rt o f P o rtla n d . She is currently a housewife, but previous ly was em ployed by the school district as a seventh and eighth grade teacher at Irv in g to n and P o rts mouth. She has also worked as a physical therapist at the Crippled C h ild re n ’ s D iv is io n . She is a graduate o f Linfield College. Mrs. Anderson is a member o f Schools for the City, the Governor’s Commission on Youth, the Portland Youth Advocate Board, the Fruit and Flow er C h ild Care Center Board, and AC LU . Her children at tended Fernw ood, G ra n t and Adams. Helen Casey lives in the Laurel- hurst school district. She is a home maker and freelance w rite r. Her child re n attend L a u re lh u rst and Fernwood and previously attended Humboldt ECE and Hayhurst. She has tutored and taught Literature. She has a Master’ s degree from PSU _ in English. Mrs. Casey was a member o f the Board fo r the League o f Women Voters and is that o rganization’ s representative in the C om m unity C oa litio n fo r School Integration. She is a member o f the Laurelhurst Citizen Advisory Committee and the Fernwood C u rric u lu m Review Committee. Sarah N ew hall, w ho lives in Southwest Portland, is a coordinator for the Youth Service Centers o f the City o f Portland. She previously was PORTLAND OBSERVER r Snnthwe« director n f o ih f the Southwest Youth Ser vice Center, Assistant Director o f the M etropolitan Youth Commission, and a resident advisor for the Job Corps. She has a Master’ s degree in Public Administration from PSU. She has served on the Governor’ s Commission on Youth, the AC LU , the United Way Board, the Citizens fo r Children Board and the G irl Scout Boatd. The School Board w ill hold a public meeting on August 6th, at (Please turn to page J col. 3) Volum« 9 No. 29 Thursday, July 26. 1979 W USPS959 680 City re-purchases Dekum Court playground The Portland City Council voted Wednesday to purchase four lots ad jacent to Dekum Court public hous ing project to provide play space for project children. The lots had been sold by The Housing Authority o f P o rtla n d , which operates the project, to a private developer strip ping the 40 unit project o f play and recreation space. The lots are to be purchased at a cost o f $13,000 each, approximately twice the price paid for them about a year ago. The Concordia Neighbor hood Association and The Dekum C o u rt Tenants A ssociation had asked H AP to retain the property, but when it was sold, turned to the City for help. The Neighborhood As sociation asked the City Council to purchase the lots w ith federal Housing and Community Develop ment money designated fo r the neighborhood. The developer, J.B. Brayson, agreed to wait a year for the City to act. By the time the plan ning process was completed, d if fering assessments, in fla tio n , developm ent and finance costs brought the cost to the point that the money set aside by the City would purchase four rather than ten lots. Brayson agreed to donate one lot if four lots to the east o f the com m unity center b uilding were pur chased. The Council voted unanimously (Ms. Schwab was absent) to purchase the four lots available, but to attempts to negotiate to purchase two lots on each side o f the building rather than four on one side. Commissioner Frank lvancie. who made the motion to buy, also indi cated that City staff should discuss the possibility o f purchasing ad ditional lots. The decision culminated over two years work for the Neighborhood A ssociation and the Tenants O rga niza tion w hich o rig in a lly blocked H A P ’s plan to build addi tional public housing units on this and adjoining property, then persuaded the City to downzone the property for single unit housing prior to its sale. When they discovered the property line had been drawn so close to the project that the only remaining play space was a steep slope and the recreation building would be surrounded on three sides by new houses, the organization turn ed to the Mayor for help. The vote Wednesday was consider ed a small victory for the group who consider the acquisition o f four to five lots on the extreme east end o f the project as unacceptable since small children could not be observed from the apartments at the other end o f the project. They consider ten lots Boycott Update OAU addresses conflicts, elects Tolbert M O N R O VIA L IB E R IA - The Or ganization o f African Unity, which recently held its 16th summit con ference here, is an extraordinary and impressive organization in wo»ld politics. Africa is the only continent in the world where such a large number o f heads o f separate and soverign states convene every year in serious deliberation to deal with the complex p o litic a l and economic problems facing this new frontier. Older people such as Bob Ellis, a Portland d raftsm an , bring w ith them not only experience but also a quiet dignity. Program hires older workers bv J e ff Petersen Throughout Seleta Gantt’ s life— through hardship and laughter—she has stored in her heart the words to a song she heard as a child, “ If you live right, heaven belongs to you." But upon retiring to the “ quiet life” the self-described “ bundle o f energy" nearly lost faith. When she returned to Portland from Los Angeles in 1972, after being away for 24 years, the then 68- year-old great grandm other went about looking for a job to occupy her time. “ I tried to find work downtown in the department stores,” she says. “ They w o u ld n ’ t even take my name.” r Bob Ellis, a 79-year-old Portland carpenter, faced a similar problem. A lte r an operation his doctor ad vised the tall, thin man with lights in his eyes and a quick laugh to slow down and recuperate or face the con sequences. Ellis slowed down but never stop ped. But with more spare time than he had ever experienced, E llis became depressed and frustrated. The fru stra tio n doubled when he went to look for work. “ I went to several places, picked up a pp lica tion s and looked at them,” he says, "a nd they said, ‘ We don’t hire anyone over 65.’ I picked them up but never filled them o u t.” Keeping occupied became harder (Please turn to page 12 column 1) Some o f the hundreds o f journa lists from around the world spent their leisure moments on the eve o f the 16th summit trying to access the political value, clout, impact and progress o f the OAU. One English correspondent who has covered the last fo u r O A U meetings, obsetved: "T h e fact that the OAU is still functioning and has been able to maintain the respect and active involvement and support o f more than 40 African heads o f state, in spite o f the immense diversity and staggering problems, represents, I think, a remarkable achievement.’ ’ This great c u ltu ra l, racial, religious and economic diversity con tributes to barriers in communica tions and compounds political d if ferences and conflicts. OAU countries in North Africa in clude Egypt, A lg e ria , M orocco, Libya, and Mauritania. The Egyp tian-Israeli Peace Treaty has resulted in oper.lv hostile relations with Libya and other A rab states. A lg e ria , Morocco and M auritania are em broiled in a heated controversy over the Western Sahara, the form er Spanish C olony now divided be tween Morocco and Mauritania. The East A frica n c o n flic t over T anzania's involvem ent in over throwing ex-Ugandan President Idi A m in flared up at the opening session o f the O A U sum m it. Sudanese President Gaafar Numeiri, (Please turn to page 12 col. 5) Northeast Coalition asks new hospital study The Northeast Coalition o f Neigh borhoods asked the Veterans A d ministration to withdraw its recently released D raft Environmental Im pact Statement on siting for the new veterans hospital. John Hills said the DEIS is a fraud and is a pretence to comply with a request to support a decision that has already been made - to place the hospital on M arquam H ill. "T h e D ra ft E n viro nm e nta l Im pact Statement is supposed to be an envir onmental report, to determine en vironmental impact on the areas in volved.” The facts in the report he called inaccurate, w ith no comparisons drawn between the Marquam H ill site and the proposed Emanuel Hospital site. The study indicates that quality o f care o f patients would be better at the Marquam H ill site because it is adjacent to the Univer sity o f Oregon Health Science Cen ter, but H ill called this a subjective decision which fails to deal directly with the issues o f quality care. The "p a th e tic analysis o f economic e ffe c t” says that the Veterans H osp ital at Emanuel "w o u ld be consistent in a passive rather than an active way.” Proponents o f the Emanuel site claim the VA hospital would enhance economic development and fu lfill the promises made to the community when homes were cleared from the area for hospital development. The C oa litio n also found fault with the study’ s lack o f cost/benefit analysis and its attempt to compare the costs o f a h ospital at the Marquam H ill site and a hospital/ outpatient clinic at Emanuel. "There is no evidence o f a fair and impartial study,” H ill said, calling for a new study. “ There is no way it could stand a legal test.” Some thoughts on the problem bv William H. .McClendon* ' Black people cannot be protected by American law, fo r we have no fra n ch ise in this co un try. I f anvthiny, we suffer double indem nity: We have no law o f our own and no protection fro m the law o f white America, which by its intention and by the very nature o f the cultural values which determined it. is inim i cal to blackness. " Robert Chrisman I he Black Scholar PART II Clear evidence o f the truth o f the previous statement is to be seen in the Portland School District’ s policy governing the busing o f Black students and the Departm ent o f Health, Education and V elfare's support fo r it. Tb> brings fo rth Marcus Garvey’ s su met analysis o f what the Black ra p u la tio n must never forget. ” 1 America there is no law but o gth; no justice but power.” The educational climate in School District Number One is notorious for its institutionalized hostility toward Black students. This is consistent with the racist attitudes prevalent in every other sector o f the larger com munity. A few Black analysts have contended fo r an inte rm in a b le period that the worst consequences ot any education for Black children A nalysis are not those which result fro m teachers with limited skills, but the subtle, overt and insidious abuses imposed upon Black children when they are exposed to the uncontrolled contempt symbolized by and con tained in the school board and ad ministration directed transportation program. Following the objections and planned boycott o f Portland Public Schools by the Black United Front on this matter, the response of Superintendent Robert Blanchard has convinced a large body o f people that the privileges the Superintendent has enjoyed to castigate and insult Black people and to stigmatize Black children must be taken away. In ad dition the school board is deserving o f vituperation and critical evalua tion. It should be distrusted for as long as it avoids coming to grips w ith exhibitions o f disrespect in words and deeds tow ard Black people by the school administration. The Black United Front does not seek the approbation o f white defend ers o f white racism and is not fasci nated nor hypnotized by any pretend ed school board concern fo r the welfare o f Black students. I f there had been any minimal interest in pro viding equitable education and ser vices to all students without any o f the customary inequities being direct ed blatantly at Blacks, the problems that now exist would never have de veloped. The w ordy lamentations from Thomas, McElroy, McNamara and all o f their collaborating sen tim entalists is badly m isdirected Their immediate efforts now should be to provide an educational en vironment that in real honesty can be recognized as deserving o f Black at tendance and support. The truth o f the existing condition is that racist attitudes such as are manifested in the operation o f the present busing pro gram and the arrangement o f middle schools are widespread and unre strained. so much so that the best level o f emotional and physical com fo rt for Black students is experienced outside o f the academic perimeter. Superintendent Blanchard’ s a rri val in Portland was viewed by some Blacks as a tragedy. His earlier rhetorical utterances (at an NAACP m eeting th rough the PSU John Cramer lecture) alienated thinking Blacks and stimulated feelings o f disgust and anger. In the years since, he has seemed incapable o f doing a nyth ing other than rem inding Blacks and reassuring whites that he is adept at making eerie and weird noises indicating that white racism is alive and well. It is obvious now that the chief announcement contained in his Schools for the Seventies agenda was that the education fo r Black children was not to be improved. Under the guise o f ending segrega tion the school administration has transported groups o f Black students to schools predominantly populated by w hite students. There are in numerable reports o f many o f these Blacks becoming the immediate tar gets o f white negativism, ostracism, poor teaching, inadequate counsel ing and other harassments common to these strange settings. To put it m ildly, the Blacks find such place ments unpleasant and confusing and very difficult to establish intergroup and/or intragroup rapport As now practiced, the measured dispersal o f Black students is explained by public school spokespeople to apolitical Blacks as firs t steps to w ard in ; V ' t « F I as the minimum acceptable space for the 360 children who would poten tially use the space. Dekum C oun is surrounded on three sides by walls and apartment buildings. I f it were to be enclosed on the south, the only access would be down Morgan Street to the west. In recent years, particularly because o f joining in conflict with H AP, the re lationship between the project resi dents and the neighborhood people have improved. The project resi dents fear physical separation w ill re isolate them from the community. Claudia Fisher o f the C N A , told the Council that the neighborhood fears the isolation o f the public housing project from the surround ing neighborhood and “ only through open space w ill the elim ination o f conflict and the integration o f the project into the neighborhood oc cur. A public meeting with the Black U nited F ro n t to discuss the threatened school boycott, called by School Board Chairman Ftank Mc Namara, was cancelled after BUF co-chairm an Ronnie H erndon notified McNamara that BUF would not attend. The meeting had been dubbed a “ town hall meeting” and was scheduled fo r Benson H igh School. BUF has agreed to meet with Mc Namara and Deputy Superintendent Donald McElroy on Monday to lay the ground rules for possible future meetings and to clarify the issues, but no "to w n hall meeting" is an ticipated at this time. Many BUF members were angry over M cNam ara’ s announcement. " I t was presumptuous and insen sitive to set a public meeting without inviting us first,” a BUF spokesman said. “ A ll McNamara had to do was make a telephone call. It makes us wonder about the Board's w ill — not their goodwill — but their w ill.” BUF w ill meet w ith students at King N eighborhood F a c ility on Thursday, July 26th, at 6:30 p.m. Plans are being made to provide activities for children at community churches during the boycott. Persons who can help teach, tutor, provide recreational and craft activities are needed. Planning meetings are held weekly at King Neighborhood fa cility on Thursday evenings. tegration. In truth this practice is selective segregation and has served as a well designed contrivance for continuing to place Black students in different, unequal and intellectually debilitating situations. The applica tion o f these techniques o f small group selective segregation insures that most o f the Black students w ill be compressed and processed for all o f th eir lives in to an a ttitu d in a l fram ew ork o f su bju g a tio n from which they w ill find it almost im possible to become extricated. Many Black students are aware o f the fact that parents’ submissiveness and acquiescence to the school board and adm inistration policies o f the past has made the position o f Black students today untenable and miser able. The only way that this circum stance can be improved is that the Black population is together in its analysis and in the commitment to resistance. • Contributing <* Advisory Editor, The Black Scholar
