t ir s
UJ
F r a n c is
S c h a s n -i e s s p s p s r P o c a
Jobs, Peace,
Freedom report
'The Hawk'
stays tops
School tips
for parents
Page 3
Page 8
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PORTLAND OBSERVER
U *P S 959-680-855
Volume XIII, Number 46
August 31, 1963
25C Per Copy
C Cnr Pttbiahtng Co. lite I t t i
U.S. Black astronaut
finally orbits Earth
L l. Colonel Ouion S. **O uy"
Bluford became the first Black
launched into »pace by the United
State» when Challenger blasted o ff
early Tuesday morning. The flight is
the eighth in the shuttle program.
Bluford, one o f four Blacks in the
astronaut program, is a pilot with
combat experience in Vietnam and a
doctorate in space engineering.
Bluford grew up in Philadelphia.
He earned a degree in aerospace en
gineering from Penn State in 1964
and joined the A ir Force through
R .O .T .C . He served in Vietnam as a
F -4C co-pilot. He flew ,33 combat
missions, 65 over Vietnam . He
earned a Master of Science at the
A ir Force Institute o f Technology in
1974 and a P h .D . in aerospace tech
nology in 1978.
He competed with 9,000 appli
cants, becoming one o f 35 chosen
for the astronaut program.
er and the other is earning his PhD.
in English.
Bluford has primary responsibil
ity for the launch o f a communica
tions satellite for India. He will also
assist
in
an
experiment
on
separating live pancreas cells.
Challenger is expected to remain
in space for five days.
Bluford's mother was a teacher
and
his
father
a
mechanical
engineer. H e has two brothers: the
oldest is a PhD. computer program-
Bluford will not be the first Black
man in space. A rnuldo Tam ayo
Mendez, a Cuban, flew a Soviet
Salute mission in 1980.
PCC receives 'Small Business
Incubator' project funding
EARNING THAT LUNCH MONEY: Making tha
most of tha last faw days befors school starts are
Sarray Brannon. •: Lorall Roblnaon. »: and Kandel
Foxx. 11.
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
Whitaker Middle School
now Portland's finest facility
The staff o f W hitaker M iddle
School is looking forw ard to wel
coming its students to their all-new
school next Friday, September 8th.
The new school w ill be open to
the
community,
parents
and
students on August 7th, 7:00-9:00
p.m. School will begin on August
8th, two days tater than other schools
in the Portland
District. The
W hitaker staff invites the public to
attend the Open House and to be
come a part o f the school communi
ty-
W hitaker, now housed in the
Adams High School building on
Northeast 42nd. w ill bring students
from the Colum bia and the W h it
aker sections of the old Colum bia-
W hitaker M iddle School and 6th,
7th and 8th graders from Boise
Elementary School under the same
roof. The school, with an expected
850 to 950 students, w ill be Port
land's largest middle school.
Principal W illiam W arren ex
plained that the school will be new
to everyone. Last year 6th graders
attended Colum bia and 7th and 8th
graders attended W hitaker, both
old, crowded buildings where 95
percent o f the students arrived by
bus. Now they will be in Portland’s
finest school building with spacious
halls, courtyards and plenty o f
room to move around. The new
school is in a neighborhood, so most
students can walk to school. Boise
students have attended a pre-kinder
garten through 8th grade school and
will be in a middle school setting for
the first time.
Boise community students, who
are attending W hitaker while the
Boise and Eliot buildings are being
renovated, will be an integral part o f
the student body, W arren said.
They sviU be assigned to classes with
the W hitaker students. Buses origi
nating at Boise will pick up students
from other attendance areas so they
Will be integrated when they arrive
at the school. “ They w ill not be
called Boise buses; they will Just be
buses.” W arren said, and "students
will not be Boise Students.”
Because it «rill take from i r i to
two years to prepare the Eliot build
ing for Tubm an M iddle School, this
year's 7th and 8th graders will
graduate from W hitaker. The 6th
graders «rill have the option to
transfer to Tubm an for the 8th
grade year.
W hitaker «rill have several unique
qualities. Sixth graders w ill be
housed sepsuately on the lower
level. These students w ill attend
“ self-contained classrooms.” That
is, each student will have his own
classroom and teacher. They w ill be
assigned to reading and math
groups according to achievement
level, so «rill have different teachers
for these subjects. Students will
have five class periods for core sub
jects and will attend physical educa
tion on alternate days. During the
last period, students will spend one
quarter in each o f four subjects —
shop, music, art and homemaking.
Seventh and eighth grade students
«rill have a "re g ro o m " teacher who
«rill be responsible for the student
for the two years. The staff is orga
nized into teams and each student
«rill have a team o f five teachers —
math,
reading,
language
arts,
science and health, and social
science — for the two years. These
students have P .E . on alternating
days and can take elective classes,
including foreign language, during
their last period.
The purpose o f this structure,
W arren said, is to give continuity
and to allow the transition from the
structured elementary school to the
individualized high school to come
gradually. M any 6th graders are not
ready for the usual middle school
system o f changing rooms and
teachers every period. This system
«rill provide 7th and 8th graders
with a small group o f adults with
which to identify.
W hile putting 900-plus middle
school students in a building de
signed for a free-wheeling open
campus high school (there are at
least 92 outside doors) causes
concern to some parents, W arren is
not worried. " T h e key to discipline
is creating a human atmosphere to
children will want to be here,” he
M o tt o f the discipline prob
lems at W hitaker last year occurred
in the first few minutes after stu
dents arrived and were attributed to
the fact that the halls and rooms
were overcrowded, he said. Halls
w ill be monitored; use o f outside
doors will be restricted; staff will be
alert to outside problems. W hitaker
«rill have a "dosed campus” policy
where students are not allowed to
leave school unleu accompanied by
a parent.
T w o o f Colum bia-W hitaker's
succeuful programs will continue
after the move. Project O R O W was
begun in 1966 to offer students an
opportunity to learn about horticul
ture, business and small engines.
"Students can relate math and
reading to what they are doing in
d a u : they use math, they keep logs,
they learn how to fill out orders for
supplies or small engine parts,"
W arren said.
W OLL
(W hitaker
Outdoor
Living Lab) consists o f classroom
study and field trips in such diverse
subjects as Canadian government,
oceanography, and w ildlife. Field
trips include a week-long visit to
Canada and shorter visits to the
Oregon coast and M alheur W ildlife
Refuge. The acreage, lakes and
greenhouses used for these pro
grams will remain available to the
school.
Portland Comm unity College has
received its first major grant for
capital construction on the small
business incubator which will be
built at the college's Cascade
Campus in north Portland.
The grant, in the amount of
$150,000, is from the M J . Murdock
Charitable Trust o f Vancouver.
Washington.
"T h is is the first m ajor outside
funding we've received for the
project,” says PCC president Dr.
John
H.
Anthony.
" W e ’re
especially
appreciative
of
the
M urdock Trust for making funds
available for such an innovative
project, and for their commitment
to the needs o f the north-northeast
Portland area."
The incubator is designed to
create new jobs in the inner north-
northeast Portland area by fostering
development o f small businesses in
volved in light manufacturing and
support industries.
The project is administered by the
Cascade Business Center C orpora
tion (C B C C ). a non-profit corpora
tion comprised o f members from
private and public sectors including
P C C , the Portland Development
Commission, the Northeast Busi
ness Boosters, the Northeast Neigh-
borhood Coalition, and the H u m
boldt Neighborhood Association.
PC C has donated land to the
project and is actively seeking addi
tional funding for capital construc
tion, according to Anthony. A p
proximate coat o f the three-phase
56,000 square foot building w ill be
$2.3 million. Completion o f the first
phase is targeted for January, 1984.
The new building at Cascade will
house classroom and laboratory
facilities for high tech vocational
programs, and will be used both by
PCC and the fledgling small busi
ness which will be housed in the
building.
Controversial book
A matter of fact?
by Lam ia Duke
G R A S S R O O T S N E W S . N . W. —
The promotion in Portland last
week o f a seemingly innocent book
on the history and achievements of
Blacks in America has developed
into a controversy over the historical
accuracy o f the book.
The book, "Black History and
Achievements in Am erica,” is being
promoted by its author, Karlton
Stuart, as a "compendium overview
o f the struggle and triumph o f Black
Am ericans." However, during his
presentation last Sunday at Van
couver Avenut First Baptist Church,
Stuart was asked by members o f the
audience to explain the numerous
incorrect names, incorrect defini
tions and mistakes in dates and loca
tions which were discovered in the
book.
W ithout judging the book by its
cover. Grassroots News went from
Phoenix, to Philadelphia, and back
to Portland, to find out what really
occurred with "B lack History and
Achievements in A m erica.”
Stuart, an attorney by trade, said
he spent three years traveling
around the country researching his
book. The promotional strategy
used by Stuart was to get the 23
teams in the National Basketball
Association to buy the book and
give one-third to the regional O .I.C .
and two-thirds to the school dis
tricts.
The Phoenix Suns were the first
team contacted by Stuart. General
Manager Jerry Colangelo stated.
" A fte r looking at the book and
reading it, we felt the whole concept
was good. And it lead to an endorse
ment. I was not aware of any histor
ical errors. We all feel that we know
a little bit about history, but when
you read a book about a specific
history you just take it for granted
that the facts are correct. W e as
sumed that they were. This was the
kind o f community activity the Suns
would be involved in.
"W h e n I analyzed the purpose of
the book and the reasons why the
Suns got involved, I would still
stand by our decision."
It is on the basis o f this type of
reasoning that the Portland T ra il
blazers endorsed the book W ally
Scales, Director o f Promotions, said
the book received endorsements
from the Board of Governors o f the
N B A . " W e do not feel the errors in
the book outweighed the benefits
from a book o f this so rt." Scales
also said he believed the errors were
typographical.
Rev. John G arlington, President
of the Albina Ministerial Alliance,
pointed out to Stuart that there were
too many mistakes in the book to
blame it on typographical errors.
"T h e errors in here are above and
beyond the call o f duty. W ith re
gards to names, you cited D r. John
Hope and his name is Dr. John
Hope F ra n k lin ."
Joyce Harris. Manager of the
Talking Drum Bookstore and a con
sultant in Black History for the
Portland School District, said she
found more than the 24 mistakes
Stuart conceded to when the mis
takes were publicly brought out. She
(Please turn to page 12 col. 3 /