Mra F ré n e o s S c h o e n -’.'ewspaper Poem
U n i v e r s i t y o f C r u ’ en L ib r a r y
Black Caucus defines election campaign issues
The Congressional Black Caucus has adopted comprehensive guidelines
which it recommends Black voters use in evaluating Presidential candidates.
Following is a summary of the guidelines:
I. Full Employment and Balanced Growth Implementation
Presidential candidates are asked to endorse strict implementation of the
Humphrey-Hawkins Act which requires balanced economic growth to
achieve maximum production, full employment and reasonable price
stability. Candidates are asked to:
- offer alternatives to fiscal and monetary policy which induce credit crun
ches, raise interest rates, create shortages and promote inflation;
- oppose slashing programs that target growth in areas where inflationary
shortages are most acute;
- support legislation that will meet the 1983 target of no more than 3 per
cent adult and 4 per cent overall unemployment and a reduction o f the high
rate of unemployment of Blacks, Hispanics, young people and women.
CETA
The guidelines call for funding of C ETA at the level authorized by law and
urge full utilization of Title VI provisions which set up public service em
ployment programs when the unemployment rate reaches 4 per cent and call
for better coordination with local educational programs.
Housing
Support is asked for expansion of housing programs for low and moderate
income families and elderly to increase housin» sunnli« and
income families and elderly to increase housing supplies and reduce inflation
in housing prices. They ask for a commitment to a minimum of two million
housing starts and 500,000 new subsidized units a year. Also endorsement of
the Fair Housing Amendments Act which provides H U D with cease and
desist powers in housing discrimination.
Energy
The CBC asks that energy conservation not be brought about through high
price of energy and that subsidies help low income persons, especially the
elderly, pay utility bills. Oil price control is urged as well as support for
legislation making the US government the sole importer of foreign oil. The
CBC asks support of legislation requiring energy companies to divest in
terests in other industrial fields. It opposes the further development of
nuclear energy and favors development of renewable energy sources through
government subsidies.
Health
Candidates are asked to make it a matter of highest priority that a national
health plan be instituted that provides quality health care equally to all people
regardless of their economic circumstances, paying particular concern to
those who cannot afford to pay and who are discriminated against by medical
institutions.
Education
The guidelines ask that candidates suport at least a threefold increase in
__ __________________________________
federal education funding and call for the continuation o f categorical fund
ing programs supplemented by block grants.
Endorsement of programs in career education, counseling and compen
satory education is called for as well as the extension o f quality early
childhood education to every disadvantaged child in the country. The CBC
asks that there be careful monitoring o f the allocation and expenditure o f
Elementary and Secondary Education Act money.
The CBC guidelines call upon candidates to endorese the constitutional
principles enumerated by the U.S. Supreme Court and federal law relative to
school desegregation.
Urban and Rural Development
1 he CBC guidelines ask that candidates support a comprehensive program
of urban and rural development, and that greater participation by small and
minority businesses by implemented in the government procurement system.
Fedaral Budget Prlorltlee
The CBC calls for support of a five percent real increase in the federal
budget for domestic programs that provide assistance ot low income persons
and minorities. The rapidly increasing defense budget denies money to vital
domestic programs that should be considered on the basis of their own merit.
I he guidelines call for a reduction in the military budget.
(Please turn to page 11, col. 3)
N'* I,
NATIOW Al
PORTLAND OBSERVER
&
USPS 959 600
Voluma 10 Numbar 8
February 28. 1880
1OÇper copy
Two Sectlona
Johnson wins union internship
The Black Educational Center dance group per
forms songs and dances of Libera during the
Malcom/KIng Day celebration.
Thursday Feb. 21, the Community Professionals
(CPs) sponsored a program In remembranca of
Martin Luther King and Malcom X at the Alberta
Theater. The CPs are about providing a platform
for events eround Issues and Individuals relative to
the Black experience.
â 5 i 1
i
The program Included talks by Lanlta Duke and
Ron Herndon, readings from Malcom X and
Langston Hughes by Paul Marshall, Tai Chi
demonstration, songs and dances of Liberia by
children of Black Education Center and music
from a band made up of local musicians. The
program was entertaining and educational and en
joyed by all who attended.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
*
A familiar face to youngatara croaalng Albarta Btraat going to
Humboldt School la Robart L. Hill. Mr. Hlll’a concarn for tha klda doaa
not atop at tha croaawalk. ha a vary upaat about tha poor quality of
aducatlon thay ara getting and faala thay shouldn t ba draggad all
ovar tha city. If thay atartad bualng those teachers around thay would
coma up with a plan to educate thaaa kids pretty feat.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Minister
visits
prisoners
N ational Council o f Churches
President M. William Howard has
made the second in a series of visits
to political prisoners in the United
States, this time seeing Puerto
Ricans arrested in a demonstration
against U.S. naval war exercies on
the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
The were arrested during an
ecumenical service protesting U.S.
naval bombing of Vieques, 70 per
cent of which is owned by the Navy.
Island residents hve been fighting
for several years to force the Navy
to stop its test shelling, charging
that it is destroying the island’ s
fishing and land and endangering
their lives.
"These people have felt com
pelled to make their voices heard on
an issue which is clearly of great p-
olitical significance,” Howard said
after his visit. " I think the length of
their sentences indicates that the
authorities regard them as political
persons, in that under normal cir
cumstances participation in a
demonstration would get someone a
suspended or minimal sentence.
" W h ile certainly there is a
criminal law which they are guilty of
having violated, it is really the con
text o f the demonstration which
projects them as political prisoners.
"The fact that so many different
groups in Puerto Rico have joined
together in protest against the
military maneuvers at Vieques is in
dicative of the broad groundswell of
support on this issue. I think it
should be a suggestion to the US
government to rethink its policy
about using Vieques in this way.”
Gloria Johnson has been selected
for an Internship sponsored by the
A. Philip Randolph Institute and
the Communications Workers o f
America.
Applying at the suggestion of her
union representative and without
great hope of being the one chosen,
Mrs. Johnson won the nation-wide
competition.
An employee o f Pacific North
west Bell for eleven years, Mrs.
Johnson is currently a yellow pages
clerk. She is a shop steward and has
held other union positions.
The purpose of the internship is
to train in union organization and
related areas. In an election year,
she will have the opportunity to see
politics in action as well as the inner
workings of the union.
Mrs. Johnson will go to
W ashington, D .C . for a week’ s
orientation, then will return the end
o» March. Her initial station will be
Washington and New York, but she
will also work in other cities. ” 1 will
travel a lot, and actually will be
living in hotels - out of a suitcase.”
Although on leave from Pacific
Northwest Bell, Mrs. Johnson has
been assured a position with the
union when one is available.
Her husband, Robert, will remain
in Portland. “ He is a strong believe
in unions, and is happy that I have
this opportunity to learn ,” Mrs.
Johnson explained.
GLORIA JOHNSON
(Photo: Richard Brown)
Doctor warns of Kian danger
Dr. Rosalind Cropper, a Black
Southern doctor whose practice was
the target of Ku Klux Kian violence,
told a Linfield College audience
that the KKK remains a very real
threat.
D r. Cropper, whose story was
featured in Ebony Magazine, was
the main speaker during the
College’s Black History Week.
Ebony Magazine first learned of
Dr. Cropper after the Associated
Press picked up her story from a
local newspaper. The Ku Klux Kian
had burned Dr. Cropper’s house
and loosened the brakes on her car,
causing her to plunge 20 feet.
"The last thing was three o’clock
in the morning when they held a
rally in my yard. I decided to leave
town at that point,” she said.
The KKK perceived her as a threat
to the power structure, she said.
- T h e four white doctors there
had been there a long time. This was
my first year there and I had twice
as many patients a day as they did,
forty to fifty . I was really over
worked,” Dr. Cropper said. “ I was
a threat to the whole status quo of
their power system.”
Dr. Cropper said the condition of
civil rights for Blacks in the South
today is unchanged from previous
years. Blacks are gaining more
prestige, therefore being able to
demand more as far as their plight is
concerned, she said. But, she
believes, overall there has been little
change.
“ It ’s the South with a smile on its
face,” Dr. Cropper said.
Dr. Cropper, whose lecture was
titled, "W h ere Do We Go From
Here.’ " said to best further the
cause of civil rights, each individual
must rid themselves of racism, and
learn to deal with people as one per
son to another.
"You can’t deal with me as Black
versus white.” Dr. Cropper said.
“ You have to deal man to man.
Once a man has proven himself, i»
speaks tor itself. Racism will not
disappear w ithin the next five
generations. It has to be outbred.”
Dr. Cropper warns that the KKK
and similar forces are not limited
merely to the South.
“ Any time you have a (perceived)
threat to the power in force, you are
going to get an equal and opposite
reaction, be it the Ku Klux Kian or
another force,” she said.
Dr. Cropper, 27, now resides in
Tuscaloosa, A la., where she prac
tices medicine. She often lectures at
colleges and universities, usually
once or twice a month.
NAACP holds energy workshop
f 'f lf r U V .. W n u ; m n z> k
Energy-How
much will we need?
From what sources will it come?
Where will we get it? How safe will
it be? What are the implications of
energy policies on the Black com
munity?
These questions, among others,
will be topics of discussion at the
Portland Branch N A A C P Energy
Symposium, to be held at the Matt
Dishman Memorial Center, 77 N.E.
Knott Street, March I, 1980, from
8:30a.m. to 4 :!5 p.m.
The conference will feature an
opening plenary session in the mor
ning and concurrent afternoon
workshops featuring government
officials and representatives o f
private industry knowledgable o f
our n atio n ’ s energy concerns.
[ ^ i r r> n r • , Z ,»
_
. »
Discussion • topics _ for
the f four
workshops includes "Supply and
Demand,” "Alternative and Con
s ervatio n ," "E m p lo ym en t and
Education.” and "Local, State, and
Regional Policies and Legislation.”
The conference is free to the public;
lunch will not be provided.
According to President Lucious
Hicks IV , the conference is intended
to present a basic inform ational
package on energy to the Black
community, to assist Black Port
landers in understanding the impli
cations of the world-wide concern
with energy.
Keynote speaker at the conference
brown bag luncheon will be Clarke
R. W atson, chairperson o f the
American Association o f Blacks in
Energy. Watson is also President
Westland Companies o f Denve
Colorado.
Jackie Winters, Ombudsman f<
the State of Oregon, will moderai
the opening plenary session froi
10:15 a.m. until 12 noon.
In addition, the afternoc
workshop moderators includ
Lynn Frank, director of the Oregc
Department of Energy for "Eneri
Supply and Demand;” Roy Brack«
o f Golden Colorado's Solar Eneri
Research Institute for "Alternativi
and C onservation;" Lila Joinei
Regional D irector o f the Oppoi
(unities Industrialization Center!
for "Employment and Education,
and Gubernatorial Assistant Pi
Amedeo for " L o c a l, State an
Regional Policy and Legislation.”
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