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
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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.
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