P«B*2 Portland Observer Thursday, August
2.
1979
EDITORIAL/QPINION
Education
by N. Fungai Kumbuta
Apology in order
Preach liberation
What an insultl Frank McNamara, chairman of
the Board of Education, said to the press after a
brief meeting to get the demands of the Black
United Front that the BUF's demand of two-way
busing is difficult, because the white community
largely is not ready for such a move. If McNamara
believes that he can remain a viable factor in the
solution to this problem and still think of Black
children with a double standard, he is far off
base. He should retract this insulting statement.
McNamara, and the large segment of the white
community to which he alludes, had better listen
to BUF spokesmen who made it clear after the
meeting: "W e will no longer allow our children to
be victims of a racist one-way busing program,
abusive disciplinary practices, and we will no
longer allow our children to be perpetual recipients
of a second rate education."
The demands of the Black United Front are
reasonable, they are consistent w ith problems
identified long ago; and they have unquestion
able support in the Black community as well as
among many whites. If the larger white com
munity is not yet ready, after 15 years of forcing
the burdens on Black residents, then McNamara
would be wise to come up with specific plans to
get them ready— and in a hurry! The Black people
have had enough of the discrimination and the
insults.
The boycott organized by the Black United
Front and widely supported by individuals and
groups in the Black community is gaining steam.
To forge this new alliance, we must have the
complete cooperation of the well-established
ministerial community.
This struggle needs the blessings of the Black
ministerial leaders. The struggle of Jesus was the
struggle of the oppressed. The school system is
oppressive, and there are few so well versed on
the moral indignity of oppression than the Black
ministers who preach for the uplifting of the
poor, oppressed, and weak every Sunday morn
ing.
The religious structure can provide a network
of communication. Bulletins, newsletters, Sun
day announcements, and pulpit references can
spread the word and help this cause. The Black
United Front recognized the im portance of
m inisters, and cultivated their support w ith
several meetings before the announcement of the
boycott plans.
As boycott co-chairman, Reverend John H.
Jackson of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, said, "If
the powerful call of our respected ministers was
given not only in celebrating the Holy Word on
Sunday, but also for political organizing during
the week, Black people would learn faster that
their collective action will bring collective strides
toward equality in education."
Emanuel Hospital wins discrimination suit
(Continued front page I col. 6)
1976.
Mrs. M ildred Barker, a nurses
aide, said Mrs W righten bore a
heavier case load than other RNs in
the same shift.
Mrs. Mildred Sie, a nurses aide,
testified that she had been pressured
to take “ W O P " tim e and was
“ floated” to more areas than white
aides were. Gloria Buggs, a practical
nurse, said Mrs. W righten had a
heavier total patient care load then
white nurses. She charged that she
had been discriminated against in
work assignments.
Mrs. Leonora M orris, a registered
nurse, said she believed she had been
d iscrim inated against w hile at
Emanuel. Ger Vigon, a therapist,
testified she was denied pay because
o f her national origin.
M illie W hitm ore, a lab ora tory
technician, said she felt d iscrim i
nated against in pay and work
assignment. Charlene Wilcoxson, an
aide, testified that Mrs. Wrighten’ s
work load was heavier than that of
white nurses and that on the whole
white supervisors were rude to Black
employees.
Carol Bennett, a nurses aide, said
Mrs. Graham bore more work than
other l.PNs.
Ms. Janette Andrews, Frances
Odom, Hcrice M inor, Pauline Kin
ney, Buggs, M orris, testified that
Black patients received inadequate
and inappropriate care from white
staff and that certain personal and
hygiene needs were not as well at
tended as with white patients.
For the defense, Ms. Barbara
Weleber, medical coordinator, and
white, said she promoted Evelyn
Johannesen, also white, rather than
Mrs. Wrighten because she believed
Ms. Johannesen had superior nur
sing skills, relevant experience and
“ displayed a greater spirit o f coopera
tion and potential fo r good staff
relations.”
Ms. Weleber and Margaret Nelson
testified they did not know o f a
single time that staff had to take in
voluntary “ W O P” time. Records
submitted did not indicate whether
“ WOP” time was voluntary or in
voluntary. Burns determined, “ It is
clear that any such coercion in a
routine manner directed at specific
individuals or specific races was not
the policy o f the hospital.”
Judge Burns ruled that although
the p la in tiffs presented testimony
that Blacks had been denied trans
fers, forced to take W OP tim e,
generally harassed about coffee
breaks, slight tardiness and minor in
fractions in a discriminatory fashion.
"T h e re was very little credible
evidence that white co-workers were
preferentially treated. No specific in
cidence or written transfer request
improperly denied, or an involuntary
W OP tim e was a ctua lly proved.
This, the plaintiffs’ evidence, while
probative o f poor employee morale.
was not sufficient to meet plaintiffs
initial burden.”
The hospital presented evidence
showing it employed more Blacks
and minorities than are found in the
work force. “ There were enough in
consistencies, such as d ifficu ltie s
identifying individuals and their race
in the d iffe re n t reports so as to
vitiate any possible probative value
(he statistics, i f correlated and
verified, might have had.”
Results o f the survey showed 18
Blacks out o f a total o f 71 fired, and
210 Blacks out o f 1,625 voluntarily
terminated or retained. Blacks com
prised 13.5 per cent o f the staff.
There were 80 per cent more firings
o f Blacks than would have been sta
tis tic a lly probable. Judge Burns
determ ined that the statistical
analysis “ is not itself sufficient to
compel an inference that disparities
shown for that year were produced by
racial factors” . . . This, combined
with other factors led the judge to
conclude " t h a t W righten and
Graham do not meet their burden in
establishing a pattern o f practice of
employm ent d is c rim in a tio n at
Emanuel H ospital at the relevant
time in question.”
My folks were, and to some ex
tent, still are very simple people,
simple in the sense that their needs
were very basic: a roo f over their
heads, food on the table, clothing
and the like. Nothing fancy. But,
there was one thing on which they
were most uncompromising and that
was education fo r their children.
Living in an age o f oppression, after
our country was stolen, all our
parents saw education as the one
avenue left for us to realize what po
tential had been stilled by the onset
o f co lonialism and the accom
paniment racism.
I remember many a day when
there was no food on the table, when
my mother wore the same pair o f tat
tered sneakers she had been wearing
for a year, when we walked around
in clothing so patched up we may
as well have been wearing nothing
but patches and all the time mom
and dad were saving to pay tuition
for one o f us. My folks always have
had this fierce determination that,
come what may, their children were
going to get an education.
This fierce determination has fired
me through the years. My parents,
like parents everywhere, were far
from perfect but, as long as 1 live, I
will always remember, cherish and
value this supreme act o f love they
bestowed upon us all. In the Black
community at the moment is a group
o f concerned parents, fueled by the
same love, same determination to see
their children get the chance they
never got. The group in question is
the Black United Front, brought
together by a number o f problems
that have simmered for much too
long.
The BUF is proposing a boycott o f
classes next months as a way o f fo r
cing a number o f changes. I have
follow ed the demands and the
development with a very keen eye be
cause there is more to the class
boycott than meets the eye. The
parallels between the problems BUF
is addressing and those that the
parents back home have struggled
with for the last eight decades are
uncanny. The d riv in g force, the
motivation behind each is to see their
children get a good education, a
quality education.
When the Europeans came to rape
Africa, steal the continent and make
slaves o f its people, they completely
disrupted our way o f life. By bring
ing a different kind o f technology, it
also necessitated a new form o f
education. To survive in this new
form o f society, Blacks had to adjust
to this so-called formal education.
Because the whites set the criteria for
achieving, the wherewithal for sur
vival, they also decided what form
the education was going to take.
Needless to say, they did not want all
Blacks getting the same educational
opportunities because, if that hap
pened , then they (the whites) would
very soon become obsolete. Blacks
would simply take over and start
running the show according to their
own dictates.
So, all over A frica only a few
schools were opened and only so
many Blacks could take advantage o f
them. That has been the pattern
throughout colonial Africa. It has
only been in recent years, with the
overthrow o f colonialism in most o f
Africa that this trend has been halt
ed and, in some cases, reversed.
Those Africans brought to this coun
try found themselves also thrown in
to a society that, on the one hand,
demanded that they learn how to
read and write and on the other,
punished those who tried to learn.
A fte r decades o f agitation, o f
street dem onstrations, marches,
petitions, they finally wrested access
to educational opportunities which,
should have opened the gates to ‘ the
land o f opportunity.’ Everything in
this country hinges on education.
From the day you are born, you are
made to understand that, without an
education, your options are very
limited. Just about any job you can
imagine, be it digging a ditch or
operating a spaceship, requires some
form o f literacy.
For a while, it looked as if every
body could aspire to be anything:
that everything was open to a ll,
w ithout regard to race or color.
Lately, however, the facade has been
lifted to reveal the grim reality be
neath. While in Rhodesia and South
A fric a
they
b la ta n tly
lim it
educational o pp o rtu n itie s fo r
Blacks, in this country the same
sinister plan is carried out in a
slightly different manner: what is
lim ited here is quality education.
Hasn't it ever struck you as some
form o f conspiracy?
Year in and year out reading
scores in the Black community keep
plummeting. So when Black kids
cannot read, write or articulate their
thoughts properly, that's grounds
for denying them decent jobs. ,s it
the fault o f the kids that they cannot
read? Is it the parents who are at
fault? In either case I would have to
answer in the negative. BUF has
shown the parents’ concern; the
children have shown concern because
they are acutely aware o f the
deficiencies o f the education they are
getting.
The fa u lt has to be w ith the
teachers and the school administra
tors. If the teachers were doing their
jo b , there would bound to be
some im provem ent. I refuse to
believe that all these children who
spend so much time in school would
all be too naive to realize that unless
they get a real education then they
are doomed to a life o f failure, un
certainty and definitely no hope at all
for the future. A ll these children go
to school with one specific purpose
in mind: to learn so they can acquire
some marketable skill.
The school administrators are to
blame because o f their system o f as
signing teachers. It appears that
those teachers who are assigned to
the Black community feel like they
are being unfairly singled out, as if
its some form o f punishment. As a
result they do not identify with the
students at all. They are there simply
to draw a paycheck. The children can
feel this and a teacher’s attitude can
make a world o f difference to them.
A teacher has to be interested in his
job to be able to motivate his/her
students at all.
This, however, is not a blatant
condemnation o f all teachers in the
Black community. Some do make an
honest e ffo rt while others are
hampered by a lack o f fam iliarity
with the Black community and, con
sequently, the background o f their
students.
The demands o f BUF have been
documented numerous times in
various news releases. I w ill,
therefore, not go into detail about
what they are. Instead, I shall just
touch on one other demand which 1
consider very important: the estab
lishment o f a middle school in the
Black community. At the moment,
because there is none, Black parents
are forced to send their children out
to other areas even when they would
prefer for them to stay in their own
community.
The absence o f the small number
o f Black teachers is another sore
point that needs addressing. It would
appear to me that where there is a
15% Black enrollment, there should
also be a 15% Black representation
on the faculty. By the same token,
there should be a Black school
board representation proportionate
with the number o f Black students.
Like a friend o f mine said, Black
parents, like everybody else, pay
taxes and it is these taxes that sup
port our public schools and colleges.
So, why should Black students be
shortchanged?
A move has successfully been
made to provide Spanish speaking
students bilingual instruction, an
acknowledgement o f their different
culture. Why then is there a systema
tic effort to deny Black students their
culture?
Jessie Blocker charged that he was
term inated by Red T op Service,
which contracts with Emanuel to do
housekeeping services, in 1977.
(Please turn to page 9 col. 3)
Union seeks social justice
(Continued from page I column 3)
under civil service, and as often is the
case, most decisions were made for
us. Under a good civil service system,
the system makes the decisions the
employees should make. It is easy to
sit back and let that happen.” Lucy
and his fellow employees organized a
local o f AFSCME, and in 1965 he
became president o f Local 1695,
Contra Costa County Employees.
Lucy joined the AFSCME Inter
national staff in 1966, as associate
d ire cto r o f the Leg isla tion and
C om m un ity A ffa irs Departm ent
then served as Executive Assistant to
President Jerry W orf.
In May o f 1972, he was elected In
ternational Secretary-Treasurer, the
second highest national office.
Lucy is a vice-president o f the
AFL-C IO Industrial Union Depart
ment, The Maritime Trades Depart
ment and the Department o f Profes
sional Employees. He also serves on
the board o f directors fo r the
A f r ic a n - A m e r ic a n I n s t it u t e ,
Americans for Democratic Action,
National Black United Fund, and is a
member o f the National Leadership
Conference on C iv il Rights and
several other labor and community
organizations.
He was a founder and is the presi
dent o f the Coalition o f Black Trade
Unionists, an organization o f union
leaders and rank-and-file members
dedicated to focusing on the needs of
Black and m inority group workers.
At its third annual convention in
Detroit in 1974, Lucy was elected
CBTU’ s first President.
For the last fo u r years Ebony
Magazine has selected Lucy as one of
“ The 100 Most In flu e n tia l Black
Americans.”
le t P lace
PORTLAND OBSERVER
Community Service
ONPA 1973
The P ortland Observer IU S P S 969 8801 » publnhed every Th un
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ALFRED L HENDERSON
Editor/Publisher
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Best Editorial
NNPA 1973
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Editorial column Any other material throughout the paper is the
opinion o f th e individual w rite r or su b m itte r end does not
necessarily reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer
Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial Award
NNA 1973
2nd Place
Best Editorial
3rd Place
Community Leadership
ONPA 1975
3rd Place
Community Leadership
ONPA 1979
M tM *«
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