Paga 2 Portland Observer January 15.1981
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Who, if not us,
will be responsible?
Two years ago Steve Buel was elected to
the School Board, joining Wally Priestley, who
had already served for three years. Those were
three miserable years, under constant attack
by the six establishment-oriented Board mem
bers and their Superintendent.
N ot long a fte r B u e l's e le c tio n a vacancy
developed. There was no Black on the Board
and dese g re g a tio n had becom e the m ajor
issue - the coalition had recommended school
pairings, the Black United Front was threaten
ing a school boycott, HEW was investigating
charges of discrim ination. Herb Cawthorne -
BUF organizer, Coalition co-chairm an, w riter
for the Observer and Oregonian, TV host and
Portland State University employee - accepted
the challenge of seeking the a p p o in tm e n t.
W ith the solid support of Priestley and Buel,
he finally received the appointment.
Cawthorne w ept at the podium that night,
believing that for the first time a Black person
had been selected for a political position from
am ong the ranks o f Black m ilita n c y . His
pledge was to always represent the interests of
all the students of the district - but most of all
to rem ain true to the c o m m u n ity th a t had
made his selection possible and to the Black
children who had suffered the abuse of an un
just system.
So upset was J o n a th a n N ew m an over
Cawthorne's appointm ent and the changes it
fo re to ld , that he resigned. His position was
fille d w ith the solid s u p p o rt o f Buel and
Priestley, joined by Cawthorne - w ith Sarah
Newhall w ho became the fo u rth m ember of
the tenuous coalition that became know n to
its distractors as "The Gang of Four."
M onths of agonizing work follow ed as the
board attempted to write a new desegregation
p o licy th a t w o u ld be equitable, w o u ld stay
w ith in the law , and w o u ld s a tisfy Black
demands. After m onths of com m ittee work -
w ith C aw thorne unsure of w h a t he w anted
and under pressure from both sides, Joe Rieke
and Blanchard stalling, and Frank McNamara
becoming increasingly hostile - the decision
passed from the committee to the full Board.
Then, Buel and Priestley gave their full sup
port to the Black United Front's proposals and
to C a w th o rn e 's e ffo rts ; N ew hall jo in e d on
most issues. The final policy was not brilliant
or in n o v a tiv e , b u t a fte r m ore th re a ts of
boycott it became acceptable. Although there
is no evidence that the quality of education
was greatly enhanced, many of the injustices
were removed.
After making every attempt to work with the
S u perintend ent, C aw thorne fin a lly decided
that Blanchard could neither im plem ent the
new p o lic y nor w o rk e ffe c tiv e ly w ith the
Board. Finally, in J u ly, he joined w ith Buel,
Priestley and Newhall and voted to terminate
the Superintendent. An unsuccessful recall at
tem pt and personal attacks by the press and
C o rre c tio n : The picture o f
Frank Turney attributed to
Thomas Gordon was taken by
Denise Bartells.
the business e s ta b lis h m e n t fo llo w e d , b u t
Cawthorne weathered the storm.
W hy was the Superintendent fired? Quite
s im p ly , to enable the Board to hire a new
S u p e rin te n d e n t w h o w o u ld have an
educational philosophy and a moral c o m m it
ment to educate all of the district's children in
a humane and Just m anner, w ho w ould deal
openly and honestly w ith the public, and who
w o u ld be responsive to the d ire ctio n of the
Board.
The most serious question facing those who
voted to term inate Blanchard was, w ho w ill
select the new Superintendent? Will the same
establishm ent - oriented faction select a new
B lanchard? Or w ill the fo u r S ch o o l Board
members w ho consider themselves populists
make that choice? Surely, the new Superin
tenden t w ill re fle ct the philo sophy of those
who select him.
A fte r discussions w ith several consultants,
the d e cisio n w as made to re c ru it a new
S u perintend ent early this S pring, w hen the
best candidates are available - and before the
board members elected in March take office in
July. This not only assured looking at the best
candidates but allow ed the cu rre n t Board -
w ith heavy in flu e n c e fro m the m a jo rity
c o a litio n (B uel, P rie stley, C a w th o rn e and
New hall) but w ith assurance to respect the
wishes of the three remaining Board members
and any new members that m ight be elected -
to choose the new Superintendent. Thus, the
fo u r m em bers w h o had re w ritte n the
desegregation plan and who had fired the old
S u perintend ent w o u ld set the stage fo r the
future.
M onday n ig h t, C a w thorne changed all of
th a t. He - along w ith N e w ha ll - vo te d to
a b rig a te his re s p o n s ib ility to the people to
select a proper S u p e rin te n d e n t. He denied
Priestley and Buel the rig h t to influence th g v
decision. And he denied him self a deciding
role.
Priestley w ill not be on the Board next year
when the decision is made. W hether Newhall
is reelected or not, the pow er w ill sh ift. M c
Namara, Scott, Rieke and the new member or
m em bers w ill m ake the d e c is io n . B u el's
o p in io n s w ill be discarded by the m a jo rity .
Cawthorne w ill have his choice be ignored
w ith Buel or a p p ro ve the se le c tio n o f the
others.
The m o m e n tu m fo r change has been
thrown away. The choice of the new Superin
te n d e n t - the m ost im p o rta n t d e cisio n the
School Board w ill make in this decade will be
made by Frank McNamara and Bill Scott.
The o p p o rtu n ity for the Black com m u nity
and o thers w h o have stru g g le d so long fo r
quality and equity in education to participate in
the selection of the new school S u p e rin te n
dent has been lo st. Now w h o w ill represent
Black children?
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o«“NA’IfXlAi
M r. Tekere goes out
By Fungai Kumbula
There are tw enty cabinet
ministers in the government o f Zim
babwe. In the eight short months
that Prime Minister Robert Mugabe
has led the new nation, none has at
tracted more attention than Edgar
Zivanai Tekere. He is the Zimbabwe
African National U nion’ s (ZAN U ,
the governing party) secretary
general and, as such, the third most
powerful figure in the government
hierarchy. At 43, he is also one o f
the youngest and was widely regard
ed as the leader o f (he so-called left
wing of the party. He was appointed
M inister o f M anpower Planning
and his ministry was praised as the
one making the fastest progress in
the Zimbabweanization campaign.
He had been very impatient with
what he regarded as the slow pace o f
Zimbabweanization and was openly
critical o f the "lin g e rin g remnants
o f the Sm ith-M uzorewa e ra ." He
has equally harsh words for Joshua
Nkomo, the then Minister of Home
A ffa irs and head o f Z A P U , the
Zimbabwe African Peoples Union,
the ju n io r partner in the governing
co a litio n . He talked o f a need to
"crush Nkomo, the self-styled King
of the matabele” - the Matabele are
the second m ajor ethnic group in
Zimbabwe forming 15^« of the total
population. The Shona make up the
bulk o f the other 8O°7o.
O nly a few months after he
assumed his post as Manpower
Planning Minister, he was arrested
and charged with the murder o f an
elderly white farmer. As was to be
expected the in te rnation al media
had a field day: " i t couldn’ t have
happened to a nicer gu y,” the
headlines screamed, barely able to
conceal their glee. They immediately
started speculating that the
“ removal o f the hot-head would rid
the moderate Mugabe o f his most
pressing embarassment.” Through
his lengthy trial, they maintained a
constant vigil, like a death watch,
and kept insisting that the outcome
o f the trial would be the true test of
the road that Zimbabwe is to take in
the days ahead. In spite o f the fact
that this was only one man involved,
the international media opted to put
the whole government on trial.
Late in November, The Zimbab
we High C ourt found Tekere in
nocent o f the m urder charge and
released him . The tria l judge, an
elderly white hold-over from the
Smith years, declared Tekere guilty
but he was overruled by the two
assessors, Zimbabwe’ s equivalent of
a jury. Thus absolved, M r. Tekere
went back to his job as Manpower
Planning Minister.
This past week, in the firsj major
cabinet shuffle, M r. Tekere was
dropped as Zimbabwe Manpower
Planning Minister. Prime Minister
Mugabe, in announcing the change,
stated that Tekere was not being
fired, just relieved o f his duties for
the time being to give him time to
recover from his trial ordeal. So for
now Mr. Tekere leaves the spotlight
and we shall just have to wait and
see what his exit will mean.
In the same cabinet shake-up,
Home A ffa irs M inister Joshua
Nkomo was transferred to the less
pow erful post o f Public Service
Ministry. His handling o f the Home
A ffairs M inistry which is in charge
o f the police had come under in
creasing fire from various segments
o f the Zimbabwean populace. This
move alone places all security
responsibility dire ctly under the
Prime M inister’ s control. Former
Public Services M inister Richard
Hove, a ZAN U confidante, merely
traded jobs with Nkomo.
Red Year of 1980
By Dr. Manning Marable
In a year when Black politics was
dom inated by white te rro r, the
bizarre and tragic story o f Buffalo,
New York stands alone. On the
night o f September 22, fourteen
year old Glenn Dunn was sitting in a
parked autom obile when a lone
gunman shot him in the head with a
.22 caliber revolver. W ith in 36
hours, three more Blacks were
executed in similar fashion; 32 year
old Emmanuel Thomas, gunned
down at a street corner; 43 year old
Joe Louis McC oy o f Niagara Falls,
and 32 year old Harold Green. Two
vehicles carrying white men invaded
the funeral services o f Dunn,
screaming racist epithets in front of
a Black church. One o f the vehicles
exhibited a mannequin's head
mounted on the hood.
Several weeks later, two more
bodies were discovered. Parler W.
Edwards, a 7 1 year old taxicab
driver was savagely beaten to death
and stuffed in the trunk o f his
autom obile. 40 year old Ernest
"S h o rty " Jones was bludgeoned to
death and was found on a boat
launching ramp in the B uffalo
suburb o f Tonawanda. Incredibly,
both men’ s hearts were removed
front their bodies. The day after
Jone's death, 37 year old C ollin C oll
was almost strangled to death as he
sat in a local hospital recovering
from surgery. A white man entered
C oil's room and proceeded to choke
him while shouting " I hate
niggers.”
Eyewitness descriptions o f the
assailant, who escaped, were similar
to those o f the gun murderer. Bar-
bar Banks E ditor o f the B u ffa lo
Challenger, a Black weekly
newspaper, observed that in " a t
least two separate incidents Black
victims of attacks or harrassment by
white (one incident very possibly in
volving the killers) gave statements
and license plate numbers to police
and the authorities either lost the in
formation or did not report it.” As
late as m id-October, only 3 white
men had been questioned by police
officials. District Attorney Edward
C'osggove adm itted that the in
vestigation had made little i f any
progress. To Banks, most Buffalo
Black people were "a b le to place
this particular tragedy in a historical
and nationw ide perspective. In
short, aside from understanding
that violence against us is nothing
new, most o f us know that it’ s hap
pening all across the country.”
Black and progressive white
people rallied against the new rise of
racism. On October I9, five
thousand people demonstrated at
Buffalo C ity H all to denounce the
murders. The rally was sponsored
by
tw o
hundred
religious,
educational, socialist and labor
groups. Speakers included Black
Dem ocratic State Assemblyman
Authur Eve, the Reverend Charley
Fisher o f BU ILD , a civil rights ac
tivist coalition, and the Reverend
Bennett Smith o f B u ffa lo 's
Operation PUSH.
In A tla n ta , over two hundred
people volunteered to make door-
to -d o o r searches fo r the missing
Black children. Over 1500 people
demonstrated against a rally of Ku
Klux Klansmen held in Scotland,
Connecticut. Hundreds o f people
participated in a national march for
" Freedom, Justice and against the
Kian in W rightsville, Georgia, on
September 20. Akbar Ahmad o f the
A frica n
Peoples Party, the
Reverend Herbert Daughtry, foun
der o f the Black United Front, and
the Welfare Rights O rganization’ s
Ethel Matthews participated in the
four mile march against white
racism.
As the storm clouds o f racial con
flict gathered, members o f the U.S.
Commission on C ivil Rights met in
W ashington, D C ., in October,
I98O, to express "a la rm at what
they see as growing public hostility
to vigorous enforcem ent o f civil
rights laws." Commission Chair A r
thur S. Flemming informed the con
ference that the new segregationist
strategy to destroy the Civil Rights
Act o f 1964 "is to put riders on ap
propriation bills which, when added
together, can lead to (its) virtu a l
repeal.” House and Senate conser
vatives had already drafted amend
ments to prevent the Education and
Justice Departments to halt school
busing fo r desegregation; pre
vent the Internal Revenue Service
from revoking the tax-exempt status
o f private schools;” prevent federal
spending on programs that use
numerical goals for hiring women
and m inorities. In short, "to d a y ’ s
c iv il rights problem have become
more com plex.. .than in the 1960s
when Governor George C. Wallace
of
Alabam a
stood
in
the
schoolhouse door to oppose in
tegration.”
For better or worse, many Blacks
concluded that an inform al
coalition of white racist vigilantees,
the police and government officials
were conspiring to k ill Blacks.
“ There is almost a hysteria in Black
communities because o f the belief
that there is a conspiracy,” stated
the Reverend Jessie Jackson to the
New York Times in late November,
1980. "R acism
has become
fashionable again and feelings o f
guilt toward Blacks have turned to
feelings o f h o stility. This country
has taken a definite swing toward
facism.” Jackson was also convin
ced that he and N A A C P secretary
Benjamin Hooks were would-be-
targets in "p a rt of a calculated plan
to murder Black c iv il rights ac
tivists.” The interdenominational
M inisterial
A lliance, a pre
dom inantly
Black
religious
organizaton, requested that the
Justice Department investigate the
possibility o f some sort o f national
conspiracy o f white racists. "W e are
concerned because looking at the
national trend, the killings o f Blacks
in B u ffa lo , the missing Black
children in A tla n ta and the
assassination attem pt on Vernon
Jordan, there could be a lin e ,”
stated the Reverend Lonnie Smith,
an A lliance spokesperson. "W e
don’ t know, but we want it looked
into.”
H isto rica lly, the "R e d Year o f
1980” has several parallels w ithin
the Black experience. For some
commentators, the modern white
backlash which has follow ed the
C iv il Rights and Black power
movement was sim ilar to the
restoration o f Bourbon Democratic
control and white supremacy in the
South after the Com prom ise o f
1877. For others, the turbulent
events o f 1980 amounted to another
periodic rejection by whites o f the
historical demands o f Black people
for political equality and economic-
o p p o rtu n ity. Edward E. Elson,
chair o f the U.S. Commission on
C iv il R ig h t’ s advisory panel in
Georgia, expressed this view; "th e
mood o f (white) people toward civil
rights now is ‘ Enough.’ ” But the
parallels must be taken one step fur
ther. When a white mob tortured
and lynched Blacks in Coatesville,
Pennsylvania in 1911, Dr. W .E.B.
DuBois advised Black Americans to
begin to resist by any means
necessary. "W e have crawled and
pleaded for justice and we have been
cheerfully spat upon and murdered
and burned. We w ill not endure it
forever. I f we are to d ie ," DuBoise
thundered, " in God's name let us
perish like men and not like bales o f
hay." Responding to the bloodbath
o f 1919, Black poet Claude McKay
stated the inner feelings o f every
Afro-American then, as in 1980:
I f we must die/let it not be like
dogs/hunted and penned in an
inglorious sp o t/w h ile around us
bark the mad and hungry
dogs,/making their mock at our ac
cursed lo t./If we must die, O let us
nobly die/so that our precious
blood may not be shed in vain/then
even the monsters we defy/shall be
constrained to honor us though
dead/o kinsmen! we must meet the
common foe!/though far outnum
bered let us show us brave/and for
their thousand blows deal one death
blo w !/w h a t though before us lies
the open grave?/like men we’ ll face
the
m urderous,
cow ardly
pack/pressed to the wall, dying/but
fighting back!
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