For the children o f Atlanta and fo r
all children who are hungry, suffer
and live in fear.
Jefferson High community fights for survival
Emotions ran high as members ot
the Jefferson H igh School com
m unity defended their school
against closure. The School Board is
attem pting to close three high
schools.
Ronnie Herndon, co-chairman of
the Black U nited F ro n t, to ld the
board that the fact so many people
had to be there to defend their
school is a “ tragedy,” referring to
promises made to the community a
year ago that Jefferson and Adams
w ould be retained and Tubman
.. .
,__ ,
c i;„ i
M iddle School put in the E lio t
building, he said the failure to keep
that promise is absurb.
He accused the board and
superintendent o f an “ appauling
lack of courage, guts and intestinal
fo rtitu d e ” and “ double dealing”
for the failure to come to the com
munity to discuss possible changes
in their com m itm ent p rio r to
making the new proposals public.
“ We read about it in the
newspaper," he said. “ You didn t
even
even have
have the
the courage
courage to
to come
come back
back
to us and tell us you couldn’ t keep
your promise.”
He said it is easy to pass
resolutions about South A frica but
“ When it comes to treating Blacks
in your own back yard with respect
you fail to do it . ” A fter the “ pain
and h a vo c" you have wreaked in
this community for the last 20 years,
the Board should gladly spend S3
m illion to provide a middle school
for Black children, he said.
R.J. Culley, a member o f the Jef
ferson Advisory Com m ittee, said
Jefferson has not been treated with
equity. Saying the d is tric t is at
default, he warned the Board to in
sure quality education for Jefferson
students before returning to the
government for funds. He reminded
them o f Oregon laws that say no
person shall be denied equal partici
pation because o f race.
Earl Keaton, president o f the
W oodlawn Advisory Com m ittee,
said closure o f Jefferson would in
jure the Black community fot years
to come. I f we are misused again,
"w e w ill bring this in ju st school
system down book, by book by
damned book.”
Pina W illiam s, speaking for the
Jefferson teachers said 40 percent o f
the incoming freshman read below
the 6th grade level and at the end o f
the 9th grade 27 percent remain
below 6th grade level. There is “ a
significant achievement” compared
to the district results. Jefferson gain
o f 6.2S point average excludes the
Area I average o f 3.2 points gain.
The s ta ff is concerned that T itle I
student benefits w ill be lost, high
student-teacher ra tio w ill hinder
students, cuts in federal funds w ill
cause further damage, and redistric
ting will destroy the neighborhood.
A dditiona l testimony dealt with
the special needs o f Jefferson
students and com m itm ent by the
staff to meet these needs.
PORTI/ND OBSERMER
April 30. 1961
Volum e XI Num ber 28
2S€ per copy
USPS 959-680-855
Forum
discusses
police
t
M I
Ben Clark and Zeenab Johnson visit Urban 4-H
m u lti c u ltu ra l fa ir . T h e fa ir is held a n n u a lly to
A community forum on Police/
Community relations - the second in
a series - w ill discuss the citizen
complaint process, how complaints
are
processed,
d iscip lin a ry
procedures and legal recourse lo r
citizens.
Among the panel members will be
Captain RonAichley, director o f the
Internal Al'fiars, the office that in
vestigates citizen complaints against
police officers; Deputy C hief Phil
Sm ith, who w ill represent C h ie f
Baker and discuss discipline
procedures; and Stan Peters,
representing the P ortland Police
Association, who w ill explain the
union’ s role in discipline.
District Attorney Mike Schrunk,
Chief Deputy DA Barry Scheldahl
and a representative from the Public
Defender’ s o ffice w ill discuss the
legal rights o f citizens who believe
they have been abused by police
officers.
The forum w ill be held at Bour
bon Street, Northeast Grand and
W iedler, at 9:30 p in., Saturday,
d em on strate the m ulti ethnic nature of the com
May 2nd. The public is urged to par
munity.
(Photo: Richard Brown)
ticipate.
Black women build the community
By Pamela Douglas
(E d ito r’.s Note: W ith the gap be
tween a fflu e n t Am erica and the
Am erican poor grow ing ever
greater. Blacks, especially, fear that
the 1980s will be a very dark decade.
But in the face o f great odds. Black
women appear to be holding their
com m unities together, often on
their own, despite the cutbacks in
federal aid, disappointment with the
feminist movement, the absence of
Black men at their sides. Now solely
responsible fo r nearly h a lf o f all
Black households, the Black
woman, indom itable as W illia m
Faulkner once wrote, w ill endure.
Pamela Douglas, a Los Angeles
novelist and screenplay writer, is a
PNS c o n trib u tin g editor and a
regular contributor to Black Enter
prise and Essence■)
The House o f Exodus will hold
an Open House and Grand
Opening Ceremony at its new ad
m inistrative offices at 1639 NE
Alberta on May 6th at noon. A
ribbon cu ttin g and historical
chronical o f events w ill be held.
The House o f Exodus is an
A lco h o l
Treatm ent
and
Educational Center, the purpose
o f which is to treat and educate
persons who abuse alcohol or
drugs. The four components o f
the program are O utpatien t,
Daycare, Residential treatment
and Youth and childrens’ aware
ness and prevention programs,
according to program director
Rosalie J. Boothe.
There is a story that Black women
tell each other, about an old slave
who could fin a lly take no more
abuse. I plan to te ll it to my own
daughter, who w ill turn 21 in the
year 2000 - not because it says
something about violence, but
because it has to do with the refusal
to die.
And 1 hope she accepts this d if
ficult legacy not as a burden but as a
trust.
The old woman, according to this
story, was plowing in the field when
an overseer came by and reprimand
ed her fo r being so slow. Then he
lashed her severely with a whip for
having the tem erity to talk back.
The woman, it is said, picked up her
hoe and killed him with it. Whatever
the odds, she had decided to take
control o f her own life.
The old woman with the hoe lives
secretly in many o f us, still fighting,
though in subtler, more legal ways.
Today she’ s a 60-year-old lightly
touching the corsage that a com
munity center gave her for 25 years
o f service, as she listens to the
keynote speech at the annual fund
raising dinner. The speaker w ill call
her to the platform next, she thinks,
and she feels embrassed. She’ s only
done what had to be done. She ran
the o ffic e , answered the phones,
gave out donated turkeys on
holidays, listened to the troubles of
the young, and lately listened much
more to the troubles of the old. And
most o f all, she was always depend
ably there.
Around 1969, a lo t o f money
came to the center, and with it men
with titles like Director and Deputy
D irector, who made salaries that
seemed fabulous to her. They made
her “ secretary” and she did all the
work for them. Their pictures ap
peared in the papers, although hers
never did.
Then, one day around 1974, the
money stopped and the men with
the titles disappeared. And quietly
she and other women like her simply
continued the work that had never
really ended.
Twenty years ago, when she was
fo rty and a devoted fo llo w e r o f
M artin Luther King, she’ d hoped
that by 1980 centers like hers would
no longer be needed, that Blacks
would have been truly “ lifted up.”
But now she’s settling in for another
20 years.
The spirit o f the old woman with
the hoe also persists in a 19-year-old
at the door to her firs t jo b . She
stands surrounded by the ghosts o f
her mothers. She’ s the beginning:
the first o f her mother’ s children to
finish high school and who didn’ t
have to learn to recognize the word
“ c o lo re d " on a bathroom door.
The pay is barely over the minimum
wage, the office is dingy, the hours
are long and there’ s little chance for
advancement. But to her it’ s a start.
And the old woman with the hoe
is a mother, sitting with her seven-
year-old at the kitchen table in the
evening, teaching the lesson that
wasn't taught in school. How could
it have been, w ith 40 students in
each class and the halls patrolled by
Black com m unity that we women
are going to have to be strong.”
Eleanor Holmes N orton, former
Commissioner fo r the Equal Em
ployment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) agrees. She points out that
40 percent o f Black households are
now headed by women, and 50 per
cent o f all Black children are
brought up solely by women. The
Black community, she says, has im
parted the task o f building fo r the
policemen because drugs are sold
there and violence is endemic? She
remembers her own mother teaching
her this way and wonders if , one
day, her daughter w ill have to si, at
a table like this and teach her grand
child, too.
And the woman with the hoe is a
professional at the height o f her
career, in a richly-appointed c o r
porate office. A ffirm a tive Action
opened the doors o f an Ivy League
college to her, but she knows she has
only lim ited power. So her battles
are small and carefully chosen. Like
the other women, she feels she’ s on
the fro n t line o f a battle, alone
against an army. And she can’t, she
won’ t give up.
Black women are emerging as
leaders in the Eighties because
they’ re walking in the paths cut by
generations o f Black women - and
because absolute necessity demands
it.
Jan Douglass, D ire cto r o f the
Community Relations Department
and the Commission on the Status
o f Women fo r A tla n ta , Georgia,
expresses a common fear among
Blacks as the economy continues to
skid and cutbacks in social
programs are planned: “ The
Eighties are going to be a monster,”
she says. " I t w ill be so bad for the
future to its women -- and they are
doing it alone.”
Some of that building process can
be watched on the public stage,
where Black women play an in
creasingly im portant political role.
In California, for example, four o f
the six Blacks elected to the state
legislature from Los Angeles are
women. And o f all statewide elected
o ffic ia ls who are Black, women
comprise fully half.
Bu, the story o f Black women is a
(Please turn to page 10 col. 4)
Roy Stubbs at the podium.
Accepting the challenge
Roy Stubbs is a teacher who has
always tried to find a job that would
challenge him to build something
where things would have not been
before. In moving to Portland this
year he not only accepted a
challenge but has succeeded greatly
in his w ork: re-creating a high
school music program at the Catlin
Gabel School.
Born and raised in Aberdeen,
North Carolina, Stubbs was immer
sed in music fro m his youngest
years. He organized and led a com
m unity choir while he was still in
ju n io r high school; he wen, on to
play trum pet in the high school
band and sing leading roles in
school operettes.
where “ It was hard to teach. The
Indians didn’ t seem to be interested
in music or even their own culture. I
couldn’t learn new things and it tur
ned ou, to be depressing.
“ I was attracted to Catlin Gabel
because I like building programs,
and this music departm ent has
gotten pretty disorganized. It’ s been
a real challenge.” In September,
four students showed up for the first
concert ch o ir class; by December
there were more than seventy mem
bers in the choir. Stubbs has also
started a jazz/rock ensemble, small
vocal and string ensembles, and an
all-school com m unity chorus that
includes fa cu lty, parents, and
students. A , the Oregon M usic
A fe w minute« relaxation during choir practice.
” 1 always wanted to be a teacher -
- I always knew 1 w ould be a
teacher. And, having learned to
teach, I ’ ve gone to look fo r new
places and things.”
In 1967 Stubbs received a BA in
M usic Education fro m A llen
U niversity. From A llen he moved
on to Northern Illin o is University
and then to Grove C ity College in
Pennsylvania. A , Grove C ity he
took Fred W aring W orkshop and
learned about theater, light, sound,
and choral techniques. He has also
studied music curriculum and ad
vanced choral conducting at the
University o f Guam while teaching
music and English fo r the Depart
ment o f education in Guam.
Stubb came to C a tlin Gabel
after a year at the Busby School o f
N orthern Cheyenne in M ontana
Educators’ Solo and Ensemble
Festival in March, Stubbs oversaw
forty student entries.
“ The kids here are very receptive
to the things I want to give them.
We have b u ilt a very warm and
com fortable relationship with each
other.” Senior Karen Searcy claims,
“ Roy has pushed us toward finding
self-confidence. He has helped us to
get out and do things we should be
doing anyway. There are a Io, o f
“ firs ts ” this year because he has
brought out a lot o f latent talent.”
Search continues, “ Roy has
helped C atlin Gabel reach out into
the community on a different level
than before. More than that, we had
a Black H is to ry assembly in
February that brought to the cam
pus Dr. W illiam L ittle from PSU’ »
(Please turn to page 2 col. 6)