INSIDE: Arbitration hearing report
Roy Wilkins, former NAACP leader, dies at 80
Roy Wilkins, former executive di­
rector o f the N A A C P , died Tuesday
fo llo w in g a long illness. W ilk in s
held the top post in the N A A C P
from 1955 u n til his retirem en t in
1978.
W ilkins was born in St. Louis in
1901. His father was a M ethodist
minister, formerly from Mississippi.
Following his mother’s death when
he was four years old, W ilkins was
sent to live with an aunt and uncle in
St. P a u l, M in n esota. There he
showed early leadership qualities,
becoming manager o f his elem en­
tary school baseball team and editor
o f his high school magazine.
He attended the U n ive rs ity o f
Minnesota, majoring in sociology.
There he won an oratorical prize for
a speech on a 1920 lynching o f a
Black in Duluth.
After graduation Wilkins became
a reporter for the Kansas City Call.
W ilkins encountered Jim Crow for
the first tim e in M isso u ri where
schools, theaters and restaurants
were segregated and the state col­
leges accepted no Blacks. As editor
o f the C a ll he received a steady
stream o f news o f racial violence,
and soon became involved in the
NAACP.
W ilk in s headed the N A A C P ’ s
successful campaign against the re-
election o f Kansas Senator H en ry
Allen, and came to the attention o f
the national o ffice. In 1931 he be­
came assistant secretary, w orking
with then-executive director W alter
White in New York. In 1934 he was
appointed editor o f The Crisis.
On the death o f W alter W hite, in
1935, W ilkins was named executive
director. W ilkins’ assessment o f the
task o f the N A A C P was, ’’ What the
Negro in America wants is to estab­
lish his status as a c itizen . The
N A A C P has insisted since it was
founded that segregation must go. It
has maintained this position during
years o f violent attack which brand­
ed it as radical and irresponsible.
W ith the proper harnessing o f all
our forces and skills— new and old
— success is inevitable.”
W ilkin s had the fate to lead the
N A A C P during one o f it most tu r­
bulent periods. H e believed Black
interests were best served by litiga­
tion and lobbying and did not ac­
cept dem onstrations as a p rim a ry
tactic o f struggle.
A memorial service for Roy
Wllklna will bo hold by tho Port­
land Branch, NAACP, on Friday,
noon, at Bothol AME Church.
6828 NE 8th Avonuo.
F ro m the late *50s o n w ard the
C iv il Rights M o vem en t became
m ore strident and its new leaders
were M a rtin L u th e r K in g , J r.,
Stokely C arm ichael, and M alcolm
X . W ilkins had his differences with
King, and criticized his association
o f the Vietnam W ar with the Black
struggle. He said o f Carmichael and
the young leadership, " T h e r e ’ s
room in civil rights for their brains,
their impatience, their innovations,
th e ir energy. Especially th e ir tre ­
mendous energy. N ow i f we could
only harness i t ___ ”
The causes fo r which W ilk in s
struggled and could take much o f
the credit were the continuing series
o f school desegregation and a ff ir ­
mative action cases, the 1965 C ivil
Rights Act, the Voting Rights A ct,
and the rejection o f Nixon appoint­
ees Judges H aynsw orth and Cars­
well to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A lthough he was severely c riti­
cized by some Blacks d u rin g the
1965 to 1974 period for his conser­
vative methods and m an ner, he
later regained much o f his form er
stature.
O f the 1965 W atts rio t, he said,
" T h e Los Angeles rioting last week
has m ultiple roots running deep in
the Negro com m u nity and deeper
in to the w hite c o m m u n ity . The
blind craziness o f the roving Negro
mobs was created by the blind crazi­
ness o f white people over the past
hundred y e a rs .. .A solution o f the
problem in 1965 w ill elude the na­
tion as long as the white community
keeps the hidden and visible screws
on Negroes. A n d we w ill have
ghetto upheavals u n til the N egro
community itself, through the chan­
nels that organized societies have
fashioned since trib al beginnings,
takes firm charge o f its destiny.”
H is most fo rcefu l denunciation
was o f R ichard N ix o n , w hom he
called a “ disaster” fo r Black
Americans.
W ilkins was a member, and chair­
man, o f the Leadership Conference
on C ivil Rights, a group o f 100 na­
tio n a l, c ivic, la b o r, relig io u s and
ROY W IL K IN S
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PORTLAND OBSERVER
September 10.1681
Volume XI, Number 48
284 Per Copy
James Crolley heads
Kiwanis District
James C. Crolley will be sworn in
as Lt. Governor o f Division No. 10,
Northwest District o f Kiwanis Inter­
n ational, on Friday evening. H e is
believed to be the first Black in Ore­
gon to be elected to this position.
C ro lley, who has been an active
member for twelve years, succeeds
Clarence Hulse as Lt. Governor, the
chief executive officer o f the service
organization.
Following his installation, C rolly
w ill in stall the o ffic e rs fro m the
Peninsula Club, his home club, and
the Lewis and Clark Club.
Crolley, who is a Relocation Spe­
cialist fo r the P o rtla n d D ev elo p ­
ment Commission, is a graduate o f
Roosevelt H ig h School has been
with the P D C since 1969, first as a
community service advisor and then
as a relocation specialist.
His prior com m unity services in­
clude: p re sid en t/ch airm an : Boise
Neighborhood Association, Albina
Neighborhood Improvement C om ­
mittee, Unthank Park Organization
Committee, Boise School P T A and
Parent Advisory Committee, Model
Cities Physical Environm ent Plan­
ning C om m ittee, Boise-Hum boldt
Coordinating Com m ittee, Fremont
Bridge Committee.
C rolley is active in St. Andrews
J A M E S COLLEY
Parent-Child fires
by Nathaniel Scott
Parent C h ild Services In c ., an
A C Y F -fu n d e d (A d u lt C hildren
Youth and Family) agency, has ter­
minated (fired) eight o f its approxi­
mate sixteen employees for, accord­
ing to Roger Burke, spokesperson
for the agency, " V io la tio n o f the
personnel manual and failure to fol­
low established personnel policies.”
W hether or not those " v io la ­
tions” and ’ ’ failures’ ’ were the re­
sults o f a letter the eight signed and
Fountain at Peninsula Perk attracts youngsters seeking relief from
Monday’s record high 69° temperature.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
lack workers Apartheid is the common enemy
addressed to A C Y F Region X in Se­
attle, Washington, was not spelled
out.
B ut, the letter, dated July 21,
1981, raised questions regarding: I).
Salaries being skipped to the two-
year mark on the career ladder after
six months employment. 2). Criteria
for merit raises. 3). M isinform ation
passed on to S T A T O (State T ra in ­
ing and Technical Assistance
O ffice ,. 4). Changing an approved
job description to fit the person se­
Jordan quits Urban League job
Vernon Jordan has announced his
resignation from his position o f Ex­
ecutive Director o f the National U r­
ban League, e ffec tive Decem ber
31st.
Jordan, who is 46, will become a
partner in (he law firm o f A k in ,
Gump, Strauss, Haver and Feld in
Washington, D .C .
In his resignation statem ent.
Jordan did not say why he is resign­
ing but reportedly he has never fully
recovered from an attem pt on his
life M ay 29. 1980 No one has ever
been arrested for the assassination
United Church o f Christ, currently
serving as president. He is a member
o f the C e n tra l P a cific N orthw est
D istria United Church o f Christ Fi­
nancial Support and Assistant Trea­
surer.
Kiwanis is a mens* service organ­
ization that provides financial and
volunteer aid to c o m m u n ity p ro ­
jects. These projects are carried out
by the group or by individual mem­
bers. Some examples o f the work
done by the Peninsula C lu b are
funding and sponsoring boys base­
ball, establishing and continuing to
assist the Colum bia Boys C lub, as­
sisting the T erry Shrunk Plaza
Loaves and Fishes p rogram , p ro ­
viding volunteers for Cub Scouts,
Loaves and Fishes and other local
community programs. Kiwanis also
sponsors boys* clubs on the high
school and middle school level.
Projects are brought to the club
by members or by com m unity o r­
ganizations that have specific needs.
Once adopted, the project can be
short-term— such as repair work or
other physical labor— or can involve
long-tim e volunteer w ork or fund
raising.
The A n nu al In s ta lla tio n C ere­
m ony w ill be held at the Chinese
Village Banquet Hall.
at tempt.
Jordan has been Executive Direct­
or for ten years. An eight-mem ber
search committee has been appoint­
ed to find a successor.
At the press conference announ­
cing his decision, Jordan said Black
Americans are under a state o f siege
in this country.
Black America is under siege be­
cause the nation has begun to turn
its back on some very basic accom­
plishm ents in the area o f c ivil
rights,” he said.
lected by the director. 5). Positions
appointed and not advertised to en­
tire s ta ff. 6 ). Some s ta ff members
receiving eight per cent o f the cost
o f living raises, w hile others re­
ceived only three per cent.
Parent Child Services In c .’s '81-
'82 estimated budget, A C Y F fund­
ing, is $350,000. It serves an esti­
mated 60 fam ilies w ith some 115
children which includes a p p ro x i­
mately 50 per cent non-whites.
Joan E. Bailey, one o f t> >se ter­
minated, said, "M arueen C . M ore­
land, the director, has fired four o f
the five Blacks who w orked there
within a year's tim e.”
Six o f the eight term inated filed
charges with the National Labor Re­
lations Board and are awaiting that
decision. They are, Joan E. Bailey
who had been em ployed w ith the
agency since June 15, 1973; Cassan­
dra A . W a lto n , A n th o n y Stouda-
m ire, W ilm a J. M o rris o n , M yna
Somers and Cheryl L. Anker.
The term in atio n n o tificatio n s
were dated August 7th and 10th and
approved by the agency’s grievance
com m ittee and the parent policy
board on August 26th.
Maureen G. M oreland, the direc­
tor o f the agency, has been unavail­
able for comment.
b y A .M Babu*
The allegation o f South A frican
Foreign M inister R .F . Botha that
his nation’s invading forces in A n ­
gola have uncovered Soviet prepara­
tions for an attack on South Africa
would be dismissed as a joke by A f­
ricans living in (he United States if it
did not entail far-reaching interna­
tio n al im plications. H is a b ility to
deceive most o f the w orld on (his
score in an age o f satellites and
other sophisticated m onitoring de­
vices is plainly lim ited. The United
States, in fact, would have been the
first to notice such activities, elimin­
ating any necessity for South Africa
to commit so serious an internation­
al crim e as invad in g a sovereign
state to confirm them.
It is sheer desperation that has
forced Botha to fall back on an un­
convincing explanation. The world
condemnation o f South A frica’s ag­
gression was m ore o verw helm ing
than Pretoria had anticipated, and it
also has put the United Stales into
an embarrassing and isolated posi­
tion for supporting it.
The Reagan adm inistration, too,
has been stunned by external and in­
ternal hostility against its support
for this latent agression: The entire
Th ird W orld has either condemned
the United States, or expressed seri­
ous concern about its position. The
Western allies have publicly disasso­
ciated themselves from it. Internal­
ly, not only liberal opinion but even
some o f M r. Reagan's avowed sup­
porters found his action distasteful.
The damage to worldwide Am er­
ican economic and diplomatic inter­
ests, especially in A frica, cannot be
exaggerated. By arro g an tly disre­
garding the deeply felt anti-S o u th
African views o f more than 400 mil­
lion Africans on the continent, and
hundreds o f millions o f Black peo­
ple all over the w o rld , the Reagan
adm inistration has made a serious
miscalculation o f the true interest o f
the American people.
W hite South A fric a represents a
dead era, the era o f the white man's
burden and its attendant assump­
tio n o f w hite suprem acy. This
decade is, ra th e r, the era o f an
emerging new w orld whose role in
the international scene is increasing­
ly significant. However unintelligi­
ble it may be to some people that
m illio n s o f hungry and p overty-
stricken human beings should exert
influence on world events, the fact
that they constitute the m ajority o f
the human race is a reality that can
be ignored only to one’s peril.
T he U n ite d States must choose
between siding w ith a dead era or
acknowledging a rising one. D ip lo ­
m atic sophistication and common
sense alike argue for accepting this
fact, and making a realistic c h o ic e -
on the grounds o f national interest,
as well as other considerations. This
is what A m e ric a ’ s W estern allies
have done, some o f whom clearly
share M r. Reagan's general political
philosophy.
In A fric a today, the issue is not
the Soviet threat, although some A f­
rican countries are concerned about
Moscow’s activities there. The sim­
ple tru th is (hat the one concern
which unites all A frican people, o f
whatever political persuasion, is the
ideology o f white supremacy sym­
bolized by South African apartheid.
It is a stark humiliation to all Black
people.
A fric a n friend s or enemies are
thus judged first by their reaction to
apartheid. I f the Soviet Union sides
w ith South A fr ic a in opposing
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