Page 2. Portland Observer, May 1, 1986
“Don ’t choke ’em, smoke ’em ”
T-shirts banned
CASCADE
NATUROPATHIC CLINIC
"O ur Goal Is Healthy Fam ilies' ‘
by iM m ta Duke
G RASSR O O T N EW S, N .W . —
PROFESSOR DAVID HOROWITZ
(Photo: Richard J Brown)
Ku Klux Kian in Portland:
big in 20s, says professor
by Robert Lothian
The Ku Klux Kian during the 1920s
had a powerful influence on Oregon's
political life, according to Portland
State professor David Horowitz
Up to 50.000 Oregon men may
have been members o f the Kian in the
decade from 1920 to 1950, he said.
Considering the size ol the state at
that time, the Oregon Kian during the
20s achieved the size o f " a huge mass
movement,*’ according to Horowitz.
In addition, said H orow itz, "th e
Kian did play a m ajor role in electing
Governor Walter Pierce in 1925." He
showed slides o f Kian documents
which implicated Oregon’ s "progres
sive" governor as a Kian member.
Horowitz spoke to an overflow
audience at the Oregon Historical
Society on inform ation gleaned from
Oregon Historical Society lilm s His
researches were made possible by •
grant from the Oregon Committee for
the Humanities.
Horowitz* slides o l Kian gather
ings and documents were accompa
nied by recorded proiesiant hymns.
Spotlighted in a corner was one o f the
infamous hooded while robes d o
nated by a student whose aunt had
kept it in her attic for years.
Horowitz said his research revealed
that the Kian has had three periods o f
more or less influence — right alter
the C ivil War, when it formed to in
timidate newly freed Black slaves,
during the 20s, probably the Kian
heyday so far, and during and after
the civil rights movement o f the
1960s.
It was during ihe 2Os, according to
Horowitz, that the Kian achieved the
status o f a national mass movement,
with an estimated 5 m illion members
in the U.S.
With the excep'ions o f the anti
war movements prior to W W II and
during the Viet Nam war. the Kian
during the 20s was "perhaps the larg
cst mass movement in U.S. history,”
according to Horowitz.
A dramatic and frightening slide
depicted an open Kian parade in
Washington. D .C ., on Sept 26, 1924
Thousands o f white-robed Klansmen
from all over the U.S. paraded with
American Hags and crosses in Iron! ol
the nation's capitol.
The Kian at that time was big in
Oregon, Oklahoma, Arkansas. Ohio,
Illinois, t hicago. New York C ity and
Indiana, "where they pretty much
ran the state," said Horowitz.
" I t was in the cities where Ihe Kian
attracted its greatest fo llo w in g ." he
said. "P o rtla n d was the center o f
Kian activities in Oregon, .not Med
ford "
A slide ot a newspaper photo from
August, 1921, showed robed Klans
men with Portland mayor Baker and
police officials I red G iffo rd , "exalt
cd cyclops" o f the Portland Kian,
was one o f those pictured G iffo rd
dispensed jobs and political patronage
from the Kian's office downtown in
the Pittock Block, according to H oro
On A p ril 26. while Tony Stevenson
was being laid to rest with m ilitary
honors, a Portland policeman was in
the parking lot at East Precinct selling
T-shirts that read, "D o n 't choke
'em, smoke 'e m ."
A t a Monday morning press con
ference the. Black United Front is
sued a blanket condemnation o f the
T-shirt sales and a statement from
the Stevenson’s family attorney:
"W h ile we still feel the great ma
jo rity o f Portland Police Officers do
their best to perform a very d ifficu lt
job and are truly concerned with the
safety and welfare o f Portland’s c iti
zens, this ugly and cynical response to
events connected with Stevenson’ s
death serves to remind us all that
there is still an element w ithin the
Police Bureau that is unfit for the se
rious responsibilities that the public
has entrusted to them ," stated Ronnie
Herndon, co-chair o f the Black U n it
ed Front.
“ These officers should be subjected
to the severest form o f appropriate
disciplinary action. This disgusting
T-shirt business only deepens our
worst tears," Herndon added
Sgt lay Decker, public inform a
tion officer for the Portland Police
Bureau, said Officers Richard A.
Montee, 46. and Paul A. Wickersham.
51, were involved in the T-shirt sales.
"F ro m what I understand, they
were frustrated because the cardie
level o f control was taken away. They
were saying, ' l l you take that away,
you have nothing left but to shoot.'
Whatever their reasons, it was poor
timing and tasteless It ruins the image
o f the whole bureau," said Decker
Decker said between 20-26 T-shirts
were distributed In terms o f disci
plinary action, Decker said the Po
lice Union's contract outlined an oral
witz.
eqainst the nuclear arm» reca
(Photo Richard J. Brown)
“ The more serious the discipline,
the more safeguards are built into the
procedures." Decker added
A formal hearing w ill be conducted
before the Chief (Penny Harrington)
and the Police Commissioner (Bud
Clark). Currently, Montee and W ick
ersham have been reassigned to per
sonnel pending the C h ie fs findings
Herndon said the T-shirt incident
proves, "Y o u have a small group o f
police officer on the force who are
dangerous. The message is to shoot a
Black person, don’ t choke him. This
mentality is what you would expect
from police hit-squads in El Salva
dor. And this is an individual your
and my tax dollar pays fo r ."
Herndon interjected that the disci
pline focus should not stop with the
officers who sold the T-shirts, but
those who purchased them, as well.
" I hope Harrington does her dead
level best to try to root this element
out o f the force." Herndon added
Rev. John Jackson, co-chair o f the
BUF. said Portland Blacks had re
sponded to their leadership when they
asked ihem not to destroy the protest
over Stevenson's death by rioting.
" D o you think this kind o f thing
helps us when we try to keep people
calm?,” Jackson asked rhetorically.
"Someone has taken it upon himself
by intimating things that say whai
they (police) did was ju stifie d ."
Herndon said during the 1981
opossum-tossing incident, in which
Portland Police offices threw dead
opossums in front o f a Black-owned
restaurant, investigation revealed a
"d irty th irty ."
“ There are a group o f officers who
got most o f ihe citizens’ complaints
regarding
misconduct.
Whatever
happened to I hem? Il looks as if they
showed up at Fast Precinct," Hern
don noted.
4-yr. nursing requirement
opposed by Rep. Carter
b\ Robert I othian
Representative Margaret Carter
helped pass a bill through the Oregon
House o f Representatives A pril II
that would slop plans by the Oregon
Board ol Nursing to require regis
tered nurses in Oregon to have a lour
year nursing degree
Ihe nursing board had administra
tively ruled that slatting in 199(1, nurs
ing candidates would be required to
have a Bachelor's degree before lak
mg the RN license exam
HB 2928 would lake Ihe authority
to decide nursing education require
ments away from the Oregon Board
of Nursing, putting an end to the four
year degree requirement. The bill calls
for the board to form a planning com
mission to come up with a plan for
nursing education to be presented to
the next session o f the I egislature.
( artcr and nurses’ representatives
say the bill is necessary to avoid a sit
uation where nursing careers are
available only to a well-educated elite
that can afford to attend expensive
four year programs.
“ I will fight to the living end" to
keep nut sing career opportunities
open lor minorities, single mothers,
people changing careers and others
who receive their nursing education
from relatively inexpensive two year
community college progrms, said
Carter.
Many nursing candidates are un
able to gel into the profession except
through community college pro
grams, according to Carter.
" I am confident (the bill) will pass
the Senate," she said
The move toward four year degree
requirements is a big issue with nurses
in Oregon and across the country,
said representatives o f Concerned
Nurses o f Oregon. They worked with
Rep Carter in lobbying for the bill.
About 70 percent o f the nurses in
Oregon now have two and three year
degrees from community colleges,
said Kathan Zerzan, spokeswoman
for Concerned Nurses o f Oregon.
The effect o f the nursing board’ s
four year degree ruling would be to
close o ff the profession to 70 percent
o f the nursing candidates in Oregon,
including many low income and m i
nority candidates, said Zerzan.
A four year nursing degree from
the University o f Portland, for in
stance, she said, can cost up to $6,000
a year.
" I t is a question o f the profession
becoming a very elitist, upper class,
S u u n S. Mayer», left, end Jeanie Merle Fryer, rlqht. were two of non-caring, non hands-on profes
sio n ," she said " I see it as an attempt
three women erreeted Monday in a downtown Portland demonstration
to disenfranchise nurses and turn the
Multnom ah County government
was said to have been run by the Kian
and Ihe Kian elected mayors in As
toria, T illatnook and M edford, H o ro
witz said Kian members were slier
iffs and o ffic ia l! in other cities, he
said.
The Kian in Oregon was violently
dedicated to "racism and nativisin,"
"pure woman h o o d ," prohibition,
anti-Bolshevism and anti-Catholicism,
lie said.
An excerpt from La Grande Kian
meeting minutes referred to " a Cath
olic in the w oodpile," doubling up on
a racial and a religious slur, said
Horowitz.
O f the three documented cases o f
Kian nightriding in Oregon, according
to Horowitz, all three occurred in
Southern Oregon during Ihe 1920s.
Two o f the three cases involved
Black men accused o f associating with
white women, and the thud involved
a Hispanic-Indian man accused o f
the same thing. Horowitz said.
“ In all three cases, these men were
strung up so then toes just touched
the gro u n d ," he said. One was driven
to the C alifornia border and told to
keep walking, according to Horowitz.
One o f H orow itz' slides showed an
authentic Kian application form.
" D o you believe in while suprem
acy?," asked one o f the questions.
or written reprimand, demotion or
discharge.
profession over to a small, while
elite," said Zerzan, referring to the
lour year degree requirement.
Nurses with two and three year
associate degrees do most o f the bed
side nursing now, she said, while
those wiih Bachelor’ s degrees often
end up in nursing management.
The four year degree requirement
would reinforce a tier system w ithin
nuising with highly paid white nurses
with Bachelor’s degrees at the top,
according to Zerzan A m ajority o f
lower-paid m inority and low income
nurses, who couldn't attord the lour
year degree and who thus would be
haired from taking the RN license
exam, would be relegated to menial
tasks, she said.
Furthermore, said Kathy Schmidt,
president o f the Oregon Federation o f
Nurses, ihose RNs with licenses, yet
without the four year degree would
probably have a harder time finding
jobs Once the nursing board made us
administrative ruling, she said, the
next step might be to take away the
"grandm a” clause protecting those
nurses who received licenses without a
Bachelor's degree.
The nursing board contends that
four year degrees are necessary to up
grade the profession. The board is
charged with overseeing nursing in
Oregon to insure “ the health and
safety o f the citizens o f the state of
O regon."
But Concerned Nurses o f Oregon
contends that the board is made up o f
white management types who see a
"surplus o f nurses" and who want to
protect the wages and positions o f
well educated white nurses.
The nursing board's ruling “ w ill
have such an impact on the health
care system in Oregon that we think
the legislature should be involved,”
said Schmidt.
Concerned Nurses o f Oregon was
formed in 1984 for the sole purpose o f
fighting the four year degree require
ment, said Zerzan. The group has a
mailing list o f 1,500, and it organized
an aggressive letter w riting and phone
campaign to gather support for FIB
2928, she said.
King. Assn, meet
There w ill be a meeting held on
Wednesday, May 8, 1985, in the King
Neighborhood Facility, Cafetorium ,
4815 N.E. 7th Ave., at 7:30 p.m. to
discuss strengthening the Inner N o rth
east Police Precinct Council and lo o k
ing at possible cooperative efforts
with North Portland Police Precinct
Council.
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