Portland Observar March B. 1981 Paga 3
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Q anaral C on tracto r
Llcanaa a Bond
Concreta • Curtia • Sidewalk
Rsmodaling Baaamani
Dick Bogle
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Derrick Bell, Dean o f the Univer
sity of Oregon Law School, is a man
who w on’ t back down from a
challenge.
For example, when the Black
native of Pittsburgh was considering
taking the job at the University, it
was his understanding that during
the current session o f the legislature
a special improvem ent program
would be desinged to correct some
real and very obvious inequities
between the funding o f the Oregon
Law School and state law schools in
California, Washington, Wyoming
and Nebraska.
The plan sounded good to Bell
and he accepted the job. Then the
money bottom dropped out as the
legislature instead o f increasing
funds cut budgets.
When questioned about the
inequities, Bell says, “ A t most
schools, law professors make more
money than history professors. Law
professors salaries reflect that
should they decide to practice in
stead o f teaching they can earn
more. So, in order to keep them
teaching law, they are given salaries
which are reflective o f what could
be earned in private practice.”
Bell says law professors at Oregon
earn $25,000 less than those at Har
vard, Yale or other m ajor univer
sities on both coasts. He says there
is a fa r less o f a gap in other
teaching fields.
I asked Bell if he is sorry he took
the jo b a fte r his hopes fo r im
provements fe ll through. He
replied, “ I ’ m here now and 1 still
have
hope
that
something
miraculous will be done.”
The Oregon Law School has
about 500 students with nearly ten
percent m inority students. But, o f
that ten percent, only eight or ten
are Black.
Bell views this as another
challenge. “ It’s clear we don’ t have
very many and we certainly aren’ t
attracting some o f the students with
really top notch records who go on
to schools like Stanford or the U ni
versity o f C alifornia,” says Bell.
He continued saying, “ I th in k
there’ s a chance they would get as
good or perhaps a better education
here but we certainly arc going to
have to do a selling job to get more
minorities, especially Blacks.”
Bell doesn’ t see much really new
in this latest wave o f radical right
wing activity with heavy overtones
o f racial hatred.
He feels historically in this coun
try , when economic times get
tougher, people become very fearful
and look for scapegoats.
He says, “ W ith in fla tio n going
up, a high unemployment rate the
domestic situation is in great
unease. The tendency is for whites
to say we’ve got to tighten up and to
be less tolerant o f people not able to
defend themselves in the main.
We’ ve seen that cycle now as we’ ve
seen it in earlier times. In such
times, m inorities seem to hear the
brunt o f unease, threat and
hostility.”
1 mentioned American Nazi party
dem onstrations and the Skokie,
Illio n o is case in p a rticu la r which
went to court. The Nazis W ANTED
to march through Skokie which by
the way has a large Jewish
population.
Bell says very serious free speech
issues are involved w ith the
distribution o f hate literature and
that arguments can be made on both
sides.
In the Skokie case, the court
deemed the methods used to control
that type o f situation were too
broad and violative o f first amend
ment protection.
Bell says the actions o f the Nazis
are all part o f a general trend
prevalent in times o f economic
distress.
Next week, we’ ll fin d out what
Bell thinks about the proposal to
make racial harassment a felony in
Oregon and his views on the death
penalty.
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(Continued from Page I Col 6)
m inorities and to develop public
policies.
Among national legislation he in
fluenced are, extension o f work
career by allowing employment past
age 65; development and m ain
tenance o f the nu tritio n program;
employment for older people.
He now serves on the Public
Policy Committee o f NCA. His ac
tivities on the national level made
him one o f the few P o rtla n d e r’ s
w ith direct access to the Carter
White House.
Although he has received national
prominance in his field, Gates has
not had much appreciation among
the p o liticos at home. He w ill be
missed by the elderly - and especially
the elderly poor - whom he sought
to serve. Gates w ill remain in the
P ortland area, probably in the
Aging field.
Cindy Kules makes use of M ultn o m ah County Library Associations North Portland Branch Library
512 N. Killingsworth. (Photo by: Richard Brown)
Medical students win libel case
In one o f the most controversial
cases in years involving Blacks, the
Kansas Supreme C ourt has over
turned a libel judgment against four
form er U niversity o f Kansas
medical students, concluding a
seven-year battle to preserve a ffir
mative action at a midwestern
medical school.
The form er Black medical stu
dents, w|io are now practicing
physicians, had originally been cited
for defamaton o f character in con
nection with a $l .4 million suit filed
by Dr. Dante G. Scarpelli, former
chairman o f the medical school’ s
department o f pathology and on
cology.
The high c o u rt’ s unanimous
decision
was viewed as a
‘ ‘ magnificent victory” by Benjamin
I . Hooks, Executive Director o f the
National Association for the A d
vancement o f Colored People
(NAACP), whose organization had
assumed the financial burden in
handling the case. "T h is landmark
a ffirm a tiv e action case serves to
demonstrate that Blacks and other
m inorities possess that inherent
right to challenge actions which they
believe to be discrim in a to ry in
nature.”
In reversing the low er court
ruling, the Kansas Supreme Court
declared that Dr. Scarpelli failed to
comply with previously established
conditions for granting judgement
in libel cases involving public
figures. The court concluded that
actual malice, which is knowing
falsity o f the allegations or reckless
disregard for the truth was not sub
stantiated in the in itia l tria l two
years ago that resulted in the award
ing o f $44,000 in damages to Scar
pelli.
NAACP
General
Counsel
Thomas I. Atkins also praised the
ruling explaining that “ the court’ s
re a ffirm a tio n o f the rights o f in
dividuals to gain access to in
stitutions o f higher learning is not
the end-all in this case. Now efforts
to gain more sensitivity in these in
stitutions o f higher learning will not
be stifled by fears o f reprisals from
college adm inistrators or others
believed involved in restricting
minority participation.”
The o rig in a l suit grew out o f a
c ivil rights com plaint filed by the
form er medical students back in
1974 which accused Scarpelli o f
discrim inating against Black stu
dents
fo r
the
purpose
of
“ systematically elim inating them
from the school.”
James Meyerson, Assistant
General Counsel fo r the N A A C P
and chief counsel on the case, said
the court’s ruling also “ proves that
good fa ith , non-m alicious efforts
can be pursued by m inorities and
other individua ls seeking to con
tinue to march forward in the fight
to eradicate racism in the in
stitutions o f our society.”
The four former students are Dr.
Charles Floyd, a resident in
psychiatry at the U niversity o f
California-Davis, Dr. Nolan Jones,
a leading researcher and practicing
physician in female cancer problems
at Tufts-New England Medical Cen
ter in Boston; Dr. Ernest Turner,
Assistant professor o f pediatrics at
the University o f Southern C alifor
nia Medical School, in the division
o f hemotology and oncology; and
Dr. Charles K. Lee, a senior resi
dent in thoracic surgery at the
University o f Kansas Medical Cen
ter.
packaged into one program for the
first time. It was published by HEW
and the 1970 W hite House C on
ference, and has been copied across
the country. Unfortunately, in Nor
theast Portland, it no longer exist.
Gates served three years as chair
man o f the M inority Elderly Com
mittee o f the National Council on
Aging - draw ing together all
m in o rity groups to develop in fo r
m ation on conditions unique to
P ortland M e d ic a l C enter
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