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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