P «fl«2 Portland Ob»«rv«r Thursday. August M . 1979
EDITORIAL/OPINION
A n d re w Young leaves the UN
by N. Fungat Kumbula
M onitor the policies
The Portland School Board has adopted a set
of long term and short term policies which, if
properly implemented, will provide Black children
with the same opportunities and the same op
tions as white children
The proposals meet most of the more crucial
demands of the Black United Front, although
several deficiencies exist The policies do not deal
with sthe BUF's demand that Black children
make up at least forty per cent of the population
of each school affected by the plan. There is
reason to believe, based on the comments of the
School Board members, that this demand --
designed to eliminate the scattering and isolation
of Black students • will be dealt with in the com
prehensive plan.
Meeting greater resistance from some mem
bers of the Board and its legal counsel, were the
demands that the teaching staff approximate the
fifteen percent Black enrollment and that Black
teachers be assigned in a way that allows them to
serve as roll models and to influence the
education of Black children.
The Singleton rule, under which the Board at
least thinks it must operate since being found
discriminating in teacher assignments, says that
each school must have between 75 per cent and
125 per cent of the district's percentage of
minority teachers. Therefore if five per cent of the
D istrict's teachers are m inorities, then each
school teaching staff must be between 3.5 and
7.5 per cent minority. I f the District's teachers
were 20 per cent monority, then each school staff
would be between 15 and 25 per cent minority.
The D istrict's atto rne y, Mark M cClanahan,
recommended that the Board attempt to be
released from its obligation to the Singleton rule
before an effort is made to make percentage of
Black teachers more reflective of its student
enrollment.
The two issues are not directly related, but it is
logical that if the percentage of Black teachers
were increased, the District would have more
latitude while still adhering to the rule. The
Singleton rule should not be used as an excuse
for refusing to hire Black teachers.
The third issue that was not adequately add
ressed is that of a monitoring system. The BUF
requested that it be empowered to designate a
committee to monitor the implementation of the
policies and that the committee be provided a
paid staff. The Board has authorized a monitoring
committee with the BUF and others invited to
participate, but no staff or funding is provided.
That a m o nitorin g co m m ittee, w ith the
necessary staff, is essential is pointed up by the
fact that as late as Monday, in spite of policies to
the contrary, the parents of at least one Black
kindergarten child who had been registered last
Spring were informed that there is no room for
him at King.
The BUF will undoubtedly accept the efforts of
the School Board and will call off or postpone its
boycott, but carefull attention will be given to the
practice and the spirit of implementation. Only if
Dr. Blanchard is com m itted and passes that
commitment to his staff with clear directives will
these policies ever become practices.
The job of providing quality education for
Black children has just begun, by t the District can
be sure that never again will the Black community
stand back and allow such injustices to be per
petuated against its children.
Save A labam a fugitive
Governor Victor Atiyeh has agreed to return
Carl Bass (McGowan) to Alabama where he will
be incarcerated in a state penitentiary. Bass
escaped from prison in Alabama a year ago and
fled to Oregon where he thought he would
receive protection.
This is not the ordinary case of a man
escaping, crossing state lines and then being re
turned to his home state. Carl Bass believes his
life is in danger should he return.
Bass says he was convicted on the description
of a ten-year-old boy, “ a tall Black man with an
afro” and that he never had the opportunity for
an appeal. Following a previous escape he lost
both feet, allegedly because of poor medical
treatment and purposeful neglect by prison of
ficials. A suit filed against prison officials and the
prison doctor could not endear him to the admini
strators of one of the nation's most brutal
prisons.
If there is any doubt at all that this man's life or
physical well being is in danger, then he should
not be returned to Alabama. Governor Atiyeh is
making a gross error and should change his order
before it is too late.
Letters to the Editor
Black woman School Board choice
To the editor:
Hooray fo r Herb Cawthorne's ap
pointment to the School Board! Both
the Black and white communities will
benefit from having this advocate for
school integration and q uality
education in a policy making
position.
Cawthorne’s appointment should
provide the catalyst for our rapid
progress toward the resolution o f the
problems surrounding busing and
quality education We expect that he
will continue to work for two-way
busing, equal school funding and the
mutual sharing o f the responsibi
lities for school integration by both
the Black and white communities.
Newman’ s resignation as pre
sented, raises the question o f a
woman on the School Board in such
a way as to separate the issue of sex
from that o f race, i.e., he says he
resigned in order that a woman may
have a place on the Board. As a
feminist organization we too are
concerned about Black representa
tion. To present the argument in the
way that Newman did implied that
Blacks are not/cannot be women
and/or that women are not/cannot
be Blacks. Further it is unfortunate
that the press seems to be responding
in such a way as to indicate agree
ment with Newman’s premise. Our
contention is that the School Board
needs both another Black and a
woman on it. The most equitable
resolution to the problem is that the
next appointment be a Black woman.
The additional appointment o f a
Black woman will help to change the
character o f the Portland School
Board which for much too long has
ignored or undermined Black
education. Herb Cawthorne has
already demonstrated his willingness
to fight for the school integration
issues. A committed Black woman
working with Cawthorne w ill turn
the tide for the good o f all.
Sincerely,
Deanna Cecotti
Portland Radical Women,
Freedom Socialist Party
Correction
A fro n t page headline in last
week’ s Observer read ‘ ‘ Black
suspensions outstrip whites 5 to I ” .
It should have read “ Black suspen
sions outstrip whites 3 to 1” .
A lso, in a recent ‘ ‘ P ortland
P ro file ” , the name o f James
M ason’ s daughter, Selena, was
spelled incorrectly.
Our appologies.
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O N P A 1975
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C o m m u n ity Leadership
O N P A 1979
Ml MSI >
Aasociat.on
Sounded 'M S
The appointment three years ago,
of Andre* Young to be the U.S. am
bassador at the United Nations was
probably the most popular appoint
ment that President Carter made.
The subsequent ‘ promotion’ o f that
post to cabinet level quickly made
Young one o f the best known Blacks
anywhere in the world. It made him
very ‘ visible,’ too visible for some
people’s liking. His job. as head of
the U.S. mission brought him face to
face with every conceivable problem
facing humanity today. The fact that
the developing countries o f the world
were also becoming increasingly
critical, vocal and skeptical o f the
U.S. made his job that much trickier.
It was a very good thing that
Young took up this position without
any prior experience in bureaucratic
•protocol' because he made the best
UN ambassador the U.S. ever had.
Having been brought up in the civil
rights movement, he was also much
better equipped to deal w ith the
problems o f poverty, racism,
ine qu ality and a whole host o f
similar problems that cropped up
time and time again at the UN. Like
every novice in his rookie season.
Young made his fa ir share o f
mistakes in the early going and so
picked up enemies left and right. One
thing that he will always be remem
bered fot, however, is his outspoken
ness. His ‘ o ff the c u ff’ remarks
stood the State Department on its
head on more than one occasion.
He once accused or rather credited
the British with inventing racism.
Anybody who is at least vaguely
familiar with British colonial history
would lind this hard to dispute but,
the State Department pressured him
into making an apology. He referred
to “ political prisoners” in the U.S.
and, once again, his critics called for
blood, w ritin g or calling the
President to fire him. He weathered
that other storm with another ‘clari
fic a tio n .’ A lte r the cold blooded
murder ol Steve Biko, Young called
the South African regime, 'a ruthless
dictatorship." Once again, the Slate
Departm ent came up w ith an
apology.
A ll three incidents
delighted his supporters in the Black
community because they were all so
true and, for once, there was some
body who was echoing their
thoughts.
Andrew Young’s one greatest ac
complishment has to be the restora
tion o f some semblance o f co nfi
dence and credibility in the U.S. by
an increasingly disillusioned and
skeptical Third World, Africa in par
ticular. Successive American govern
ments had com pletely ignored
Africa, fueled by the misconception
that colonialism was in Africa to
stay. So instead, they dealt with,
aided and abetted the colonialists.
When co lonialism was suddenly
overthrown, the U.S. then started
scrambling to establish some direct
connection w ith A fric a . Henry
Kissinger tried and met with very lit
tle success. Africa had been spurned
for much too long and now her back
was turned.
It took Y oung’ s home grown
diplomacy to attract A frica’s atten
tion. The several trips he made to
Africa over the past few years did
more to repair America’ s credibility
than anything anybody else could
have done. He did anger a lot o f us
by continuing to take the Western
position vis-a-vis South Africa. But
even under his leadership, the U.S.
continued to veto anti-South African
resolutions, supported continuing
trade and investment in South Africa
and ruled out violence as a way o f
settling the South African problem.
But, all in all, Africa at least lent an
ear to his arguments.
A fric a aside, one o f the most
pressing problems at the UN has
been the Arab-Israeli squabble. Not
too many o f us are fully conversant
with the ins and outs o f this par
ticular dispute but we do know that
the two sides do not get along at all.
For almost three years, Young had
successfully dodged this particular
issue because he knew how compli
cated it was. About two weeks ago,
however, it finally caught up with
him.
At the behest o f Israeli coercion,
the U.S. does not recognize the PLO
(Palestine Liberation Organization)
and so does not communicate with
them at all. The PLO, for its part,
does not recognize Israel and there is
no contact between the two except
for the all too frequent military con
frontations, bombings, cross border
raids, etc.
Always the pragmatic, Young felt
that this whole policy was ridiculous.
How could there ever be peace be
tween Israel and the Arabs when the
two sides are not even talking? We
further felt that the position o f the
U.S., acting as mediator in this dis
pute, was equally ridiculous since the
U.S. itself refused to negotiate with
the PLO. So when Young met a PLO
representative at a dinner he had
been invited to, he talked to him.
When news o f this meeting leaked
out, that the head o f the U.S.
mission to the UN had met and
talked with a PLO representative,
the brouhaha was deafening. Once
more his critics called for blood and
this time they got it. Young resigned.
Up till now he still insists he didn't
do anything wrong. He maintains he
just got fed up with the “ snail's pace
o f the diplomatic process.” He feels
that there were just too many restric
tions preventing him from doing
the things he wanted to do and things
he knew had to be done. The resig
nation is a serious loss; he had worked
himself up to become one o f the
most influential people (Black or
w hite) in the w orld. Somebody
else will take his place but, his shoes
will never be filled. Whoever comes
in has already been cowed into tow
ing the line if he/she values his/her
job. Sad.
The resignation was condemned
th ro ug h ou t the w orld but, the
loudest condemnation came from
A fric a . There were only two
messages from A frica that agreed
with the resignation: one from a
nobody by the name o f Abel
Muzorewa who is masquerading as
the prime minister o f Rhodesia and
the other from his adopted ‘uncle’
Pieter Botha, d ic ta to r o f South
Africa. Both feel that Young's re
placement will, o f necessity, be less
vocal and less hostile.
So long, Andy, and thanks for a
job well done.
School Board adopts new desegregation plan
(Continued from page I col. 6)
During school year 1979-80, sixth,
seventh and eighth grade students
who reside in the Area I section of
K ing, w ill be allowed to attend
Beaumont Middle School as an op
tional attendance area, Columbia/
Whitaker is included as an optional
attendance area for Woodlawn Area
I, and Fernwood is included as an
optional attendance area for Hum
boldt .
In the event the options exercised
would cause minority enrollment to
the middle school in question to ex
ceed 50B,o the assignment requests
will be honored in the order in which
the district receives them.
• At Columbia/W hitaker, Beau
mont and Fernwood maximum stu
dent populations should not exceed a
total equal to 23 students per existing
classroom space and should use all
available classrooms.
• In the event a parents choice
cannot be honored by reason o f the
5OB/o provision and space a v a il
ability, they shall then have the ad
d itio na l option o f Beach, Ockley
Green, Chief Joseph or Kenton sub
ject to the same 5()B’o provision and
space availability.
• It is the present intention o f the
board that students shall have the
right to remain at their chosen school
in the implementation o f this op
tional attendance provision to com
pletion o f that school’ s grade levels,
(i.e. K-5 or 6-8).
The district will implement an im
mediate review o f all forms and com
munications to parents to insure that
all transfer students leaving the
Albina schools have the same rights
and privileges as those transferring
into the Early Childhood Centers.
N eighborhood schools w ill be
established as a pick-up point for
a dm in istrative transfer students.
Supervision will be provided at the
school pick-up point for students.
Students can also be picked up at the
usual pick-up points but supervision
w ill not be provided there. The
d is tric t w ill expeditiously con
sider the report on discipline,
dealing w ith suspension and ex
pulsion, which is being prepared by
the Metropolitan Human Relations
Commission leading to the establish
ment and implementation o f goals to
reduce the disproportionate number
o f Black students suspended and ex
pelled. These goals w ill include
proper tra in in g and sta ffin g as
necessary. The board does not expect
this to alter the uniform ity o f the
district's disciplinary standards.
A m on itoring group w ill be
created, made up o f all interested
com m unity members, parents,
students, w ith invita tion s to the
representatives o f the Black United
Front, the NAACP, the Metropoli
tan Human Relations Commission
and the Urban League to participate.
This monitoring group will serve as
the voice for parents and children
who feel there are difficulties in re
ceiving equitable treatment.
The long term plan will provide
for the development o f a comprehen
sive plan on a ll aspects o f the
desegregat ion/ integral ion program.
A ll elementary schools in Albina
will be retored to K-8 status unless
there are program reasons for d if
ferent configurations. These schools
will be below 50 per cent minority,
with white enrollment insured by
cluster changes or boundary
changes. A ll students w ill have a
standard assignment for every grade.
Clusters will include schools with
contiguous boundaries when this ap-
proprately meets the objectives of
the comprehensive plan. Boise,
Eliot, Humbodlt, Sabin, Woodlawn,
King and Vernon will be protected
from closure under the com-
prehenisive plan.
sive plan.
One and possibly two integrated
middle schools will be established in
the Albina area.
A process w ill be developed
whereby parents and members o f the
community can be involved in the
selection o f staff. Funds will be pur
posefully allocated so that m ajor
concentrations o f local, state and
federal money designated for in
tegration/disadvantaged services will
occur in cluster schools.
Extensive courses o f instruction
for teachers and administrators in
Black history and culture, as well as
in other ethnic cultures and the
problems created by social class, will
be developed. A ll administrators and
staff assigned to schools involved in
the desegregation plan will complete
this instruction.
Programs and curriculum directed
at enhancing the self-w orth and
cultural identity o f Black students
will be implemented.
A personnel director who has skill
and interest in recruiting qualified
minority teachers and staff will be
hired and special recruiters will be
hired if necessary. The District will
negotiate with HEW for permission
to assign Black staff to schools that
have high p ro po rtio ns o f Black
students.
The plans were adopted by Board
members Herb Cawthorne, Steve
Buell, W ally Priestley and Frank
McNamara. Joe Rieke and Bill Scott
were absent.
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