Page 6 Portland Observer Thursday. August 23. 1979
Moon eclipse visible Sept. 6
Behind the Wall
by Larry Maker » J5021
O. .S'. /< Í orrespondenl
BUS ME?
BAD. BITTER AND BLACK
His name was Leo Sm iih—alias
Richard Smith, Thomas Henry, and
William Thomas—but we’ ll jusi call
him "H om e Boy," a nickname he
acquired from fellow prisoners while
incarcerated al O.S.P from 1956-
1959. He served a five year sentence
for the sale o f narcotics (heroin).
As a child, Home Boy lived in
Medden, I ouisiana. Home Boy was
the oldest o f three children belong
ing to Leatha Mae and Torn Smith.
Tom was shot and killed by a white
farm er who caught him stealing
chickens from the henhouse. The
year was 1937, the middle o f the
Depression. Home Boy was 7-years-
old at the lime, and remembered the
county sheriff beckoning his mother
from the cotton field on that hot
summer day to break the news o f his
father’s death. He also remembered
how she had been thrown into the
back seat of a car and taken away for
questioning. His father had been
killed less than a mile from where
Home Boy, his tw o sisters, and
mother had gone to pick cotton early
that morning. He remembered that
no one had had anything to eat that
morning because the farmer from
whom the Smith fam ily rented a
small one room board-up shack had
demanded all his father’s money the
night before, to make up a months
back pay in rent, leaving them with
no money for food. Alter walking
five miles to the field that morning,
Home Boy overheard his mother
pleading w ith his father, not to
worry, because after that days cotton
picking she would go and beg the
owner o f the cotton patch for an ad
vance on the weekly pay to buy food.
Home Boy and his father could go
rabbit trapping and catfishing. It
w asn't long after they started
picking that his father disappeared
and his mother picked nervously
with tears in her eyes, Home Boy
never forgot those tears.
Home Boy’ s mother was returned
to the field after a couple o f hours,
lo o k her children and walked back to
their little shack. His mother im
m ediately placed all the fa m ily
belongings into a flour sack and they
went to a nearby freight yard to
catch a freight train to his mother’s
sisters place in Baton Rouge. During
that tr ip another tragedy struck
Home Boy’s life. In the middle o f the
night the boxcar Home Boy, his
mother, and his two younger sisters
were huddled in was suddenly in
vaded by four while hobos in their
mid 40s, who were d rin kin g . He
remembered how his mother fought
them o ff as they made sexual advances
to her. A ll o f a sudden he watched
two o f those men throw his baby
sisters, aged four and five, out o f the
boxcar into the night while the train
was moving at a very high rate o f
speed, and how he was torn from his
mother's arms and thrown out also.
The next thing he remembered was
waking up in a hospital only to be
questioned about the deaths o f his
sisters and the rape-death o f his
m other. Home Boy’ s aunt, a
p ro stitu te in Baton Rouge, was
located, and she retrieved Home Boy
and he lived with her fo r awhile
before she placed him with a Black
minister and his family.
Home Boy was forced to go to a
tenthouse church meeting every
H om e Boy was already well
acquainted with hard work in the
field, so 12 hours a day regardless if
it was picking cotton or digging
stumps, he knew he was going to get
three meals a day and a place to sleep
at nig ht. Never having attended
school was no loss, because as he pul
it, "H o w can you lose something you
never had." He even knew how to
handle the lashings he would receive
by the white guard who would catch
him talking to a fellow inmate when
he wasn't supposed to. He didn’ t
even mind being called "N igger” by
white folks because he thought that
was what all Blacks were automa
tically called. Even red beans and
rice became his favorite meal when
served.
Home Boy was only at the reform
school three years before he was at
tacked by a Black crew boss who
tried to force Home Boy into a
homosexual act. Home Boy ended
up splitting the big Black prisoner’s
head open, causing instant death.
Then he was told by a court that he
could not be released until he turned
21 years o f age.
fo r the next few years, Home Boy
learned one lesson and learned that
lesson well. How to hate whiles
without letting that hate be known.
Home B oy’ s sentence was cut
short by the conflict o f the Korean
W ar. At the age o f 20, he was
recruited right out o f the Louisiana
Stale Reformatory, straight into the
Army and was sent to I t. l ewis,
Washington.
I, was there that he met and
m arried l.ealha May Jackson, a
Black girl o f IK, who worked as a
maid fo r a high-ranking o ffice r.
Leatha became pregnant and had
twin boys while Home Boy was over
seas. Home Boy had a good Army
record, because he was used to
taking orders all his life. But in March
1952, Home Boy was seriously in
jured in the back by a grenade and
was sent back to the slates, receiving
a medical discharge It was while
recuperating in the Arm y hospital
that he was first introduced to drugs.
Home Boy, his wile and children
eventually settled in Portland, but
because o f his back injury, he was
spottilv employed. He began to sell
the drugs that he was issued by the
hospital. Drug sales brought in
enough money to allow his family a
decent liv in g . More drugs, more
money, and in a short lime Home
Boy started buying and selling drugs
from other soldiers who received
medical treatment from the hospital.
Many o f the wounded soldiers
would o btain large quantities
illegally.
Another child was born to Home
Boy’s wife, and in 1956, Home Boy
was arrested, tried and convicted for
selling drugs and sentenced to five
years at O.S.P. By this time Home
Boy himself was a drug addict.
Leatha May and their children
were placed on Welfare and waited
Julius Snowden, Editor
Spinning in one’s solitary orbit.
Surrounded by a measure o f
Memories still too full to bear
And tangling one's web o f life
O ' sphere o f agony that permeates
Essence o f being and self—
It holds its own with a control
Too tight to let go.
Swallow the et hoes that must be borne—
Ignore the mind that wanders on_
O' world that only holds more
O f the same waste, waste, waste
Where will it all end' Must there
Always be a tomorrow fo r pretending*
It is only games I play
And tears o f bitterness are welling
by Robert Henjamm ! rankhn
Assistani Correspondent
night, and work hard in the fields
each day. He was forced to pray
forgiveness for the wickedness of his
father’ s stealing and his mother’ s
submitting to sex before her death If
he d id n ’ t he was beaten by the
m inister, fin a lly . Home Boy ran
away, only to be caught a day later
breaking into a grocery store for
food. He was placed in jail and sent
to the state reformatory.
Prison Poets
WEB
Da vid Cra wford kJ 98JO
LEGACY
I don't know where I'm going,
And almost know where I've been
Hut the moment that the world
Stopped Jor thee
And went whirling on fo r me—
Has made the difference.
For time cannot stop, and not
Leave a part o f me.
To linger and swell in memories:
This, then is the legacy
by Robert Henjamm / ranklin
lot Home Boy's release
Il was here at O .S .P . that this
Correspondent first became acquaint
ed wiih I eo Smith, belter known as
"H om e Boy " All these years Home
Boy had never learned to read or
write, and he would pay me a pack of
cigarettes tor each letter I wrote to
Ins wile and children for him.
1 eatha May would bring money
lor him, and Home Boy would buy
drugs, either from the inmates or the
guards In tact, Home Boy started
using more drugs in prison than he
did prior to his arrest He became a
professional in his dealing, even to
the point where he was sending
money home to his w ife and
children.
But shortly before Home Boy was
to be released, 1 eatha May became
pregnant with an illegitimate child by
ney. I he attorney had become
rom antically attracted to Leatha
May and had helped her out finan
cially on many occasions without the
knowledge o f Home Boy.
Alter returning home, Home Boy
and Leal ha May had a stormy rela
tionship. but to Home Boy's children
he became a hero. Unable to gam
employment lor lack ot education,
ex-felon record, and medical prob
lems, Home Boy went back into drug
dealing and his children received
almost anything their hearts desired.
But in 1963 Horne Boy and Leatha
May were divorced. She remarried a
year later. She allowed Home Boy to
have his children on weekends. One
o f his sons would even run away
from home occasionally just to be
with Home Boy.
I did not see Home Boy until ten
years later. A beaten man with poor
health, one could see that drugs had
practically destroyed him. He had
been in and out o f jail, hospitals, and
prison on num erous occasions
during those ten years, but he was
still the hero in his children’ s eyes.
In 1974, Home Boy was found
dead in a Portland park, due to an
overdose o f drugs.
None o f his children finished high
school and Leatha M ay’ s second
marriage ended in divorce. She had
in many ways lost control over her
daughter and two sons lives because
they blamed her for not being true to
their father. They wanted to live the
high style life they thought their
father had once lived
with plenty
o f money.
The life o f Home Boy is only the
beginning to a tragic story plaguing
the Oregon Black youth today.
Because it’ s important to note what
has happened to Home Boy’ s three
children, in order to observe a clearer
picture o f the human genocide that is
building up in prisons and jails, year
alter year. And the problem is going
to continue and perpetrate the
Oregon Blacks as long as it is not
recognized as a problem.
Home Boy's sons can be found
today serving tim e in tw o state
prisons, Oregon and Washington.
Both are known drug addicts. One
son has fathered four children and
the other has three. Home Boy’ s
daughter is the mother of four
children and is also a drug addict.
She has a long extensive police
record o f prostitution and forgery
Today, Thomas and Leatha Mae
Smith's twelve grandchildren range
in age from one to twelve years. All
are being pumped w ith the ‘ hate
whitey and police ’ game fo r the
downfall and incarceration o f their
parents. A ll the children live in the
Black co m m un ity o f P o rtla n d ,
known as A lb in a . Seven o f the
twelve children are enrolled in the
Portland School District. And five o f
the second children are being bused
and all five have become m ajor
disciplinary problems to the schools.
As I write this true story, I cannot
help but remember how the percent
age o f the Black population has ex
ploded within this prison over the
past ten years, and what it will be like
ten years from now. Is this the an
swer to why the Black population at
O.S.P. is l4®/o in a state where the
Black population is less than l.3%?
Is this the reason O.S.P. holds the
d istin ction o f having the second
largest population o f concentrated
Black people in this state? Are more
Black children doomed fo r these
prison gales by the built up preju
dices, hate and greed that may
plague the Black families o f today?
The story about Home Boy and his
family is not an isolated story in Port
land. In fact it is a very common one
among Black families who are under
privileged, uneducated and unem
ployed. To survive everyday living it
becomes so easy to become trapped
into the illegal activities that may
come their way.
And now that the busing issue has
become the hottest event in years, the
question becomes will Black children
be given the chance to escape the
d o w n fa lls im planted by their
knowledge o f seeing what has hap
pened to their parents who are in
prison?
This Correspondent isn’ t going to
end this story on a negative note,
because once a problem has been ex
posed, it is always best to offer a
suggestion. Parent training within
our penal institutions. Why? Because
there are just loo many Home Boys
today ro ttin g away behind these
bars. Or lace the p o ss ib ility
o f— father like son—trend ten years
from today. Believe me, I am wit
nessing each and every day just loo
many Home Boys being herded
through these guarded steel gales
each year.
G arry Stasuik, director o f the
K endall P lanetarium at O M S I,
reports that the moon will be totally
eclipsed in the Portland area during
the wee hours o f Thursday, Septem
ber 6th.
The moon w ill enter the penum-
bral shadow o f the earth at 1:20 a.m.
P.D.T. on September 6th. Nearly an
hour later, at 2:18, the moon will
move in to the e a rth ’ s um bral
shadow, which will appear as a red
dish coppery light across the moon.
The total eclipse will occur by 3:31
a m. and end at 4:17, with the moon
leaving the umbral shadow at 5:30
According to Stasuik, the reddish
coppery glow that will light up the
moon during the eclipse appears
because the earth’ s atmosphere ab
sorbs all the colors radiated by the
sun except red light.
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4 yr. olds Mon., Wed., Fri.; $27.50/month
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Phone 288 9371 -O ffic e of Dr. John Buuck
Office Address 2910 N.E Portland Blvd
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AUGUST
On Aspiration/Responsibility
No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings.
William Blake
On Conservatism
People are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are
most luxurious. They are conservative after dinner.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
On Conservatism
What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against
the new and untried?
Abraham Lincoln
On Ancestry
I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to
know what his grandson will be.
Abraham Lincoln
On Talk
Words once spoke can never be recalled.
W entworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon
On Truth
Be so tru e to thyself as you not be false to others.
Francis Bacon
On Time
Time ripens all things; no person is born wise.
Cervantes