School Board offers voluntary desegregation plan The P ortland School Board's desegregation/integration committee has completed the preliminary draft o f its long awaited “ comprehensive desegregation plan” and will present it to the School Board next Monday night. The new plan w ill require heavy recruitment - heavier than that now practiced, according to Board Chairman Frank McNamara. The plan is dependent on a large number o f Black children leaving their neighborhood schools and equal numbers o f white children volun teering to attend schools in Albina. Emphasizing that the plan is en tirely voluntary and w ill provide a choice for every parent, the commit tee spent the weekend revising and reworking the plan submitted to it by Superintendent Robert Blanchard. Although two options - with alter natives - will be presented, the only major change w ill be the establish ment o f a middle school at Boise or E lio t and the possible move o f C olum bia/W hitaker Middle School in to the Adams H igh School Building. O p tio n One w ould place a “ magnet” middle school at Eliot, with no resident population but open to approximately 700 middle school age students from throughout the city. If that option is selected, a middle school w ill be established at Chap man, in Northwest Portland, with students from Chapm an, Boise, E liot, and parts o f Hum boldt and King assigned to that school with the o ver-flow going to a new m iddle school at H ayhurst in Southwest Portland. Theoretically any o f those students could opt to attend the Eliot magnet middle school. Boise would become an Early C h ild h o o d Education Center. An alternative to that plan would place a middle school at Boise — forming a cluster with Chapman and A in s w o rth . Boise low er grade children w ould be assigned to Chapman ECE or A in s w o rth Elementary School and upper graders from the three schools would have a m andatory assignment at Boise. Option Two makes Boise a middle school serving 6th through 8th graders at Boise, w ith enrollment open to white students. Couch would become an ECE with Metropolitan Learning Center, now housed in that building, going elsewhere. An alternative would place a mid dle school at Boise with mandatory assignment o f Chapman and A in sworth upper graders. Boise K in dergarten through 5th graders would go to a new ECE at Eliot and the Eliot follow through program would move to Couch. Under O p tio n One W oodlaw n, Vernon, King area 1 and II upper grade students would be assigned to Columbia/W hitaker. The King area I I I students w ould go to the I r vington and Sabin clusters. An alternative would close Colum- bia/Whnaker and place the program in the Adams High School building, adding King, Sacajawea and Scott students. A second alternative would be to use Adam s and W h ita k e r school buildings as separate middle schools. Adams High School Stud ents would be assigned to Jefterson, G ran t, M adison and possibly Roosevelt. A lth ou g h the com m ittee was adamant about its desire to insure a vo lu ntary plan, Herb Cawthorne repeatedly suggested that the program is not truly voluntary it no space exists fo r Black children in their own schools so they have to be recruited o u t. C u rre n tly more students are assigned to C olum - bia/W hitaker than the building can hold, so Black children are sent to other schools. In the new plan, there would s till be too many children assigned to C o lu m b ia /W h ita k e r (unless Adams is used). King, Hum boldt and the new Chapman middle school. Frank M cNam ara suggested a mandatory cluster o f Boise middle school, Ainsworth elementary school and Chapman ECE, on a pattern similar to that at Beaumont-Sabin- ( Please turn to page 2 col. 4) PORTLAND OBSERVER V olu m e 9 N um ber 46 N ovem ber 22. 1979 100 per copy U S P S 9 59 680 Wilson named outstanding young woman Zoe Wilson has been chosen as a 1979 Outstanding Young Woman. Ms. W ilson achieves this honor through outstanding service to her community. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Ms. W ilson is a graduate o f I r vington Grade School and Monroe High school. She attended Oregon State University and Portland State University. ZOE W ILSON cy’s press representative. Since July o f 1975, Ms. Wilson has been a Personnel Assistant at the State Department o f Commerce. She coordinates and implements the A l- firmative Action program and works in all aspects o f personnel. Ms. Wilson's volunteer activities are many. As co ordin ato r o f the 1978 Employee Cancer Campaign she collected more c o n trib u tio n s She was first employed by U.S. than ever before in the department's N ational Bank, where she was a h istory. She was the firs t non forms designer in the Systems De medical person to w ork as a partment. From the bank she moved pregnancy counsellor at the Marion to Xerox C o rp o ra tio n , in the County Health Department Family customer service department. Her Planning C linic, where she volun duties included resolving customer teered. complaints. She has held several positions in Other employment included ser the Salem Branch, N A A C P , and vices as an Avaiation Inform ation received N AACP awards for mem Representative for the Port o f Por bership and O utstanding Fun tla n d , where she researched and draising in 1976, 1977 and 1978. wrote papers on “ Career A ppoin One o f three finalists for the City tments at teh Portland International o f Salem, Human Rights C om A ir p o r t . " She assisted in the m ission’ s 1978 Human Rights development o f a program to assist Award, she was also nominated for passengers at the airport, conducted the Salem Human Rights C om tours and represented the Port at m ission's 1979 Roberto Clemente conferences. She later was a‘ J|* Humanitarian Award. She was selec Customer Service Clerk at United ted by the Pacific Northwest Con Airlines. ference o f Black Public Officials as Ms. Wilson worked as an In fo r one o f the Potential Black Leaders mation Director at the Department for the 1980s. o f Energy where she initiated and Ms. Wilson is a member o f the edited the m onthly newsletter, Assemblies o f God Christian Center “ Energy ro-dale” and developed an in Salem and the W illiam Temple Church o f God In Christ in Por tland. Ms. Wilson is the daughter o f Mr. and Mrs. Artie Wilson, Sr. and the grandaughter o f Mr. and Mrs. Frank Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Benjamin Daniels. Her brother is Artie Wilson, Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Jr., o f Honolulu. Sojourner Truth. Ms. Wilson wishes to dedicate her Garrett A. Morgan, M artin Luther award as O utstanding Young King, Granville T. Woods, Harriett Woman o f America to her grand I ubman, Marcus Garvey and Joe m other, Mrs. Annie W. Daniels, Louis. who died on November 7th. “ She A reply to the request has not yet has and always will be my inspiration been received. and was truly an Outstanding Young W oman." Black United Front asks Black street names The Black United Front has ad vised Steve Keebaugh, City Engineer o f the Portland Bureau o f Streets of its desire that several Northeast Por tland streets be named after prominant Black persons. In a letter dated November 12th, Co-chairmen Ronnie Herndon and Reverend John Jackson said, “ As Black residents o f Portland, we have observed there are very few visible expressions o f pride w ith in our community. Such a fact is unfortun ate because we have made numerous c o n trib u tio n s in P o rtla n d , th ro ug h ou t A m erica, and the world.” Among the names suggested are: BEN TALLEY Talley heads Multnomah Region Ben Talley, manager o f the Port land Albina Human Resources Cen ter, has been named Manager o f the M ultnom ah Region o f A d u lt and Family Services Division by division administrator, Keith Putman. Talley has been with the Depart ment o f Human Resources since 1977, first as the department's A ffir mative Action O fficer and then as the Resources Center Manager. From 1973 to 1964 he was the Parent Involvement C o o rd ina to r fo r the Portland Public Schools. P rior to that he was associated with Portland State University, Portland Residen- lial Manpower Center, the YW CA and Portland Model Cities Program. He is a graduate o f the University o f Portland, Portland State Univer sity and Blackstone College o f Law. As Manager o f the M ultnom ah Region for Adult and Family Ser vices Division, I alley w ill be respon sible for managing the region's bien nial budget ($230 m ill ion), super vising 540 staff located in eight field offices throughout the county and managing the delivery o f programs and services associated w ith the state's public assistance, food stamp and medical programs. George Page: Master of video H v Stephanie L. Michael The use o f video tape is being used in a gammet o f manners. No longer is electronic news gathering soley used by contm erical television stations. Video tape is now used by co rporations, advertising firm s, hospitals and many more agencies. One o f the newer uses o f video tape has been in the industrial area. Presently in Portland there are about six companies that handle industrial video tape productions. One o f those companies is Tele-West Associates, P.O. Box 06432. George Page is manager o f Tele- West Associates. The agency is stal led by two three men crews and two ilespersons. At this time the video tnpany does nothing but industrial numerical film ing. Page says the ncy is limiting itself because there still so many quirks o f the in- mstrial industry that needs to be displayed. “ We don't do alot of work out of the slate, because we're still trying to concentrate on the Oregon industry. We have two mobile vans that could take us around easily, but the in dustrial video field is still relatively new." said Page. " I 'v e been in the broadcasting business since I was 16 years old. I hat means I've been in the business lor about 21 years Over the years I've learn to film a good production piece in three hours, which would take most companies three to five days to do.” Before Page went into business lor him self, he worked as a Direc- tor/producer for a local Portland TV station. Page says he was one o f the few Black broadcasters in the city. " I decided to leave the TV end o f the business after a dispute with my past employer; that particular dispute is still in the courts. I wanted to be my own individual and I knew I was needed in the m arket as a professional. “ The malice and prejudice in the in d u stria l sales area is not as prevelent as the media industry. Each station here in town from my perspective, hires a limited number o f Blacks. I f you are fire d by a station or want to transfer over to another station it w on 't happen. White broadcasters can flow from station to station, but Blacks are uninterchangeable here in the Por tland m arket. Black women arc really dispised. A Black journalist can get easily black listed. When a Black broadcaster comes to Por tland, I te ll them to either fin d someway to get in the market or leave tow n. Possibly i f a Black broadcaster gets here when the stations arc going through their cleaning house cycle they may gel hired, at least for a short while. Most of the lime, il a Black broadcaster is too Black, by that I mean confident. and too qualified, they’ re going to tell you you’ re over qualified. That was my problem here in Portland." George Page, who is now 37-years old started his business in 1975 with little or no money. He worked for almost two years with no equipment o f his own. During that period of time he contributed to several com m unity organizations and broad casting stations. He’ s acted as a volunteer for former station KQIV and is now w orking as a DJ fo r KBOO radio. At station KBOO 90.7 on the FM dial. Page plays blues, jazz and other popular Black music from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. every Satur day. He is known as the “ Master B la ster," around the city o f Por tland. Presently Page and a group o f local Black residents are putting together a film p ro d u ctio n . The movie entitled "Street L ife,” will be submitted into a national film and video festivals. Page says very few images o f Blacks are protrayed th ro ug h ou t Am erica. He says he plans to create and help distribute as many video and film works produced by Blacks in Oregon as well as the rest o f the country. He says the film and television industry must come to learn that it will take several things to put on a Black production, besides just having Black actors. Page says in order to have a Black production, ( Please turn to page 13 col. I ) In the spirit of Thanksgiving members of Jack and Jill of Am erica. Inc., Portland Chapter, gathered in the M a tt Dishman center to prepare boxes of fruit and canned goods for the Nicholas Care C enter The c e n te r, o p e ra te d hv R e v e re n d Ivors Ni bolas is lo c a te d on N o rth e a s t C i i o i r ' (Photo Richard Brown)