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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1979)
Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday, August 9, 1979 editorial / opinion Africans flex muscles by N. Fungai Kumbula Where is racism? Why not Cawthorne? "There are some damn racists people in this country that don't give a damn about the Con stitution.” When Dr. James Nabrit, President Emeritus of Howard University and co-counsel in the Brown v Hoard of Education case, said those words last week, he could very well have been talking about the Portland school district. After twenty-five years, 25 per cent of Port- k in d 's Black school children s till atte nd segregated schools, yet school board member Jonathan Newman labeled as separatist the Black United Front demands that the Albina shools be integrated through cross-busing, that two integrated middle schools be established in the Black community, and that Black students bussed out to other schools make up at least 40 per cent of those schools. How can demanding schools that are 60 per cent w hite and 40 per cent Black be called separatist? How can demanding the transfer of w h ite students to Black schools be called separatist? How can integrated middle schools be called separatist? Since before the 1954 Brown decision, Port land Blacks have been calling for integrated schools. In 1962 the NAACP demanded in tegration and was refused -- the separatist Model Schools" were created instead. In 1970 the NAACP opposed Blanchard's "Schools for the S e venties” plan on the basis th a t the remaining K-5 schools would continue to be segregated. The Model Cities Planning Committe recom mended pairing Black schools with white schools to attain desegregation, but was refused and the segregated schools remained. When Black parents opposed the injustice of the Newman Plan, which would have barred selected Black students from Jefferson High School w ithout providing them a regular high school assignment, they were accused of op posing desegregation. When earlier this year the Community Coalition for School Integration, a group made up of as many whites as Blacks, called for desegregation through school pairing, the d istrict refused. Again the segregated schools were retained. In short, the school district has confined Black children to inadequate and segregated schools where their achievement still tests at the lowest level of the district. Yet every group, whether liberal w hite or a ctivist Black, that calls for desegregation is maligned by district spokesmen. The racism is in the School Board and in the administration, not in the Black community. The Black United Front is asking for the same equity fo r Black children th a t this com m u nity has sought for more than twenty-five years. The OAU concluded its confer Next Monday night the Portland School Board ence in Liberia, Monrovia a week w ill elect a new member to the Board. Herb ago amd. it is generally agreed, this Cawthorne has received the endorsements of the was the most productive conference in the African body’ s 16 year history. Oregonian, Willamette Week, the Observer, and There was the heated exchange bet at least a suggestion that he be considered from ween Tanzania's Julius Nyerere and the Oregon Journal. Sudan’ s Gaafar Nimeiri over Tan Cawthorne received these endorsements, and zania’s role in the overthrow o f Idi A m in . The Sudan, backed by the strong support of three Board members, because he is without doubt the most qualified Nigeria, was charging Tanzania with violation o f the OAU charter which candidate - Black or white. In fact he is the most forbids members from violating the qualified candidate the Board has seen in a long territorial integrity o f other member time. His knowledge, involvement and concern nations. Tanzania, backed by the with education and his integrity, intellegence, new Ugandan government, coun communication skills and personal qualities can tered by chastizing OAU inactivity when Amin had originally invaded be matched by no member of the current Board. Tanzania, this initiating the war that W hy not name Cawthorne to the Board? culminated in his ouster. Power. Why would those who now hold power The same OAU session saw the want an articulate Black man on their Board - a creation o f an A fric a -w id e c iv il man who already has vehemently disagreed with rights watchdog. Though this body the most explosive issues they will face. Why was not endowed with any specific would they want a constant reminder that they powers to deal w ith c iv il rights are breaking the law - th a t they are violators, its setting up is a major d iscrim in a tin g against and abusing Black step in the right direction. It is a well children? Why would they want someone who known fact that, even though the can belie their proudest achievement - a "suc OAU unreservedly condemned apar theid, colonialism and other forms cessful voluntary desegregation program." o f oppression in the m inority ruled The new Board member will hold the balance countries o f southern Africa, it had of power, and if a person is selected who will brazenly turned a blind eye to gross seize that power, the old regime will come tum b violations o f human rights in Black ling down. And once Jonathan Newman, and to ruled A fric a . The O A U never a lesser extent, Frank McNamara no longer dic said anything about mass arrests and executions in Rwanda and Burundi a tate policy, how long will Dr. Blanchard be few years back, nothing about Zaire, around? the C entral A fric a n R epublic, The editorial endorsement of Cawthorne by the Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, and the Oregonian demonstrates a clear change in at list goes on. titude toward the Superintendent. It dem on This particular session o f the OAU strates that downtown business interests are not went so far as to lambast Jean Bedel completely satisfied. The school district has lost a Bokasaa, self styled emperor o f the series of levies and faces a potential teacher strike Central African Republic (Central as well as the boycott. The two Board members A fric a n Em pire) fo r the recent who faced strong opposition in the recent elec massacre o f 100 schoolchildren ranging in ages from seven to six tion were defeated. There is a strong element of teen. The child re n had been disenchantment with the school district in many protesting Bokassa's ruling requiring areas of the city and many levels of society. them to wear school uniforms and Cawthorne would be the obvious bridge be they had protested because they tween an embattled Board and an angry Black could not afford the uniforms. community. He, as no other, could guide the Bokassa sent in his troops to quell the protests and they arrested about district to an equitable and legal desegregation 200 o f the protesters. Some o f the program. He also could be a strong factor in protesters had th ro w n stones at bringing credibility to the Board in many other Bokassa’ s car. Those who were areas. arrested were taken to ja il where But the stakes are too high. The district is ap they were crammed into cells so parently w illing to face a school boyco tt, a tightly that about 100 o f them died teacher strike, and a federal suit - perhaps all at either fro m s u ffo c a tio n or were trampled to death. Others were said once — rather than risk losing their power. And to have been beaten to death by the the man with the most to lose is Dr. Blanchard. soldiers on Bokassa’ s orders. So it's politics before principles - as usua.. The O A U also condemned the Door to prison reform is closing (Continued from page I col. 6) movement, now hopelessly split be tween those fighting for prisoners’ rights and those in active support o f what they considered to be revolu tionary violence on the part o f some prisoners, never recovered. The revolutionaries on the outside failed to recognize the reality hidden from the revolutionaries inside, that revolution was not imminent in the United Stales o f the 1970s. The high tide o f p o litic a l struggle which characterized the sixties was giving way to the ebb o f the seventies by the time o f Angela Davis’ acquittal. The new reality was a bitter disappoin- ment to the revolutionary prisoners released in the early 1970s, and it was ________ unacceptable, and unaccepted, by some o f those in the support movements outside. Violence born o f despair was one reaction to the decidedly non-revolu- tioiiary situation. Groups such as the Tribal Thumb and the Symbionese Liberation Arm y unsuccessfully at tempted to substitute a strategy o f anarchism and terrorism fo r the mass demonstrations o f the 60s. The failure o f these strategies to accom plish revolutionary change or win a mass following, prompted more fru stration and fra tric id a l violence, such as the 1976 murder o f Popeye Jackson, a Black former convict ac tive in reform movements who, like Fay Stender, was accused o f "selling o u t.” The prison movement won some important legal victories on behalf o f prisoners. In C alifornia, prisoners are no longer deemed “ legally dead’ ’ and may be deprived o f “ only such rights as is necessary for the reason able security o f the institution” in which they are confined. Prisoners won the right to possess any and all w ritten m aterials, other than publications which describe how weapons can be produced. U.S. Supreme C ou rt decisions have guaranteed prison inmates access to legal materials and to fellow inmates with legal knowledge. Suits brought by the Am erican C iv il Liberties Union have resulted in judgments PORTLAND OBSERVER rh» P ortland Observer (U S P S 969 8801 >* pubtnhad every Thur» day by Exie Publishing Com pany, Inc . 2201 North Killingeworth, Portland, Oregon 97217. Poat Otflhe Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208 Second c le u postage peid at Portland. Oregon Subecnptione 17 SO per year in Tri County area. *8 00 per year outarde Tri County Area P o s tm a s te r Send addreaa changes to the P ortland Observer, P O Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208 The P ortland Observer's official positron is expressed only in its Editorie1 column Any other material throughout the peper it the op inion o f th e in divid ual w rite r or s u b m itte r and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the P ortland Observer ALFRED L. HENDERSON Edltor/Publlaher National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York M ÍM ttt Association - Pounded IM 8 « let Place Community Service ONPA 1973 regime o f Macias Nguema, another Ida A m in , d ic ta to r o f the West A fric a n co u n try o f E q ua to ria l Guinea. His was reportedly one of the bloodiest regimes anywhere in the world, so bad, in fact, that as much as 40 per cent o f its entire population was forced into exile. declaring the entire state prison systems o f Alabama, Rhode Island, and Tennessee unconstitutional be cause the conditions prevailing in them constitute cruel and unusual punishm ent. L im ited due process rights have been guaranteed to prisoners facing d iscip lin ary p ro ceedings for the violation o f prison rules. Judicial largesse, however, has become increasingly infrequent in the recent years o f fiscal conserva tism, and in the absence o f a mass p o litic a l movement in support o f prisoners’ rights. Rehnquist’ s “ one man, one c e ll” decision follow s other Supreme Court cases denying prisoners the right to take part in the activities o f a charitable labor union and severely lim iting the rights o f prisoners to challenge their convic tions through filing writs o f habeas This past Friday, I received the good news that the same Macias Nguema had been overthrown in a bloodless coup. Nigeria clashed with Ghana over the latter’ s spate o f executions o f former government officials. Nigeria went so far as to cut o ff all oil sup plies to Ghana until and unless those executions were halted. W ith the intra-A frican disputes concluded, the OAU then focused its attention on the one area where there is nary a voice o f discord: minority rule in southern A fric a . The dominant topic this year, o f course, was Rhodesia. The O A U rig h tly condemned the Muzorewa regime, set up at the end o f May, as a sham — a fro n t fo r continued white domination — and threw its weight behind the Patriotic Front. The PF, carrying on the armed struggle, was declared the sole representative o f the poeple o f Zimbabwe. The OAU closed with a warning to the world at large that “ any country recognizes the Muzorewa regime, that would be construed as enemy ac tio n against all A fric a ’ ’ . Nigerai singled out B ritia n in p a rtic u la r because the Thatcher government had been hinting at recognition o f Rhodesia and a resumption o f trade. Nigeria also warned the U.S. where conservatives have been pressuring President Carter to lift trade san ctions and recongize the Muzorewa regime. These warnings were greased with oil. Nigerai supplies 17 per cent o f the U.S.’s oil needs and is second only to Saudi Arabia. Fired up by these developments at the O AU , the Africans carried this tough, no nonsense a ttitu d e to Lusaka, Zam bia, to the annual C om m onw ealth prim e m inisters' conference. The C om m onwealth conference brings together Britian and 38 o f her former colonies. As with the OAU, the dominant topic o f the agenda was Rhodesia. To em phasize the seriousness o f her threat, N igeria nationalized B ritish Petroleum assets in Nigeria. The British government owns 51 per cent o f BP and Nigeria said her actions were precipitated by BP’ s role in continuing to supply o il to South Africa. Apparently the British, who now d r ill o il out o f th e ir N o rth Sea oilfields, had been supplying oil to South Africa (filling the gap left by Iran) and using Nigerian oil to make up for the shortfall this created in Britain. When Nigeria announced this nationalization, the British were FURIOUS! This was the boldest ac tion taken against the British in a long, long time. As the conference progressed, A frican countries, led by Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia stepped up the pressure on Thatcher (the British premier) to abandon her idea o f corpus. The Court’s new limitation on the traditional remedy o f habeas corpus means that state prisoners will be denied access to federal courts to test the validity o f their confine ment against unconstitutional stan dards. America's economic problems do not augur well for the 300,000 men and women now confined in this nation’ s federal and state prisons. W ith government economy so popular among politicians, including many judges, prisoners' rights ap pear an unnecessary luxury to be stow upon a constituency without votes or political leverage. But the economic benefits derived from present policies may be short-lived. H isto ry teaches that the pressure which builds up behind the walls o f a San Quentin, Attica, or Leavenwor- will be released — somehow. recognizing the Muzorewa regime. A ll along, Britian had been arguing that Muzorewa was elected by the people o f Zimbabwe in “ free and fair elections” and that, as such, his government merited recognition and acceptance into the international community. This past Monday, Britain com pletely reversed her position. She now concedes that the constitution on which the Muzorewa government is based is grossly unfair, discrimin atory and illegal. It is unfair in that it holds out so many privileges (control o f the army, police, judiciary, civil serviced) for the m inority whites. She is now calling fo r “ sign ifican t changes in the constitution” and a whole new round o f elections - elec tions that would be held under inter national supervison. This new ap proach should strengthen Carter’ s hand considerably. This is a major victory for the Africans. I f everything works out the way it is planned, a new constitution drafted, new elections held in which all interested candidates would par ticipate, which would also be inter nationally supervised to eliminate the possibility o f threats, intim idation and coercion o f voters, then whoever wins w ill rightfully claim the Zim babwe leadership. This would sub stantially reduce the possibility o f a post election c iv il war because whoever loses under such circum stances w ill find it very hard to mar shall support inside or outside Zim babwe. The front line states could no longer harbor guerrillas after elec tions o f this sort had been held and, without outside bases, any serious challenge to the Zimbabwe govern ment w ould be p re tty nigh im possible. Curiously, it appears that Smith and Muzorewa will agree to this new set o f conditions. They probably see it as the only way in which to end the war which is now costing a staggering J 1.5 million a day, driving a thousand whites out o f the country every month, has bogged down far ming, almost crippled industry and brought the country to the brink of ban kru ptcy, not to m ention the 16,000 Zimbabweans who have died so fa r, and the b a n d itry and lawlessness that have now become endemic throughout the country. In all o f these good tidings, the most im p o rta n t fa c to r has been African solidarity. For the first time, A fric a n s have not o nly worked together, they have also exercised their collective muscle and, in the process, have served notice to the whole w o rld : “ Look o u t, the Sleeping G iant is a w a k in g .” As Africa realizes that the world needs Africa more than Africa needs the world, this could usher in the most dramatic shift in world power we have yet witnessed. TO O LATE TO CLASSIFY BRANCH CLERK Immediate full and part- time openings for in dividuals with good typing skills. Light typing and some phone coverage. Applicants in te rv ie w e d M o n d a y through Friday 10-2. Excellent employee benefits and pleasant w o rk in g c o n d itio n s . Why take any job when you can start a career with FIRST. First National Bank of Oragon 1300 S.W . 5th 13th FI. A n Equal Opportunity Employer 1st Place Beat Ad Resulta ONPA 1973 Sth Place Bast Editorial NNPA 1973 Subscribe Today Honorable Mention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1973 2nd Place Bast Editorial 3rd Placa Community Leadership ONPA 197B 3rd Place Community leadership ONPA 197» m í Mem (Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association I $7.50 per year—Tri-county $8.00 per year—Other i i N A M E _______ A D D R E S S __________ 7 Z H Z Z Z I Z Z Z I Z 1 C ,T Y ----------------------- -----------STATE - ________ zip _________ I Mail to: * Portland Observer P.O .Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208 I I j
