Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1980)
Hra Fra ;?3 Schoen-Newspaper Poca U n iv e r a t y c f Oregon L i b r a r y O re Tön 9 7 4 0 3 New deseg plan meets community opposition C f i m m 11 n i t V sa r m a k* * C om m unity groups have * k* been asked to address the School Board Thursday night regarding its plans, however, those plans have again been changed. A new draft -- writ ten by Chairman Bill Scott - was released Monday and is expected to be revised somewhat Wednesday evening. a Plans for changes in the Chap man- Ainsworth and Alameda areas have been removed Plans to make Chapman a middle school and Ain sworth a K-5 met heavy opposition from Ainsworth. Blacks opposed that option because it would man- ditorily assign King and Humboldt children to Chapman without man datory assignment o f west side children to Albina schools. Changes in the Sabin-Alameda- Beaumont cluster also have been dumped. This plan had included a transfer of a section of Alameda to Sabin, an action that should have taken place when the cluster was created i f the stated goal o f desegregation were to be met. A new element is the transfer of Hum boldt 3-5 graders to Beach. Herb C awthorne had earlier suggested making Humboldt a K-2 school and Beach a 3-5 school for children living in the Humboldt and Beach areas. The new plan calls only for the transfer o f Hum boldt children. The plan calls for the move of Eliot ECE to the old Monroe High School building and establishment o f a magnet middle school in the Eliot building, open to 600 young sters on a “ selected basis**, with emphasis on “ academic, physical and fine arts education“ . The plan w ill meet with op position from community groups and from some Board members. Mrs. Freddye Petett, director o f the Urban League o f Portland, w ill testify on the differences between “ desegregation” and “ integration” and w ill urge the Board to em phasize education rather than enrollment percentages. The Urban League opposes voluntary desegregation, believing that it will not be successful. They recommend that Eliot become a middle school of assignment for all A lb in a students without middle school assignments, not a magnet school, but that available space be utilized for white transfers. They want an academically orientated school. Additional recommendations in clude: hire a personnel director im mediately; agreement with the Black United Front on the need to hire teachers and administrators who are competent and knowledgable with ability to work with Black children; teacher training in conflict resolution, stereotyping and negative labelling. They are asking that, since the Board’s plan is really a short term solution rather than a long term plan, the Board appoint a Commission to design a long range comprehensive plan. School Board member Steve Buel questions the inequity aspects of the plan, the fact that during the first year 203 additional resident minority students will be sent out of so that if the voluntary plan is not successful, determination can be made during the first year and a move made to mandatory boundary changes. Priestley favors the Alameda boundary change at this time since if returning Black students raise the minority enrollment, white resis tance to the change will increase. Although favoring a magnet mid dle school with selection criteria. Herb Cawthorne would not oppose assignments. He fears that assign ments would undermine the volun tary aspect of the plan in the minds of the people. He is concerned the move of King boundaries with the option of students to attend Sabin or Alamda. Since Sabin has only 42 vacancies, this would not provide a real choice, so he prefers open enrollment. the community but no white stu dents will be sent in. These mandatory transfers out are: King, 142; Eliot, 84 (not in cluding Albina children attending Eliot who do not reside in the Eliot area); Humboldt, 69. Second year: King, 152; E liot, 80; Hum boldt, 179. He recommends assignment of Buckman and Chapman students to the Eliot middle school. Buel opposes a magnet middle school for Eliut and states, “ I am unalterably opposed to selectivity in enrollment. All King and Humboldt students (fo r whom the school is designed) need to be able to attend. Chapman and Buckman students should be mandatorily assigned." Wally Priestley is opposed to a selective middle school and wants mandatory assignments with the burden shared equally by Blacks O«»' N<">. MA DONAI PORTLAND OBSERVER Volume 10 Number 9 M arche. 1980 10Cper copy U S PS 959 680 Broussard builds senior housing complex Bruce Broussard, developer of the 38-umt W'alnut Park Apartments, will be joined by many dignitaries for the official ceremonies begin ning construction. Broussard, whose proposal and design won him the right to build the project, describes the units as uniquely designed for senior citizens. The project is the first privately funded housing complex to be established in the northeast neigh borhood. Broussard, who has been a real estate deavelopcr and investor in the area for over five years, has been working on this project for over two years. “ Families are begin ning to move back into this area,” Broussard said, "and many business people feel (hat the climate is perfect for redevelopment. Where businesses start establishing them selves, you begin to see revitalization , and reduction in unemployment. The entire character of the community turns from non productive to very productive." "T he project itself is innovative in design” , said Broussard. “ It is 38 units, single bedroom apartment complex specifically constructed for Senior Citizens. Not only is it built to the highest o f fire code Bonita Nesbitt, senior at Reed College and graduate of Malcolm X. Shabazz High School In Newark, New Jersey; a nominee for "Out standing Black Coed" of The Black Collaglan Magazine. Reed coed nominated Reed College senior Benita Nes bitt has been nominated for for con sideration as an “ Outstanding Black C oed,” an annual feature of The Black Collegian Magazine, by Reed Presidsent Paul E. Bragdon. “ Ms. Nesbitt has distinguished herself during her undergraduate years at Reed College and is held in high esteem throughout the college co m m u n ity,” said President Bragdon in his nomination. "She represents the very finest charac teristics o f the liberally educated person, combining social conscience with strong personal motivation and ability.” Ms. Nesbitt, an economics major, is writing her senior thesis research project on the effects of a national health program on the private in surance industry. She has held summer internships for the past Five years with Predential Insurance Company. She is a member of the Portland Rotorac, a youth division of Rotary International. She represented Reed in the University o f Warwick Exchange Program in England 1977-78, and has traveled throughout Europe and four countries of Africa. She plans to go to graduate school for a degree of Master of Business Administration and to work within the international business market, particularly in African nations. Architects model of planned senior housing at Northwest 6th and Roselawn. requirements and soundproofing for acoustical privacy, it is also built to be energy efficient. A ll units, whether on the East or West, are designed to receive South sun in the winter. Overhangs will shade win dows from hot midday sun in the summer.” Safety and security measures are also of extreme importance at the N.E. 6th Avenue and Roselawn cm- plex. The groud floor units will have windows designed to prevent en trance through operating sections. Personnel in the complex office will have full view o f the parking area, both entrances, the com munity room, mail box area, elevator lobby, and the patio. Joining Broussard for the ceremony on Sunday, March 9th, at 2:30 p.m . w ill be Commissioner Charles Jordan; Reverend John Jackson, M ount O livet Baptist Church; and the 4-H Choral En semble o f Portland under the direc tion of Reverend Ira Mumford. Black mayors fight to control white police O A K L A N D , CA. (PNS) - Nearly 2,000 angry citizens jammed the Oakland Auditorium Theater here several weeks ago follow ing the shooting of James Bell. They came not because Bell’s death was in any way extraordinary; they caine because it was all too common. Bell was the ninth Black person to be shot and killed by O akland’ s predominantly white police force in the last 12 months -- a time during which no white persons were killed by police. Six other Blacks had also been shot and survived. Most of the crowd had come to demand that the city install a citizen’s review commission to in vestigate police violence and charges of racism. The Oakland force of 700 officers is two-thirds white in a city where minorities outnumber whites and have control of city hall. Oakland's Mayor Lionel Wilson, who presided over the hearing, had publicly supported establishing a police review board earlier in the year -- a move which the police saw as threatening their authority. Ten sions between the police and (he m ayor’ s o ffice had been rising throughout the year and ap proached the breaking point in late November when Wilson suggested that a flurry of assults on officers might have been provoked by the police’s own use of force. Black political leaders in Oakland echoed the mayor’s sentiments and staged a press conference in his sup port. Almost simultaneously. 400 police officers marched on city hall and issued blistering denunciations of Wilson. The ongoing tussle between city hall and the police is a bitter drama that has played in city after city across America during the last half decade - in almost direct response to the election of a new breed of Black public o fficials. In most cases, the elections of Black leaders have brought them in face-to-face conflict with established, usually white, usually well-organized police forces. In many cases, Black leaders came to power on a specific cam paign to curb police violence against minorities. The community-police conflicts have been steadily increasing in every part of the United States, ac cording to Oil Poinpa, director oT the Justice D epartm ent’ s C om munity Relations Service. It takes up two-thirds of his office caseload, he says, and constitutes the "most volatile and potentially divisive force in the nation today.” In Oakland, the most likely short term solution to the police- community impasse seemed to be the formation of an official police review board — which the council has now voted to set up. The Muzorewa. Financed by Rhodesia and South Africa, he had more than $100 million at his disposal. That’s the equivalent o f one o f your presidential candidates spending $100 million! He had a striped red and white helicopter in which he managed to visit every comer of the country. He had 5,000 paid cam paign workers. His campaign head quarters was in the swankiest hotel in Harare (Salisbury) equipped with a battery of 200 telephones. He even had computers. M ugabe’s head quarters, on the other hand, was located in one of the Black ghettoes, only had two telephones and his March of last year. So the little bishop was said to have been running a “ very slick American style campaign.” What he forgot, o f course, was that Zim babwe and the United States are about as alike as a strudel and a donut. He had unlimited access to the media, more so than any other candidate. He thought he had the advantage (which turned out to be the major disadvantage) of incum bency. His close ties to Rhodesia's whites and to South Africa hurt him very badly. H it goofinets did not help matters at all. A story is still making the rounds concerning one of his colossal blunders. Speaking to an all Black crowd, he said, “ Do not vote for Mugabe because if you do, he will redistribute the land.” The listeners gaped in amazement broader problem, however, was one of power. As Black county super visor John George put it at the tumultuous January meeting, “ The real question is: who rules Oakland - - the city council or the police?” That too has been the underlying issue in most large cities where Black politicians have taken control of city government. Detroit’s Mayor Coleman Young won much of his national reputation for having diffused a state of near guerrilla warfare between the white police force and the Black population of the city’s delapidated downtown. Young won his first mayoralty race in 1973 on a tough campaign to end police brutality. Detroit was notorious worldwide as the " M u r der C it y ," where in 1974. 801 people would die as homicide vic tims. Once elected. Young did not Zimbabwe: Free A t Last By Fungai Kumbula In Zimbabwe this week, it’s utter pandemonium. The whites are in a state of shock while the Africans are finally bringing out the bubbly that should have been popped twenty long years ago. Everybody is still trying to recover from Comrade Robert Mugabe’s stunning landslide victory in last week’ s elections. Though he was expected to win, the size of his margin of victory caught supporters and detractors alike flat- footed. To begin with, voting in the first democratically conducted elections In almost ninety years, 93.6% o f Zim babw e’ s 2.9 m illion eligible Black voters gave Mugabe a better than three to one victory over nearest challenger, Joshua Nkomo. W ith the count now completed, Mugabe's ZANU (Zim babw e African National Union) has won 57 o f the 80 seats set aside for the Blacks which works out to slightly more than 71% of the total African vote. Joshua Nkomo managed to win 20, Abel Muzorewa, the former "prime minister” and Ian Smith’s catspaw, could do no better than 3 and the other six candidates includ ing Ndabaningi Sithole got 0. Analysis Mugabe's victory is all (he more stunning when one considers the ob stacles he had to overcome. He did not set up a campaign headquarters until about two weeks before the elections started. He had no paid campaign workers, just volunteer students from the university. He had almost no money and is said to have spent only a few hundred dollars, if that much. From the word go, the British appointed governor, Lord Soames demon strated a clear dislike for him and did everything he could to wreck his campaign. The media, still con trolled by remnants o f the Smith regime, were stridently against him. He did not start campaigning until a few days before the election got un der way. There were three assassination attempts against him in that one week alone. He only had time to address three rallies. The biggest loser has to have been campaign posters were hand prin ted. Muzorewa also had been cam paigning the longest. His campaign organization was a holdover from his "successful” electoral run in because anybody who knows Zim babwe at all knows that any re distribution of land can only be to the advantage of the Africans. With all these resources at his disposal, all he could manage was 3 seats. In his first press conference in which he was flanked by Nkomo and Soames, Mugabe indicated he would invite Nkom o into his government and even extended an olive to “ others who may n ot necessarily belong to the Patriotic Front." He also appealed for calm telling everybody Black and white that they had nothing to fear from the new government. Hundreds of whites were said to have been holding plane tickets just waiting to see if he would will - if he did they were going to fly out at once. He has (Please turn to page 8 col. 4) i»
