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Page 4 Portland Observer, November 10, 1982 The Wallace story EDITORIAL/OPINION by Dr. Manning Marable turally, nobody was thinking about barely " ju s t did finish the sixth race back then like they got to think grade.” In public statements, he O f all the opponents to blacks' ing about it later, but it was s till suggested that the U.S. was "m an c iv il rights in the 1960s, none considered very liberal o f him to es euvered into fighting the enemies of equalled George C. Wallace in racial tablish this contact with the Negro communism” in W orld War II. hatred and demagoguery. Wallace community. And he was real proud Wallace regretted "fig h ting against was the personification o f bigotry o f this connection with Tuskegee; those anti-Com m unist nations. One o f the most significant results in the No The only way to stop this madness is fo r the and white supremacy. Yet on he'd tell everybody about it. Any- Hell, we should have been in those vember 2nd election was largely overlooked in people o f the U.S. to put an end to it. The in itia September 29, 1982, the symbol o f body’d said back then he would be trenches with the Germans. . . fight- the excitement over the defeat o f Measure 3, the racism won an election in the Alaba tive w ill serve as an example to other cities and where he is today on the racial ques in’ the Bolsheviks.” ma Democratic primary, and is like narrow success o f Measure 51 and the fate o f fa tio n , we'd o f thought they were Wallace's sordid career in nation states to fo llo w P o rtla n d ’ s exam ple. It also ly to become governor o f that state vorite candidates. crazy." al politics is quite familiar, and can should enable the O regon L e g isla tu re to pass for an unprecedented fourth term. During his first decade in Alaba be summarized b rie fly . In 1964, Measure 7— the E l Salvador in itia tive — puts legislation this season. A s im ila r b ill n a rro w ly (Since this was written, Wallace did ma politics, Wallace established 1968 and 1972 he was a major factor the people o f M u ltn o m a h C ounty on record as lost in the House last session; the people’ s vote win that governor’s race—Ed.J In a himself on the left wing o f the Dem in the presidential races. 9.9 million opposing U.S. m ilita ry aid to El Salvador. should give those legislators more courage. narrow race w ith a progressive ocratic Party on the race question. Americans voted for him in an inde This measure passed by an overwhelming 75.4 Democrat, Lieutenant Governor C o n g ra tu la tio n s and th a n ks to the sm all A genuine populist on economic is pendent presidential campaign in George McMillan, Wallace succeed percent m a jo rity , an even larger m a jo rity than sues, Wallace urged his white consti 1968, comprising 13.5 percent of the group o f hard w o rking people who not only put ed in carrying a third o f the state’s tuents to consider the plight o f the nuclear freeze in itia tiv e . The vote dem on electorate. In the Democratic p ri this measure on the ballot, fought in court fo r its black voters, and by that margin blacks in the same terms as their mary elections o f 1972, he carried a strates that the people o f Portland do not want adm ission, and p u b licize d i t — but fo r several won the election. own. A fte r his election as circuit 42 percent plurality in Florida, and their tax money used to buy helicopters, bombs, years have spent many hours bringing the El Sal In the campaign, the overwhelm judge, Wallace subsequently an also won in Michigan and M ary bullets and napalm to k ill the people o f El Salva ing m ajority o f black elected o ff i vador re v o lu tio n to public a tte n tio n , p ro vid in g nounced his candidacy for governor land. It is entirely possible that had cials supported McMillan. But Wal d o r — la rg e ly peasants w ith o u t edu cation o r e d u c a tio n a l in fo r m a tio n , ra is in g m oney fo r in 1958. His principal opponent was Wallace not been shot and paral lace was able to co-opt the majority medical care who only want to live in peace and a "stridently irreconcilable segrega yzed during this campaign that he m edica l su p p lie s, etc. T he y have show n th a t o f conservative rural black preach tio n is t,” John Patterson. When security. would have become (he Democratic hard w o rk and persistence can bring success— ers into his cause, who in turn urged Patterson accepted the support o f party’s Vice Presidential candidate, T h ro u g h o u t the w o rld the people cal, fo r a but the battle is far fro m won. A ll those citizens their congregations to "fo rg e t the the Ku Klux Kian, Wallace issued a perhaps w ith conservative Henry halt to the massacre in El Salvador. Mexico and w ho voted fo r Measure 7 need to contact C o n past” and " t o forgive Wallace” by sharp denunciation o f the racist Jackson at the (op of the ticket. As Venezuela have recommended talks between the casting their support for him. When gress and the Oregon Legislature to demand that group. Endorsed by labor, Jewish it was, Wallace’s focus returned to Mrs. Corctta Scott King and other guerillas and the government and its patron, the U.S. involvem ent be stopped now. organization and the state's state politics. Retiring in 1979, after c iv il rights activists stumped the U.S. Cuba has recommended negotiation. The N A A C P chapter, Wallace lost the serving three terms as governor, I f this is a democracy we live in the wishes o f state for McM illan, black ministers ru n -o ff election to Patterson by guerrillas have repeatedly offered to meet w ith most black and progressive white the people should mean so m e th in g .. . . denounced her as "an outside agita 64,902 votes. After his defeat, Wal Southerners breathed a sigh o f relief g ove rn m en t and U .S . representatives. Even to r.” Incredibly, several majority- lace informed his supporters: "John —until this fall. Deane H in to n , U.S. A m bassador to El Salva black counties— the sites o f the Patterson out-nigguhed me. And I f it is possible to say anything d o r, has charged the E l S alvador governm ent bloodiest civil rights demonstrations boys. I'm not goin’ to be out-nig positive about the Wallace legacy in —cast majorities for Wallace. The w ith failing to stop the more than 30,000 civilian guhed again.” The passage o f M easure 51 should d e m o n Alabama, one must admit (hat his former governor even received 30 to murders by government endorsed right-wing ter The am bitious p o liticia n who administration carried out substan s tra te to e v e ry o n e — in c lu d in g the P o rtla n d 40 percent o f the black vote in once told friends that "we just can’t rorist groups and the m ilitary. tial liberal socio-economic reforms Police A sso cia tio n , the police a d m in is tra tio n , Montgomery, the state capital. keep the colored folks down like we in the state. Compared to the "New In spite o f all o f this, U.S. m ilita ry aid con and the M a y o r — th a t the people o f P o rtla n d For outside civil rights observers, been doin’ for years and years” sud South" governor o f Georgia, Jim tinues and an increase is planned. the renaissance o f Wallace is noth w a n t som e type o f p o lice review c o m m itte e . denly became a raving demagogue, my Carter. Wallace was far more The guerrillas, who represent the people, are ing short o f a political nightmare. The narrowness o f the vote indicates that they more outrageous than Bilbo, Patter progressive. In ten years, he estab Such interpretations fail to take into gaining in strength and eventually w ill win. The son, Vardaman, and the entire mot lished 14 new ju n io r colleges, 15 are n o t to o h a p p y a b o u t the in v o lv e m e n t o f account Wallace’ s chameleon-like only question is how many people w ill die first. ley host o f racist leaders through trade schools, and greatly expanded elected o ffic ia ls . ability to reverse himself according out Southern history. In the elec the size of Alabama's social services The E l S a lvad ora n gove rn m e n t w o u ld fa ll i f The C o u n c il’ s firs t order o f business should to the prevailing p o litic a l condi tion o f 1962, Wallace’ s entire cam to the poor. By 1976 the proportion U.S. support were w ithdraw n— so the U.S. is d i be to re tu rn the c itiz e n ’ s a u d it c o m m itte e to tions. During the recent campaign, paign denounced "carpetbaggin* ” o f the state's labor force employed rectly responsible fo r the bloodshed. fo r instance, Wallace not only de the citizens. and "ra c e m ix in ’ . " Anyone who by state government and social ser fended Mrs. K in g ’ s right to cam opposed him was "a nigguh-lover, a vice programs was 34 percent, the paign against him, but also noted to p in ko, or a com m unist.” He a t second highest ra tio in the U.S. the press that "one or both of Mrs. tacked liberals as "sissy-britches in Wallace's advocacy of social spend King’ s elderly parents, who live in tellectual morons,” and was swept ing was a key factor in the 1982 elec Marion, Alabama, planned to vote into office as governor. At his in tion. by Frank W. Goheen sands from diseases that would not modern world is an evil that only for him .” auguration in January, 1963, Wal But a more disturbing issue re exist, or at least not exist as virulent The brutal and senseless system o f To understand Wallace’ s recent Nazi Germany in the Second World lace declared, "From this very heart mains. While in office, Wallace in ly, in the areas from which they racial segregation and exploitation W’ar and the Cambodian regime o f victory, it is necessary to review his o f the great Anglo-Saxon South spired a reign o f lynchings, m u r have been fo rcib ly removed. The in the Republic o f South A frica , Prime Minister Pol Pot from 1975- political career over the past forty land, in the name o f the greatest ders, and police b ru ta lity against zealous white enforcers o f the known as apartheid, is not just the to 1979 has ever equaled. Until such years. In the 1940s, Alabama was a people that have trod this earth, I blacks. His epigones raped and "in flu x control” programs to keep sick conception o f a small group o f time as the West removes its sup strictly segregated society. Yet the say Segregation now! Segregation bludgeoned blacks with legal im blacks out o f the cities and the o ffi theologians and politicians in the port from the South A frica n gov state’s white electorate, in the tradi tomorrow! Segregation forever!” p unity, in the name o f white su cials who want to keep "w h ite South A frica n Dutch community. ernment, both military and econom tion o f Southern Populism, put into From 1963-1967 and 1971-1979, premacy. In a very real sense, Wal South A frica w hite” do not care M illions o f members o f the Dutch ic, the world will be confronted with o ffic e a number o f relatively en Wallace reigned as the state’s gover lace is responsible for the bombing about the suffering they cause, for Reformed Church believe im plicitly public o ffic ia ls . a grave and present danger o f race lightened nor; his first wife, Lurleen, was elec o f the Sixteenth Street Baptist they can always return to their com in the God-given right o f white Compared to the v itrio lic dema war on a massive scale in southern ted to the post in 1966. During most Church in Birmingham in 1963, fortable homes at night and never South Africans to treat black South A frica . C om forting words about gogues o f neighboring Mississippi, o f these years, Wallace fostered which killed four little black girls. hear the cries and lamentations o f Africans like slaves or worse. We " r e fo rm ” o f apartheid have been particularly Theodore Bilbo, Alaba what his biographer, Marshall Fra- After all the human sufferings, Wal those who suffer. Such is apartheid, know that this is just the sort o f said many times before since 1948, ma Senators Lister H ill and Hugo dy, terms "a totalitarian society." lace stands before the black elector a system several b illio n dollars o f treatment these devout and deter yet the shackles holding down the 70 Black, and Governor James Folsom Wallace "le ft Alabama with a single ate, asking for the remission o f his American investments support and mined white men and women have percent black m ajority have never were infinitely better. They were all provincial vision o f itself in the na bloody crimes. fortify. We must not be fooled into meted out to 20 m illion black men been more locktight than now, and segregationists, but they advanced tion and the w orld, and a single As heirs to a rich tra d itio n o f believing that the white South A fri and women in South Africa. never more destructive o f human economic programs which benefited ruthless expectation for unanimity black faith and forgiveness, black cans w ill get rid o f apartheid to at The rationale behind the system life and dignity. O f all the nations of poor blacks and whites alike. W al —not only in ideas but also in hab Alabamians should have replied: tract investment, for it is the guar of apartheid is that eventually each the w orld, only the Republic o f lace firs t emerged as a protege o f its, in morality, even in dress: most “ Yes, we can forgive you. And to antee o f cheap labor and a docile "n a tio n ” in South A fric a —the South Africa has elevated racial dis- Folsom, winning election as a state youngsters in Alabama classrooms show your commitment to us, we work force that attracts business white, Colored (mixed race), Asian, criminatin to an official policy writ representative from rural Barbour regarded any deviation from short will allow you to sweep the streets of from America, B rita in , and other and black—w ill have their own ten into its laws and constitution. County. Wallace served as Folsom’s hair and neatly pressed clothes as a B irm ingham ’ s black com m unity. places, and that apartheid provides homeland wherein they w ill rule That the United States has formed a alter ego for a dozen years, manag sign o f perversion.” Mein K am pf Or raise money for a black school; in abundance. ' themselves. Magically, all racial ani kind o f "axis” between Washington ing his successful re-election cam became “ the Bible o f Alabam a,” or work as an orderly in a rural mosity w ill disappear because all and Pretoria is the most tragic, and paign in southern Alabama in 1954. and friends and foes o f Wallace black hospital. Wc forgive you, but i races w ill live compeltely apart, or for Americans, shameful, aspect of In return for his support, Wallace drew parallels between the governor under no conditions will we entrust so the theological seminaries and the situation. Perhaps the news that asked Folsom to appoint him to the and H itle r. Wallace gleefully ap you with our votes. Never again will political caucuses o f the South A fri a white man, Dr. Neil Hagget, who board o f trustees at Tuskegee Insti pointed semi-literates into positions you be allowed to occupy the most can Dutch, or Afrikaners, believe. had attempted to organized black tute. " I t was considered a very liber o f public responsibility, and minor positon o f civil authority over A combination o f ideological zeal There are undoubtedly white South workers into a union, was tortured al move at the time,” one prominent bragged openly that one o f his ap our lives. Wc can forgive: but we for apartheid and the desire to make Africans who really believe in this and killed by the South African po white politician recalled later. "N a pointees as a state college president will never forget. ’ ’ as much money as possible has utopian and impossible conception, lice, should awaken us to the fact brought tragedy to one o f the and like all true believers they are that it is not just blacks who are lia world’ s most beautiful countries. A willing to do great wrongs to achieve ble to feel the heavy and implacable measure of/he tragedy can be found their ends. Since 1960, 3 m illion boot o f the South A frica n police. (Continuedfrom page I column 6) in just one statistic: the infant mor black South A fricans have been Since 1960, at least 60 prisoners press. tality rate for whites in South Africa transported by force from “ white” have been killed while in ja il for po South A fric a in attem pting to tie In the meantime the U.S. and U.S. Investment In is 12 per 1,000 per year, while for areas to desolate and poverty-strick litic a l viewpoints, while over the N am ibian independence to w ith South Africa are solidifying their re blacks it is over 250 per 1,000. South Africa - w drawal of Cuban troops from neigh en "homelands” where they, by the same period the Pretoria regime has lationship. A consular convention Billions o< dollars Among older black children the boring Angola. Angolan president stroke o f a pen, cease to be South had thousands o f common criminals was signed in October that strength mortality is mainly due to malnutri A fricans and start to be Zulus, hanged for offenses that would mer Jose Eduardo dos Santos has said ens protections to consular staffs of tion, even though South A frica ex Transkeians, or what have you. By it only a few years in ja il in Ameri that Cuban troops w ill stay u n til the two countries—a step toward ports over $2 billion worth o f food Namibia is independent and South eliminating all blaiks from the cate ca. normal relations. L is t week the A fric a withdraws its troops from gory o f being South A fricans, the. per year. The food to save these Time is running out for a peaceful number of attaches of each govern children is there, but the political Namibia and from southern Ango white South Africans are relieved of solution in South A fric a , but the ment in the o th e r’ s country was will to use it to save lives is not. Am la. Although Gen. Vernon Walters the onerous burden o f ever having United States government thinks brought to full strength. President erica and Western Europe approve spent the summer attem pting to to deal with black South A frican that business as usual is the correct Jimmy Carter had an attache after o f this situation de facto even if they change Santos’ mind, South Africa grievances. approach to this ghastly human the death o f Steve Biko in 1977 and make perfunctory speeches from has done its part by launching re The practical effect o f this inhu tragedy. We can’ t wait any longer to South Africa expelled two more and time to time against it. Actions, peated invasions o f Angola. The man and draconian policy is to k ill make our individual views heard by reduced their staff in Washington. such as withdraw ing investments, United States continues to claim black children, who are the weakest our government. Apartheid must The airplane that South A fric a would speak much louder than mere that a "breakthrough” is imminent and most helpless members o f the cease to exist if there is to be any .a. claimed was used by the attaches for words. but Angola and Cuba say this is community, by the tens o f thou •71 ’7» -7a *77 TS •■« peace and security for Africa or for spying was returned to the U.S. Em propaganda spread by the Western The existence o f apartheid in the sands and the hundreds o f t h o u the world. Source I M i anm»nt ol Commute» bassy in Pretoria. El Salvador initiative success Return board to citizens Time running out for South Africa Analysis U.S. closer to South Africa Receive your Observer by m ail— Subscribe todayl Only $10“ per year. Portland Observer N ew sp jp er 'B J i Publishers » Association ■ fl ™ MEMBER NÏWW pep Aatociatlon - Founded »MS The P o rtla n d Observer IU S P S 959 680i is published every Thursday by E«ie Publishing Company, Inc , 2201 North Killings worth. Portland, Oregon 97217. Post Oftice Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97206 Second class postage paid at Portland, Oregon Subscriptions 110 00 per year in the Tri County area Post m aster: Send address changes to the Portland Observer, P 0 Box 3137, Portland, Oregon 97208 A I McGilberry, Editor/Publisher A ! Williams, Advertising Manager Mail to: Portland Observer Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97206 283 2486 National Advertising Representative A m algam ated Publishers. Inc N e w York Name Hi I My Mom and Dad read the Portland (Mwerver - why not you? 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