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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1981)
U ra F rances ■ un i ve of îr s p L ib For the children o f Atlanta and f o r all children who are hungry, suffer and live in fear. A prelude to 'After Hours' Portland: A time when lights were red A by Ron Sykes Most o f us know Portland as one o f the most livable cities in the U.S. That has not always been so. The P ortland C ity C lub said in a February 1958 report that local gambling and prostitution activities had been openly and notoriously carried on throughout the city for several years. D uring the adm ini stration o f M ayors Joseph K. Carlson, Jr. (1933-1941) and Earl Kiley (1941-1949), it was “ business as usüal,” giving certain privileged persons - usually friends o f the reigning administration - what they wanted. This practice led to cozy, often illegal, arrangements between the Mayor's office and some o f the C ity ’ s most prom inent business men. These “ arrangements" led to attitudes o f apathy and cynicism that were reflected in the operating policies o f the Portland Police De partm ent. The police tended to “ look the other w a y " in matters related to vice, and at the same time making sure that each got his “ cut” o f the action. The C ity was wide open. There were hookers o f every color, size and shape; every game o f chance one could imagine; lots o f poor man's follies; one-arm bandits and poker players. There were eleven houses o f p ro stitu tio n ; five horse bookie joints; five baseball pools; eight bootleggers; all on the West side o f Portland. Gambling action on the East side was confined largely to the area around Burnside and Grand, and in the North to St. Johns. It was widely known that the existence o f these illegal activities condoned by the police and high authorities, corrupted the entire law enforcement process. Portland was the hub o f all illegal activities. Safe burglars, stick-up men, dope ped dlers, and other underworld figures flocked to P ortland by the hundreds. To the police it produced approximately $60,000 a month in protection payments and the C ity was widely recognized as having the second highest rate o f incidence o f veneral disease in the nation. Due to its n o to rity , a movie, “ P ortland Expose,” was made depicting the crime and vice in the C ity and how it was cleaned up. This cleaning up process was largely due to one strong women, Dorothy McCullough Lee, who was elected to the o ffice o f M ayor in 1948. D orothy M cCulough Lee's main campaign promise was " to enforce the law.” She immediately launched and a vendetta against organized crime. Her years in o ffice were to prove trying. A local newspaper gave her a luke-warm reception at best. Because o f her independent nature and determ ination to do what she felt to be right and not what was necessarily p o litic a lly safe, the business com m unity rejected her leadership. She could not be con trolled as her predecessors had been. She was relentless in her pursuit to cleanse the C ity. There were com plaints from all arenas; from slot machine operators; gambling jo in t owners, and red lig h t madams to segments o f the business com munity. The D orothy M cC ullough Lee regime cleaned up Portland, but in doing so created a monster. Whereas before p ro s titu tio n and gamblers usually worked out o f (Please turn to Page 7 Col 5) * F Ö R TW N D OBSERMER UsPS 959-680-855___________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PSU Black Studies gets cuts D r. W illia m L ittle , D irector o f Portland State U niversity’ s Black Studies Center, has been notified that the department budget w ill be cut by approximately 20 percent due to cuts in the State’ s higher education budget. "The $25,000 cut in our budget is larger than we had expected and if it is adopted w ill seriously hurt our program,” Dr. Little said. In order to meet the budget level, all part tim e and tem porary teachers w ill have to be released. Only three full time instructors would be retained. This w ould elim inate twelve o f the approxim ately 60 courses o f fered, including Swahili, Introduc tion to Black Studies, Black History and A fric a n - Am erican P o litica l Thought - all o f which are taught by non-tenured teachers. The three assistant ships also will be term inated. These are usually filled by African students, allowing them the opportun ity to continue their education while contributing to the program by teaching. The Black Studies Department serves approximately 400 students each term . A bout 40 percent are lower classmen, 50 percent are up per d ivision and 5 percnt are graduate students. Students can earn a Certificate o f Black Studies while m a joring in another fie ld . Enrollment has increased each year. “ The cuts w ill not only hurt our current program but will jeopordize our holding the N ational C on ference on Black Studies C on ference iu 1983,” Little explained. "The cut backs indicate that there is not strong support for the program. (Please turn to Page 4 Col 3, Discrimination in the work place By C'leo Franklin Photo: Richard J. Brown A toot here, a toot there Grassroot News N.W . - You can call it w hite g irl, nose candy and blow, but Cocaine is Cocaine by no other name. From the Coca shrubries o f Bolivia, the caviar o f drugs is labbed down into a free- base pasta which is the sparkling, snortable, in d u stria l coacaine hydrochloride. I t ’ s packed and routed by various ways to M iam i, Los Angeles and Portland. Snow has found its way up the nose o f the rich and the poor. Crossing boundaries and capturing souls with a caliber o f its own. "The supply has kept up w ith the de m a n d ," stated M ark M ille r, D irector o f the U niversity o f Oregon Drug Inform ation Center. "The stuff that’ s on the streets now is a lot less pure than a generation ago. Adulterates have increased and the effects derived are dose depen dent." To capitalize on coke, some o f its users have indicated to Grassroot News how profitable it is to step on the drug to duplicate what was or d in a rily purchased. “ I take what I’ ve bought for fifty dollars and step on it with Benita (milk sugar). You never know the difference and my blow ends up costing me nothing.” When questioned about the strength o f the cocaine after it has been stepped on, the response was, "Everybody seems to get high.” The half-an-hour high on Cocaine has been described as better than sex and in extreme cases, can take the place o f sex. N ikki Johnson, from C O D A (Comprehensive O ptions For Drug Abuse) provided a social insight. “ People that develop a coke problem and routed here when the use o f the drug ceases to be a casual flin g and becomes a lifestyle. I ’ m seeing an increase in its use and the younger users are going o f f into crime just to support this desire. The cycle o f use is implusive. Users avoid depression because coke’ s a neat drug. It makes you feel good, and we live in a drug culture. So taking drugs to feel better is not at all foreign. The only thing to remember is that what goes up, must come down.” “ The comedown is like hearing someone scraping their fingernails across the blackboard,” a form er user said. “ T h a t’ s why I q u it; my moods got to be too much fo r my fam ily and they were ready to ask me to leave.” The value o f toot has risen, which accounts for the snowballing price. The fast money and and lots o f it, has sent some people to see their maker a lot sooner than they had ex pected. And although the substance is illegal that has been no deterrent to its use. “ The main m otive fo r abuse o f cocaine is money," says an o ffic e r from the vice squad. “ In the P ortland area, we have made arrests and it has turned out to be milk sugar. Because o f the time and money it takes to get those few people at the top, law enforcement can’ t get close to the source. The convictions that are handed down really can't be followed up because Judges have no place to put them. When the people get sick o f the crime that goes along w ith the drug, maybe then we can counter act the trade. U ntil then, we’ ll just keep chipping away." Maybe the reason why people aren’t up in arms is that all kinds of people blow cocaine. From the penthouses to the one bedroom apartm ent, blow has become the special treat. The paraphernalia that accompanies its use is more exiquisite than the mere spoon and m irror. You can buy Nasal Douche or Indispensable Dispensers and even Pseudo Caine. The tra d itio n a l way to get high is to sn u ff the s tu ff up your nose. Free basing is a process where you cook the coke down to its resin and under intense heat, you smoke it. Another process is to mainline the drug by injecting it into the vein or m ixing it w ith herion to create a speed ball The physical and psychological effects are the dialation o f pupils, increased pulse rate and blood pressure, euphoria, insom nia, nausea and illusions. Mark M ille r goes on to say, "There’s a switching that occur when you’ re high, the in creased heart rate leads to high blood pressure, which gives w ay to hypertension. The real problem is that when the drug is broken down into your system the real problem is that when the drug is broken down in to your system the effects are strong." The use o f show is not physically addictive although a tolerance can develop. The effects on the lifestyle o f people can alter the future o f o u xo m m u ity . We can ill-afford a generation o f burned out users because they set the tempo for our future. Other than the money, the main purpose for use is the sen sation. It feels good and so does suicide when life looks bad. Certainly people who snort this dust aren’t going to quit after reading this article. But we hope they will think twice about things going better with coke. said to the m a jo rity that " a ll unlike women, s till have to fight m in o rity groups have paid their fo r the right to vote today. The W illia m E. P ollard who is the dues. No one rides fre e .” A con Reagan A d m in istra tio n is Director o f the Civil Rights Depart tinuation o f discrim ination in any dem urring on extension o f the ment o f the A F L-C IO addressed a form is a prostitution o f human re Voting Rights Act. Extremism has group who attended a school sources. “ When racism, sexism and always been a part o f American life. “ Discrim ination on the Job,” co extremism are permitted to exist in Blacks have probably suffered more sponsored by the Pacific Northwest this society, it weakens the founda than any other group in that regard Labor College and the A. P h ilip tion o f this society. Racism, sexism particularly at the hands o f the Ku Randolph In stitu te , on the three and extremism have plagued our Klux Kian. threats to our democracy: racism, society and our nation from the Pollard said, “ The three greatest sexism and extremism. P ollard beginning and still exist to this date. challenges ever c o n fro n tin g our called fo r positive change in the Racism and extremism reared its democracy are racism, sexism and labor movement in our society. He ugly heads against the American In extremism.” Therefore, minorities, stated that the “ goals o f the labor dian and still exist today. women and other groups w ith unions and the goals o f m inorities "Black people have suffered from common concerns should develop a and women are sim ila r.” There is racism, sexism and extremism from co a litio n . He went on to say that also a important need to get young day one in this country. Black “ three must be our magic number people involved. P ollard doesn’ t people are the only group o f people and a three prong attack should be believe that the m ajority o f women that didn’t come to this country on launched through active involve and minorities realize the problems their own vo litio n . The result was ment, education and coalitions.” they face on the basis o f race, sex, protest and the protest s till con re lig io n , and nation o rig in . “ We tinues today.” must call on labor unions and public P ollard stated that “ there are o ffic ia ls to help solve these many negatives but despite the problem s. The habit of many differences among us, positive discrimination still exist.” change has taken place.” We have The U rban League w ill hold Pollard described a picture he saw not reached a point where all people community congresses to allow the o f two buzzards sitting on a roost. based on race, sex, religion, age, communities to assess their needs One said to the other, “ patience my handicapp, or national origin are and plan self-help programs. The a____ ! ” referring to an Oregon treated equal, but we are moving in King Neighborhood C om m unity Journal article o f August 1, 1981. that direction. He called on those Congress will be held at King Com When it was reported that the Port affected groups w ith common m unity P ark, adjacent to King land Police Department asked the problems and solutions to recognize School, on August 8th from 10:00 citizens o f N .E. P ortland fo r their com m oninality and develop a .m ., to 6:00 p.m . Among the patience, M r. W illiam s responded positive lines o f communication. speakers are Ron Herndon and to the article to say, “ patience my Women have experienced dis County Commissioner Gordon A____ 1” crim ination based on sex from the Shadburn. There will be a pop-off Pollard characterized his remarks day the pilgrim s landed. Women, dance contest, arts, crafts, prizes. as not asking for preferential treat like Blacks, have had to Fight for the The Boise Congress will be held ment for any minority group but he right to vote for decades but Blacks, on August 15th at Unthank Park. NOTICE Refugees: A focus P A R T II By Nyewusi Askari (W riter’s Note: This is the second installm ent o f “ Refugees: A focus." This week’s focus is on the Hm ong and Mien people o f SE Asia) The Hmong refugees are said to have originated in China and began to migrate into Southeast Asia 190 years ago. Once there, they established a pteference for small villages in the mountains where they lived peacefully with their V ie t namese, Lao, Thai and Burmese neighbors until the 1890s, when French control was established over much o f Indochina. The presence o f the French shattered the social organization of the Hmong. The most devastating was the im plem entation o f a colonial tax system based on population, which forced Hmong families to pay a fixed amount regardless o f their wealth. M any Hmong could not pay, and when village chiefs refused to collect the tax, the French-Lao authorities sent guerrillas and m ilitiam en into the mountains to in tim id ate Hmong residents. In response, the Hmong ordered an attack on the intruders, and, the French im m ediately o r dered a cease-fire. Between 1919 and 1921, the Hmong in North Vietname rose up in a similar, but much bloodier revolt against, the tax system. Between 192l and 1941, there were no major Incidents, although during this period, the Hmong were still politically controlled by the Lao and French. Between 1959 and 1975, Hmong life was severely disrupted by war. Thousands o f families were forced to abandon their homes; leaving possessions, livestock and traditional life behind. Some aspects o f that life was as follows: • Agriculture: Slash and Burn - The term refers to the practice by the Hmong o f clearing fields by cutting down the existent vegetation, then burning it to dear (Please turn to Fags 10 Col 1)
