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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1982)
Portland Observer, January 14, 1982 Page 9 Williams: Woman of the year From page 1 ment in the act. Through a background «cries on police/community relations and ac tions o f narcotics d ivision detec tives, Ms. Williams, Alan Ota and a team o f O reg o nian reporters a t tem pted to lay out the facts for readers. The police department and the m ayor were not too apprecia tive, and charges o f bias flew. “ I wrote mostly about C ity H all effects o f the ’ possum in c id e n t,” M s. W illia m s recalls. “ I was not surprised by the reaction. I under stand the reaction. It (the story] had been aired by the Black community and the Black press, and Willamette Week, but because it was the O re gonian that did the story, it gave le gitimacy. They know if the Oregon ian is paying attention, then the peo ple downtown and in the West Hills arc paying attention.” Ivancie criticized the media and Ms. Williams publicly and the police bureau’s newsletter printed negative comments about her. W illia m s doesn’t credit Ivancie’s remarks to rucism but thinks perhaps others in C ity H all or the police bureau may have been reacting to her as a Black woman. Her employers were supportive in the midst o f this barrage. “ They feel the same way I do. It speaks for it self and we d o n ’ t need to defend ourselves. People can read and make up their own minds.” Ms. Williams, 29, didn’t start out to be a newspaper reporter. Originally from Fayetteville, N .C ., she studied sociology at the University o f North C arolina at Chapel H ill before de ciding “ it was a lot o f bull.” Having since become m ore c h a ritab le to ward her first fie ld , she still finds her natural strengths in the human ities. A fter graduating from U N C with degrees in journalism and history, she worked as an intern for the P hil adelphia Inquirer and later as a gen eral assignment and education re porter for several daily papers in the South before coming to the Oregon ian as Salem statehouse reporter in 1979. O n the C ity H a ll beat since the spring o f 1980, Ms. Williams covers the C ity C o u n c il, the P lanning Commission, the Portland Develop ment Commission, city government advisory com m ittees and others, from her office on the third floor. She has made friends here and is "g e ttin g m ore fa m ilia r” w ith the city’s Black community. “ It suffers from being vastly outnumbered and such a m in o r ity ,” she says. “ There’ s more pressure to assimil ate and to be low-key about things. I t ’ s d iffic u lt to gain a foo th o ld in the c ity ’ s p o litic a l and econom ic life .” But things are improving, Ms W il liams senses. “ Portland is gaining a very activist Black c o m m u n ity . Those who weren’t so vocal before are finding more support. Outside o f the churches, P o rtla n d ’ s Black com munity hasn’t had any institu tions to find leaders.” Although M s. W illiam s has been on the receiving end o f criticism from those she writes about, she w o n ’ t worry about anticipated reaction to a story as long as the facts are straight. “ I expect there’s going to be a re action and that it ’s not going to be p o sitiv e,” she adm its. “ K now ing people arc going to be scrutinizing the w ork, you have to keep to the facts----- I f the facts are there and I can ju s tify (a story] all the way down the line, i t ’ ll get p rin ted . It might take tim e, but they’ ll p rin t it.” Haefner: Long Service Award Ffom page 1 economics graduate fro m the University o f Iowa who had “ no in tention o f staying in a small tow n.” Joining her bro th er in G rants Pass (her parents later retired there) the then landed in P o rtla n d and prom ptly joined the N A A C P , be coming a board member at a time when few whites were involved. Civ il rights battles o f the period includ ed a bi-yearly effort by the group to force a civil rights bill through the Oregon Legislature. Finally, with the help o f then-G ov. Sprague, a Sen. Hickok and a young representative named H atfield, they were success ful in getting such legislation passed in 1952. After years of championing the un der dog's cause, Ms. Haefner found enough like-minded seniors and put together the G ray Panthers in Ore gon, with co-founder Ron Wyden, now the state’s second district con gressman. They worked for nursing home patients’ rights and sponsored the initiative allowing denturists to treat patients and fit dentures with out the involvem ent o f a licensed dentist (and usually expensive dental bills). M s. H ae fn e r was not surprised when senior advocate W yden was elected. “ T h ere was nobody that could defeat him. Ron had the peo ple with h im .” They still work close ly together. In recent years, she has kept tabs on police activities through police/ community task forces and speaking up whenever injustice occurs. One such event to her mind was the so- called “ ’possum incident” last year in N .E . Portland. “ Some say i t ’ s settled, but i t ’ s never going to be settled as long as Ivan cie is m a y o r,” M s. H a e fn e r says. “ W h put those policem en back on the force when they should have been fired. “ There’ s a lot o f rumbling in the Black community and it's going to fester until i t ’s settled or it breaks out in some other form. They didn’t get justice.” In 1978, she attended the Univer sity o f Io w a ’ s 60-year reunion and was awarded a distinguished alumni achievem ent aw ard fo r her ac tivities. But the high point o f recent years was traveling to Washington, D .C ., for the national Gray Panthers con vention and protesting the W h ite House Conference on Aging. “ The official delegates stayed at the H ilton for $100 a night and got their a ir-fa re paid— all by the tax payers. We paid our own expenses and stayed at 4 -H facilities because we were poor,” she says. W ith all her involvement in social issues, i t ’ s not too surprising to learn there w asn't tim e for a hus band and fam ily. But Ms. H aefner has no regrets. “ 1 don't regret that I didn’t mar ry . I ’ m a Io , better o f f than my friends who married. I was too am bitious!” Herndon: Man of the Year CESßH Herndon and two other students began plans to establish the Black Education Center, which began with summer school in 1970. “ T h a t is why I stayed in Portland, because of the response o f the people. We had seventy or eighty children that sum mer. The people really wanted change, wanted the benefit o f Black H is to ry and a good e d u c a tio n .” They worked to build the school and in 1974 it opened full-time. In 1971 the Black Education Cen ter Bookstore, later called the T alk ing Drum Book Store, was founded out o f the necessity to develop insti tutions to meet the needs o f Black people. " F o r tw elve years it has been a source o f Black history, cul ture, and literatu re— a source that many cities o f sim ilar size do not have.” From 1971 to 1975 H ern d o n worked for the A lb in a Youth O p portunity School. When th< direc torship o f the P M S C H ead S tar, program (now A M A Headstart) was available, he applied and was ap pointed. “ I had never taken an edu cation course. But I saw the need for a Black institution in the city that could teach children Black history, Black culture and the Three R s.” Herndon credits his appointment to people on the P M S C Board who fought for him— mainly Lilly W alk er and Betty Overton. Three years ago the Black United Fron was organized, with Herndon as co-chairman. “ We wanted to cre ate an organization to work for the interests o f the Black C o m m u n ity more effectively than we could as in d ivid u als. M ost Black people in Portland wanted change and were w illing to work very hard to over come the despicable and depressing conditions that con fro n t us every day. ” At each point we deeply believed that Black people in Portland— con tra ry to what had always been said— were willing to work hard and make sacrifices to fight all o f the va rious forms o f racism in the city.” W e ll know n are the struggles against racism in the school district and police b ru ta lity and harass ment, efforts to aid economic devel opment in the area, protest against a p orno theater in the c o m m u n ity , and support o f a citizens committee to plan use o f federal H C D funds. H ern d o n credits all o f his suc cesses to those who have assisted him. “ I f it were no, for the care and protection and love my g rand p ar ents gave when I was very young— the lessons they taught— whatever I ’ve done would no, have been pos sible. I will be eternally grateful.” " I have to give credit to my teach ers and th e ir lessons about excel lence— our second grade teacher was always talking about college. “ M y political development is due to the people who took the time and had the patience to teach me— to tell me what books to read. In New Jer sey I was shown a b o o k — J .A . Rogers’ A fric a ’s G ift To America— the firs, Black book someone said to read. " I ’m very lucky to have known a Io, o f good people who have been kind and have tried to teach me. In New York I learned from the pimps, prostitutes and drug addicts. They let me know first hand about police brutality and the viciousness o f po lice, planting drugs, bribes. I got to see that this country doesn’t give a damn about Black people. " I saw the limousines from W all Street go be the slums o f H arlem — the people who make a profit from Black people being cooped up like anim als in the slums. T he money sifts right down to W all Street. And all I had learned in high school civ ics was washed out. “ I learned that the people who run this country know exactly what they arc doing— that Black people are dying fro m indescribable c ir cumstances. It was a powerful les son to learn at 19.” Herndon was fortunate to spend a few weeks in T rinidad. " I t was the most free I ever fel, in my life, not to be under the yoke o f racism day in and day o u t.” Another experience made possible by others was an o p p o rtu n ity to study in A frica. A class in A frican dance at Portland State University taught by Percival Borde, one o f the leading authorities, had an o p por tunity to choose a class member to go on the study tour in A frica . In stead, they chose Herndon. He studied at the University o f L i beria and at the University o f Ife in Nigeria. "There I found the kind o f intellectual stimulation and academ ic depth that I had hoped to find at Reed. The professors were intellec tu a ls — true s ch o lars.” Borde opened the way fo r H ern d o n to meet many o f the traditional leaders o f A frica and to take part in trad i tional ceremonies. “ Everything I have done I owe to those who have helped me. The peo ple o f Portland— parents, people in the Black U nited F ro n t— these are the people who deserve this award. “ Bill M cC lendon and M cK inley Burt were very important to my po litical development; they are giants in the field o f Black H istory. They have given themselves to me and to other Blacks to teach us the lessons they have learned. Vesia Loving and Edna Robertson have been such a help. “ I deeply appreciate wha, the Ob server has done over the years— talk ing about the problems that assault Black c h ild re n , single handedly keeping the school issue alive when it wasn't popular. Police brutality— years ago you began to publicize po lice brutality. “ It is rew ardin g and fu lfillin g that Black people, in the face o f so many hurdles pu, before them so many times, try at all. Yet they have never given up faith in their ability to bring about change. W e lfa re m others, the p o o r, high school dropouts have been the movement here. "Whenever there has been signifi cant change in o ur h istory it has been when large numbers o f people w ork tog eth er. T h ere are always some smart Black people who chal lenge the system— but when you look at real change it is because large numbers are active in the struggle.” Street Beat A ret Ha Rogers, schoolteacher— “ I know without even thinking about it that it should be a national holiday. King did as much as any o f the other people whose birthdays are national holidays. He fought for human rights, not just for Black people, but for everybody. W ith this Congress it probably w on’ t be de clared.” O ur Street Beat question this week is, “ D o you think D r. M artin Luther King, J r.’s birthday should be declared a national holiday?” E dw ard Berts, retired— “ Yes, I ’ve always been in favor o f making his birthday a national holiday. He was one o f the greatest men in the world. T h a t’s my idea about it and I ’m no, going to change.” M a rth a Perkins, clothes sorter— “ It should be a holiday. Th ere’s a lot o f unsung heroes and i f they all had holidays on their birthdays it would stop meaning so much.” -4» Reginald DeLaney, student— “ He did a lot for people. Not only Black people but whites as well. I think the reason why they haven’t made it a national holiday is because he was a Black m an.” Lene/l Means, employee, Pacific N W Bell— “ It should have been de clared a long tim e ago. D o n ’t you think he was one o f the greatest men who ever lived? I don’ t think that white society really respects the m an ." \C o n n ie Emerson, handicapped- helper— " I think it should be be cause he’s a great person and some one who is well-liked by the public. Some people may no, think that it ’s by Lanita Duke and Richard Brown Inez Leary, housewife— “ I think it should be a national holiday. He was a good guy. People just don’t look up to good guys anymore.” VALUES AT COMMERCIAL ELECTRONICS INC. We have a large selection of reconditioned TVs. “Service is our specialty” Trade in your old T.V. for a reconditioned beauty! 8139 N. Denver • 285-1626 W e are open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day except Sunday.
