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.”
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