Portland Observer November 8. 1979 Page 5
Black United Front demands equitable desegregation plan
by Stephanie Michael
The demands of the Portland
Black community were recently
voiced concerning quality education
for their children. A group known
as the Black United Front helped
community residents strategize and
set forth possible goals to insure their
children do not share a dispropor
tionate amount of busing in the city's
upcoming school desegregation
move.
Co-chairman Ronnie Herndon,
along with other Black United Front
members, have been lecturing and
holding meetings around the city.
These meetings have been scheduled
to let concerned parents know about
the history of Portland and how it
has affected the school district.
Group members feel the state’s and
city's history have played an impor
tant role in previous moves by the
Portland School Board in planning
its desegregation program. Herndon,
who was recently a guest speaker of
the Militant Book Store Forum, says
the BUF plans to keep an eye on the
school district's moves concerning
the issue. He says steady strategizing
efforts will help insure a successful
and
beneficial
desegregation
program for everyone in Portland,
which has never been instituted.
Briefly discussing the history of
Oregon and laws pertaining to
Blacks, Herndon made particular
reference to a law established in 1857
which prohibited free or slave Blacks
in Oregon. He also mentioned that
two Oregon senators had voted to
have the 14th, 15th and 16th amend
ments removed from the C on
stitution.
Taking a look at the history of the
1940s, he stated that Oregon had
been surveyed as one of the states
worst in segregation, north of the
Mason Dixon line. The co-chairman
says Portland was one of the
prominent ship building areas during
World War II, and recruited Blacks
to the area for manual labor and ser
vice jobs for the first time. He stress
ed that after the war there was no
need lor the Black laborers which
then totaled a population of 25,000
strong.
"W ithin six m onths the Black
population was reduced to 11,000.
The impossibility of getting work ex
cept for very limited service jobs was
almost nonexistent for Blacks. The
overt discrimination backed by laws
forced many Blacks to leave the state
just in order to survive. Looking at
recent statistics the population of
Blacks in Portland is just now getting
up to the 1940 census. Portland is the
only city I know of that has this
unique and perplexing problem. Still
today, for the most part, overt forms
of racism exist in the Portland area.
Take a look at the number of Blacks
in management positions as well as
the number of professionals here.”
When comparing the history of the
state and how it has effected
education, some devastating moves
have been carefully planned in the
education of Black children -- or
what he prefers to call the lack of
educating Black children.
"In 1954 the Portland NAACP
conducted a school study finding
that the achievement levels of Black
children were very low. With this
finding the group put pressure on the
School Board for quality education
and for the hiring of Black teachers.
The School Board, in response to the
protest, put together what they con
sidered was a blue ribbon committee
to help study the problem. What
resulted was the beefing up of
salaries for teachers in the
predominately Black populated
schools. This is what teachers and
Blacks at that time described as
combat pay. There were some
curriculum changes made, but still
all white curriculum.”
"By the 1960’s, the achievement
levels for some Black students in the
city had gone up. but that was a
factor that was occuring all over the
country, nothing really unique to the
Portland school district. But
something else was also occuring, the
harassment of Black students at
predominately white schools. When
nothing was done after numerous
reports to the school district, Black
students and parents threatened a
boycott.
Presently the Portland school
board and district administrators are
working on the development of a
school desegregation program. What
supporters and members of the Black
United Front don’t want to see is a
new plan scattering Black children
again. Things the group would like
to see are more Black teachers,
cultural classes including Black
History.
"These cultural classes the group
is talking about would be provided
not only to students, but to coun
selors, teachers and administrators
as well. Strength, unity an commit
ment have been developing over a
long period of time in the Black
community. There are some de
mands that we want met, or some
course of action will have to be
taken. We prefer not to take any
course of action, but there is a
change needed in the Portland com
munity as a whole. 1 find it a very
racist assumption for the school
district to decide a ratio of 49 per
cent in racially isolated schools is in
ferior. W'hy isn’t this same statement
used when a school is populated with
a ratio of that many white students?
“ I feel that any time you take any
children, making sure they’ve got old
books, inferior equipm ent, sixty
students in one classroom - not in
cluding the culturally biased tests - I
can guarantee that you will get low
achievement levels and the failing of
tests. The 1954 Brown vs Board of
Education decision I feel was racist
in its whole content. I believe the
Supreme Court should have decided
that all children could go to any
school that they chose and the
Election 1980
government would do its utmost to
protect that right. You see, by put
ting Black and white kids together,
they will never guarantee they will
get along. Black people have never
had a problem dealing with white
people. Our problem has always
been racism and the institutions that
support it.
“ Even during slavery times Black
and white children played together,
but the institution of slavery caused
the problem. You don’t get rid of a
problem when a racist system keeps
the problem going by giving federal
money to supplement things. W hen
whites came to this country Indians
never saw whites before, but they
didn’t request that whites bus their
children to London. The same can be
said about Africans when Europeans
came to their land. I feel it is all a
part of one’s value system.”
Herndon stated that Black
children have a hard enough time
seeing the sense in attending school,
particularly to the college level.
There are more unemployed Black
college graudates today than white
high school drop outs. C ultural
programs will help everyone discover
and understand differing cultures.
When Black children go to
predominately Black schools that is
not re-segregation. Segregation oc
curs only when laws forceably limit
citizenship rights based on skin
color. People have to start making
decisions that make sense Herndon
says Blacks have to insure that
quality education, self-concepts and
images are provided for all. There is
no time to go on the basis of what
white folk are or are not opposed to.
Things should be measured on the
good tor the whole community in
terms of long range goals.
"What we have found by talking
with childrn, parents and concerned
supporters is that desegregation has
brought more destruction than
development. The group has received
letters from Black prison inmates
who slate their problems with the law
started with schools they were bused
to. Inmates claim their rebellion
process started with teachers and
counselor relationships, climaxing
with school adm instrators. The
neglect by white teachers caused
these intelligent, successful Black
students to rebel agaisnt a system
that didn’t recognize them or their
potential. We aren't going to let this
happen again.”
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Senator Vern Cook, Democrat,
announced that he has filed for re-
election to the Oregon State Senate,
District 12, M ultnomah County.
Cook has been a member of the
Oregon Legislature since 1957 when
he was first elected, and a member of
the Senate since 1961. Senator Vern
Cook has had numerous committee
assignments hut his principal areas
of interest have been in the fields of
legal rights and taxation. Cook, a
lawyer and a former Gresham City
Judge, served four sessions as the
Revenue and Taxation Committee
Chairman of the Senate and in 1979
was the Chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
SENATOR JIM GARDNER
State Senator Jim Gardner has an
nounced that he will seek re-election
to the State Senate in 1980. Senator
Gardner represents District 10 in
East Portland, which includes the
neighborhoods of Irvington,
Alameda, L.aurelhurst and Mt.
Tabor.
A member of the 1979 legislative
session, G ardner served on the
Senate Judiciary, Revenue and Elec
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man on the Senate Health and
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attorney, praticing in Portland.
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