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U n iv e rs ity e t Oregon L ib ra ry
tu s rn e , Oregon 07403
LU
School Board
election
Police brutality
suit filed
Below
Pag«3
PORTLAND OBSERVER
USPS 959 680-855
March 16, 1983
Volume XIII, Number 23
250 Per Copy
< £ « r P iM a tin g Co . / « «
Front pickets Turner
by Lanlla Duke
Grassroot News. N. H ' — Tuesday
night, M arch IS , the Portland
Chapter of the Black United Front
(BUF) sponsored a march protesting
Tina Turner, who has performed in
apartheid South A fric a . Over 33
blacks and whites took part in this
demonstration in front of the Starry
Night nightclub at N W 6th and
Burnside, where Ms. T urner was
performing.
Ronnie Herndon, co-chair of the
B U F , explained the F ro nt's posi
tion: "T in a Turner is unfortunately
one o f the few black entertainers
who have performed in South A f
rica. in spite of the fact that broth
ers and sisters who are suffering
there have requested entertainers to
stay out o f South Africa. The gov
ernment uses the presence o f enter
tainers to legitimize the oppression
of black people. The United Nations
has passed three or four resolutions
asking artists not to go to South A f
rica. Black leadership in this coun
try has also made that request.
H ow ever, T in a Turner and a few
others have accepted this blood
money from South A frica."
The bottom line regarding any
performer is money. I asked Hern
don whether i f he were offered
150,000, w o uldn't he perform .
" N o , I wouldn't. It's just like ask
ing Jews to accept money for per
forming in front of Hitler. At some
point in time you have values which
cannot be bought or sold. This is
one of those situations."
Herndon says his concerns are
that performers get the message
that, " I f you go to South Africa and
lake part in the oppression o f our
people, we are going to do every
thing in our power to draw attention
to that fact and encourage people
not to support you artistically or
culturally."
However, the manager of Starry
Night, Larry Hurwitz, sees it differ
ently. " I don't think this march will
do anything for anybody in South
A fric a . It w ill not raise the con
sciousness of people in Portland to
the issues of South Africa. People in
Portland already have their minds
made up about South A fric a and
this march w ill not decide any
thing."
Hurwitz was concerned about the
peacefulness o f the demonstraton.
But the night proved he had more
trouble from an intoxicated patron
than from the marchers outside
The marchers' chants ranged
from "You sold your soul for South
A frican g o ld ," to " T in a Turner,
stay out of South A frica." This was
enough to turn away a few couples
and one man stood outside trying to
sell his tickets. " I didn't know she
had performed in South Africa. I'm
here to enjoy myself and I can't en
joy myself knowing the person on
the stage has perform ed in South
Africa."
Many patrons who were slopped
going in either d id n 't care about
Turner performing in South Africa
or wouldn't have come if they knew
about the dem onstration earlier.
One marcher staled, "Black people
got Tina Turner where she is today.
If she was to go live in South Africu
she couldn't walk down the street,
let alone perform on stage. What
she did is a blow to the brothers and
sisters who are struggling over there,
black people internationally, and
brothers and sisters in the States.”
Tina Turner did not make herself
available for comment. At least she
knows that some o f her people
aren't too concerned about her
"Rolling in the River."
Fentress seeks new murder trial
Spring la haral And Chela«« Stowers, 2. takes advantage of a sunny day to go for a ride.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Corporations reconsider S. Africa
by Carole Collins,
Pacific News Service
W A S H IN G T O N . D C . — Long
relegated to the idealistic margins,
the campaign for "divestm ent" in
South Africa is gaining ground to
day in the real world of U.S. high fi
nance— for reasons which include
sound business sense, as well as
moral principles.
For better than a decade, Amer
ican critics of apartheid have been
working to end U.S. corporate and
investment links to South A frica,
often to little effect. In the last 12
months more headway has been
made than in the previous 12 years.
The
turnabout
has
come
primarily because church and labor
groups, community and anti-apart
heid organizations, have united
their somewhat disparate objectives
around a common new strategy:
using the tremendous weight of pub
lic money to bring pressure on U.S.
banks and corporations active in
South Africa. The results have been
impressive:
•O n January 4, the Massachusetts
legislature easily overrode outgoing
governor Edward J. King’s veto to
pass the strongest state pension fund
divestment bill in the nation. Some
$120 million invested in firms doing
business in South Africa is at stake.
•O ne week before, outgoing
Michigan governor W illiam M illi
ken signed into law a bill banning
investment by state educational in
stitutions in companies operating in
South Africa.
• In late October, conservative
Grand Rapids, M ichigan— home
Three School
by Bob Lothian
During their tenure on the Port
land School Board, Steve Buel, Bill
Scott and Forrest Rieke were at (he
center of the stormy political battles
— closure o f Adams and Jackson
High Schools, firing o f superinten
dent Blanchard, several boycotts or
ganized by the Black United Front
and the Tubman Middle School sit
ing controversy— which shook Port
land's sleepy school district to its
foundations and sparked commu
nity interest in education as never
before.
Buel is one o f the four board
members— Buel, Herb Cawthorne,
Wally Priestley and Sarah Newhall
— who for the most part supported
the Black United Front’ s efforts to
redefine school desegregation and
other educational issues important
to the black community. Rieke and
Scott were often on the opposite
town to Gerald Ford and to many
Dutch-Americans with church and
ethnic ties to Afrikaaners—adopted
a policy prohibiting the deposit of
idle municipal funds in banks lend
ing to South Africa, or to U.S. com
panies doing business there.
• Last June. Philadelphia became
the first m ajor U .S . city to pass,
with strong bipartisan support, a
pension fund divestment bill. Soon
after, W ilm ington, D e l., passed a
similar b ill, and on January 4,
Councilman John Ray introduced
another in the nation’s capital.
Increasingly, these developments
dovetail with the concerns of some
in the business world itself. A First
N ational Bank o f Chicago stock
holder, during the Bank's 1980
annual meeting, noted that some
(Please turn io page 4 column I)
This Thursday Robert W arren
Fentress will be sentenced for a mur
der he claims he did not com m it.
Fentress, black, was convicted on
February 4, 1983 o f the murder of
Carolyn Frances Williams, white.
The conviction, which took the
all-white jury 214 days to determine,
was based on little evidence— the
testimony of a witness who did not
see the murder and the conflicting
testimony o f his "com m on-law
w ife," Gilda Moffett.
Fentress' attorney, W endell R.
Binkland, will ask for a retrial based
on new evidence— a witness who
corroborates another who was never
called to testify.
The investigation that led from
the report o f an injured woman at
6:45 a.m . on June 26, 1982, to
Fentress’ tria l on January 24th,
1983, reveals many constitutional
questions.
Police officers arriving at the
scene, NE Sacramento and Union,
were told by the ambulance crew
that they had found Ms. Williams
dead, face down, with both arms
under her, clutching her purse. Sev
eral persons reportedly had been at
the scene: a white man driving a
small dark car who said he had tele-
phoned the report; a black woman
30 to 40 years of age wearing a win
ter coat; a black bus driver; a tall,
thin black man driving a van; a
young white man driving a Honda;
a black man driving a gold Pontiac
wearing a gold-colored shirt.
The ambulance people and the
police assumed Ms. Williams died
of natural causes; the fact that she
had been killed by a bullet to the
head was discovered later by the
coroner's office.
On June 30th Robert Fentress
learned that the police were seeking
a person who was at the scene, driv
ing a blue van. He called the Police
Bureau and was interviewed in his
home.
Fentress told the police that he
had been to Cleo’s and to an after-
hours place with his girlfriend, G il
da M o ffe tt, and they had driven
down Union Avenue heading for
breakfast at Lions. When he saw
Ms. W illiam s on the sidewalk he
parked on Sacramento. He spoke to
the man who had called the police
and remained on the scene until the
body was removed. He said Ms.
M o ffe tt remained in the car. They
agreed that he was wearing black
pants and a blue shirt; he provided
Polaroid photographs of himself to
aid the investigation.
On July 7th, Fentress kept an ap
pointment for another interview at
the police station. He was informed
that he was not under arrest and
there was no intention of arresting
him that day, only of obtaining in
fo rm atio n on what he saw at the
scene of the murder.
Two days later the police detect
ives discovered that Fentress was
wanted on a 1977 fugitive warrant
from Cook County, III., involving a
murder investigation. At this point
the police put a stakeout on Fen
tress’ home on 7th Avenue and also
discovered that Gilda M o ffett had
an appointment with her parole o f
ficer on that dale. As Fentress drove
Ms. M o ffe tt to her appointm ent,
police arrested him and took him to
the booking facility.
While the arrest and events that
followed were taking place, police
searched Fentress’ home and car
and placed a wire tap in the house
A gold Pontiac G T O was towed to
the police garage and searched
Gilda M o ffe tt was arrested and
held for five hours. She stales that
she was threatened with parole vio-
(Please turn Io page I I column 1}
oard members seek reelection
"west side” o f the voting, repre
senting the viewpoint of solid busi
ness pragmatism and cost efficien
cy.
A ll three are up fo r reelection
March 29, and (he outcome will in
fluence whether the board continues
its current trend away from activism
toward moderation.
Buel, a sixth-grade teacher and
Southeast Portland resident, has
been a consistent supporter o f the
Black United Front in that organiza
tion's quest to have the school sys
tem accomodate the needs of black
students. A characteristic stand was
his dramatic walkout two years ago
in protest of the board's attempt to
appoint a non-board member as
chairman o f a desegregation com
mittee.
Buel and Herb Cawthorne later
wrote the desegregation plan which
came out of this effort.
An obvious m ajor question for
the Board, Buel feels, is what to do
about Jackson High. " It was closed
totally unfairly," and should be re
opened, he said.
"Unemployment is bad enough;
Portland doesn't need any more clo
sures," he said, "and you're not go
ing to hear me talking about cutting
back on special programs."
Buel feels the system could save
money and maintain a quality pro
gram through attrition— not filling
vacated positions, and by shifting
resources away from inefficient
management back into the class
room. "There's way too much mon
ey in the middle management area,
those people should be out teach
ing," he said.
Other priority issues, according to
Buel. are working toward equity in
allocating resources to elementary
schools, drug and alcohol abuse.
and school financing which spreads
the tax burden more equitably.
A nother concern is the mix o f
technical and liberal arts education.
" D o we leach literature or computer
technology?” he asked.
Buel feels that his strongest op
ponent. Bill Panaretos, is running
against his record o f support for
black community issues. " H e came
after me six months ago, and that
makes a real statement as far as (he
black community," he said.
"W e 're like night and day; we’re
absolutely different," said Panare
tos, comparing himself to Buel. A
banker who lives in the West Sylvan
area. Panaretos said his race against
Buel boils down to one word —
"competence,” but slopped short
of calling Buel incompetent.
A competent board member, ac
cording to Panaretos, is prepared
for meetings, makes "decisive, ob
jective decisions," and is articulate.
"They should be talking about the
goodness in the schools, not the
badness," he said.
The board's shift toward modera
tion is a "positive change," accord
ing to Panaretos, who said, " I
would like to see that trend con
tinue." Administration is the busi
ness of the board, he said, not social
activism. " I feel that the board of
education should be like the board
of a corporation."
Regarding the confrontation be
tween the board and the Black
United Front, Panaretos said. " I
don’ t think creating tension helped
solve the problem." If a demonstra
tion during a board meeting seemed
likely, " I wouldn't tolerate i t . . . .1
am for peace and law and order,
and firm negotiation,” he said.
" I think Tubm an should be at
B oise," he said, because from a
"strictly dollars and cents" stand
point, it would be too expensive to
remodel Eliot.
Keeping the budget in control is
high on his list, and it would involve
"selected cuts" and "possibly more
closure of schools." Panaretos felt
that the decision to close Jackson
was made unfairly, but he is not in
favor o f reopening now. " I don’t
think the west side can support three
high schools,” he said.
Panaretos* experience includes
membership on the School Closure
Committee, the Citizens' Advisory
Committee selection panel for Area
I and 2 schools and the C itizens’
Budget Review Committee.
He favors the closure of Jackson
High becaue he contends there
aren't enough students in the area to
warrant keeping it open P o rt
land's declining student population
(Please turn to page U column /)