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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 1983)
U n tv Racist bill not dead Whiz kids or Wheez kids Page 5 Page 12 y o PORTLAND OBSERVER U^PS 959-680-855 I ’ s Volum e XIII, Num ber 52 October 12, 1983 25C Per Copy C a ./w ¿MJ Kafoury heads bureau Mr. ft Mrs. Robert Woods, members of the Rail rosd Senior Citizens Associetlon, discuss "the old deys" with Bill Hlllierd. elso e former reilroeder. (Photo: Rlcherd J. Brown) Railroad Senior Citizen group celebrates historic pioneers by Lam ta Duke they were gone. Grassrool News. N . W. — O n O c tober I , the Railroad Senior Citizens Association held its annual banquet, and brought together the pioneers o f P o rtla n d 's Black co m m u n ity The Railroad Senior Citizens Asso c ia tio n is com prised o f men and their wives who were recruited by Southern and U n io n P acific R a il road C om panies to lay track and m aintain the trains before, during and after W W II. W orking on (he railroad required between 60 to 80 hours a week on the ro ad . Y e t, th eir wives m a in tained the family and stood in a sup p o rtiv e role u n til th eir husbands came hom e. A ll w ill tell you their uppermost concern was (he educa tion o f their children. C u rre n tly , the gentlem en in the Association are the subject o f a doc umentary produced by W orld Arts F o u n d a tio n 's M ich ae l G rice, who showe the resiliency and patience of these men enabling them to build homes, support fam ilies and edu cate their children. Recruited fro m a ll across the country, these men faced a jungle of narrow-mindedness when they a r rived in P o rtla n d . As late as the 1950s many theaters, stores and res taurants were closed to Blacks. On the railroad they were cooks, labor ers, w aiters, P u llm a n porters and redcaps. They were the very back bone o f the rail industry, whose ser vices were never appreciated until M an y o f the pillars o f the co m m unity who have lived in Portland for more than thirty years had some connection with the railroad: C. Donn Vann, W illie Jenkins, E. Shel ton H ill and D r. W alter Reynolds are just a few. D r. Reynolds has set up fa m ily practice clinic in the Albina commu n ity . It is named a fte r his fa th e r, P h il Reynolds, who obtained em p lo ym en t and fo u g h t fo r better working conditions for the men. Dr. Reynolds used the m oney earned while portering, redcapping, and as a w a ite r, to pay his way through medical school. O n the n ation al tra ck , ra ilro a d workers organized the first Black union, the Brotherhood o f Sleeping Car Porters. Under the direction of A . P h illip Randolph it was organ ized to better w orking conditions and increase wages fro m the ra il road companies. The guest speaker for the annual banquet was Bill H illiard, Executive E d ito r fo r The O reg o n ian , who started out as a redcap. “ W hen I was a child in S.E. Portland I wasn’t even allowed to carry The Oregon ian. I remember being a reporter by day and putting on my Redcap uni fo rm at night to help make ends meet.” H illia r d said w hat he learned from the gentlemen in the Associa tion provided him with the insight to rise from copy boy to Executive Edi tor at the state's largest newspaper. “ I learned to be hum ble and take punishment without fighting back. I maintained a certain amount of dig nity. I don't think you have to give up your p rincip les, but you can carry yourself in such a way (hat the day will come for you to get back at them ." W orld Arts Foundation, Inc., ex pects its documentary to be finished by the end o f 1983. Former Representative Gretchen kafou ry, a close friend and political supporter o f City Commissioner Margaret Strachan, has been ap pointed Human Services C oordin ator for the City. The appointment, which has been rumored since be fore the demotion o f former Direc tor o f the Human Resources Bureau, Erma Hepburn, and before ihe elimination o f Ms Hepburn's position, has caused another contro versy over Commissioner Strachan’s employee relationships. After she received control o f the Bureau o f Human Resources, C o m missioner Strachan announced she would require persons holding tem porary appointments (including Ms. Hepburn, who had been appointed by Mayor Frank Ivancie) to com pete for those positions under Civil Service. This would give them job security they lacked as temporary appointees. Commissioner Strachan told the Observer at the time. She said that two o f those involved were minorities, as a coincidence, and that she hoped to offer them added protection. After a nation-wide search, no ac ceptable candidate (Ms. Hepburn applied) was found for the position, and applications were reopened. However, the poaition was not filled. Ms. Hepburn was asked to step down to a lower position and Commissioner Strachan announced her intention to elimiate the position " to save m oney." During the controversy over the possible termination and the subse quent demotion, the rumor spread through City H all and the comm u nity that the Commissioner was vacat ing the position for her friend, Gretchen Kafoury, who was defeat ed in the May 1982 election. C o m missioner Strachan vehemently de nied the validity o f this rumor The 1983-84 City Budget elim in ated the Director's position but in cluded a new Coordinator's posi tion. This position will carry out most of the remaining functions of the Director (after program cuts) and report directly to the Comm is sioner. The process that led to the ap pointment o f Ms. Kafoury to the $42,369 position renewed the con troversy. Unconfirmed rumors emanating from the Personnel Bureau are that Commissioner Strachan designed or helped design the job criteria. She suggested the members for the three-member interview panel, an action that is not ordinarily taken by Commissioners She also indicated, according to an Oregonian article by Linda W illiams, that she would not follow the usual procedure of inter viewing the top three candidates. Commissioner Strachan also indi cated to Ms. Williams on Tuesday, October 12th, that she had not made the appointment yet but planned to appoint the highest-scoring candi date toward ihe end o f the week. Bureau employees said Ms. Kafoury had already been appointed In a City staff meeting Tuesday, a list of resource persons was circulated that included: Human Resources— G ret chen Kafoury— 106/400 (room )— GRETCHEN KAFOURY 796-5208 (telephone) Among the applicants for the po sition was Barbara Patrick, who came in second with a score of 93.25 compared to Ms Kafoury's 93.50. Ms. Patrick, who is Black, was a Human Resources Bureau employee from 1971 until 1981, when she re signed from the agency staff alter Commissioner Strachan was as signed (he Bureau Ms. Kafoury represented inner Northeast and inner Southeast Port (Please turn to page 12 col. /> District 1 begins candidate search * by Kathryn H a ll Bogle The autumn leaves are beginning to fall and we are getting hints of another season to come. This year is the year before an election year and the hints o f political things to come are crisping as well. According to Herb Cawthorne, he, Ron Herndon, Edna Robertson, M arian Scott and the Rev. John Garlington comprise a committee that has already held a meeting last Friday morning to discuss politics at the New Hope Baptist Church. Their invited guests included other persons representing other organiza tions and churches from the com munity interesting in obtaining poli tical clout for Black people in Dis trict 18. In the last election, no Black can didate was successful because so many ran and split the vote. This committee wants to change all that. "W e want to establish a process," said Cawthorne "W e want a steering committee made up from 30 sororities, fraternities, churches and clubs to invite every candidate to participate. We want every candidate to speak "There will be a day in early N o vember when the District 18 public can come to listen and vote on the candidate most appealing. Then we will all have chosen the candidate we can support and that candidate can truly represent the wishes of District 18.” Cawthorne said. On the other hand, from the O re gon Assembly for Black Affairs comes an agenda reaching from Oc tober 22. 1983, through Noveinbei 6. 1984. "Beginning October 22. 1982, the Oregon Assembly for Black A ffairs w ill be hosting m onthly forum s in P o rtla n d ," announced Calvin O .L . Henry, O A B A President, last week 1984 is an election year and these Saturday M orn in g Forums w ill run through toe 1984 general election, he stated. According to Henry, the purposes o f these fo ru m s are to develop greater p o litic a l awareness w ith in the Oregon Black community and to encourage Blacks to become more involved in p o litic a l cam paigns. They w ill be educational and in fo r mative about the political process. (Please turn to page I I col. I ) Police Chief Still explains Pier Park racial incident by Bon Still C h ief o f Police Due to (he m any rum ors in the community about what occurred at Pier Park on the evening o f Sept. 25th, I feel that the police position in such a situation should be made clear to the public. A t 7:15 p .m ., on Sept. 25th, Port land Police were called to Pier Park on a large disturbance. Subsequent (and I emphasize subsequent) inves tigation indicated that the incident started w ith an argum ent between teenage girls, white and Black, and resulted in these girls going into the park and fighting. A pparently, during the fight be tween the g irls , there were other people in the park that were attract ed to the fight and who interceded on behalf o f the w hite girls. These people had been drinking. The peo ple were, for the most part, white. Some o f the young black children who were also in the park witnessing th is , ran to ihe nearby P ier Park apartm ent complex and requested aid fro m th eir parents and other people in the apartm ents. Several Black adults responded and went into the park to assist the children. A t this point, many on both sides. Black and white adults, were appar ently armed w ith sticks and clubs. T h e re were constant rum ors that somebody had a gun and there were several fights and assaults between (he various factions involved. Black adults, prior to going into the park, caused a call to be made to the police dispatch center c o n cerning the incident and several cars were sent. There have been many conflicting stories and rumors about what happened at the park fo llo w ing the police arrival and w hat the police did and did not do. The police goals, due to the lim it ed number o f officers, were to sep arate individuals that were fighting, take weapons away from those that had them, separate groups, with the ultimate goals being to prevent fu r ther injury and then identify those that might have committed criminal acts. A ccording to police reports, the incident lasted ap p ro xim ately 20-25 m inutes, during which tim e the officers were successful in pre venting further injury and keeping the groups separate until they left the area. There were some rumors that only Black people were a r rested. This is not true. The facts are that at the time no one was arrested; however, some people were placed in police cars tem porarily for their own protection. A num ber o f reports were taken at the time giving various accounts from the various points o f view as to what had happened and who was re sponsible; some o f the people in volved were identified. Some three hours later on that same evening, a second incident occurred at (he Pier Park Apartment complex. Police re ceived calls from area residents that shots had been fire d and we re sponded again with several officers and searched the area with negative results. D u rin g the search o f the park, officers also heard the shoot ing; how ever, a suspect was not located, but in fo rm a tio n was ob tained concerning his potential iden tity. Following the first incident, pa trols in the area were increased and have been m a in tain ed at an in creased level since that time. Subse quent investigation into the entire incident has been on-going and on the evening o f Sept. 26th, a search warrant was served at a residence in N orth Portland in an attempt to lo cate the weapon that was involved in the shooting incident. In the ea rly m o rn in g hours o f Tuesday, Sept. 27th, uniformed o f ficers from N orth Precinct arrested Robert Henry Najera, a 17-year-old male, who is not employed and does not attend school. He was charged with one count of attempted assault in the first degree (a fe lo n y ), tw o counts o f menacing, four counts o f recklessly en d an gering , and one count o f c rim in a l m isch ief in the second degree (all misdemeanors). The Police Bureau is continuing the investigation into this entire incident and w orking closely w ith the D is tric t A tto rn e y 's O ffic e on the follow -up investigation. Detectives have been assigned to the case and are working with North Precinct o f ficers to further identify other indi viduals involved and pro vide this evidence to the District Attorney. CHIEF RON STILL
