Page 2, Portland Observer, February 24, 1988 EDITORIAL / O P IN IO N Civil Rights Journal EDITORIAL Beniamin F. Chavis Jr. Racism in Iowa Manning Marable THE RIGHT TO VOTE: USE IT OR LOSE IT! In the February 9, 1988, Issue of the Des Moines Register, the headline read: ‘Clive police urge residents: Report sightings of Blacks." A few days later another headline appeared: "Critics urge Clive's racist chief resign". The headlines were in reference to a letter from the Clive, Iowa, Police Department "asking residents to report Black men in their neighborhoods at night" According to the Register, "the fliers were distributed to block cap tains in Neighborhood Watch areas of the Des Moines suburb. The fliers described a burglary during which the homeowners woke up to find an in truder in their bedroom. The suspect was described as a large Black man." The flier also said, "If you see a black male in your neighborhood at night, please call the Clive police immediately so that we can try to find out who the individual is." To date, no evidence has been found to indicate whether or not the man in question was African-American. Larry Carter, President of the Des Moines branch of the NAACP said the statement was terrible "The police department has other resources available to them to track down a suspect. There must be a better way of get ting this information out without incriminating every black male who may wish to go to Clive. We should be able to go freely wherever we choose without being subjected to police questioning simply because we are large or we are black,” he said. Clive Police Chief Dean Dymond agreed with Mr. Carter, saying the state ment would be retracted in the next publication to block captains Mr. Dymond’s agreeable stance has not dampened the anger of some Des Moines residents. The Des Moines' Humuan Rights Commission has demanded Chief Dymond’s resignaton. Mark Lambert, assistant director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said the statement was “ incredibly offensive." “ The fact that someone is black is not enough of a reason to have them checked out by police or suspect them of being criminal. Sometimes police in mostly-white neighborhoods decide that if a crime is committed by a black, anyone like that seen in the area is automatically a suspect," Lambert noted In a defensive move. Chief Dymond said, "Nothing racial was meant by it. We put out a publication every two months and we will make a special note to retract that statement.” However, Mary Rhem-Brewer, a representative of the Black United Front, said, “ No discussion, no compromise The issue is, does a black man have the right to be in Clive . . . This is opening the door for another Howard Beach right here.” Commissioner Carlos Jayne said the fliers represent a racist at titude. “ It was a policy that was surreptitiously instituted and not just an off- the-cuff remark. His mistake wasn’t in saying it. It was in having it written down.” According to the 1980 census, Clive was listed as having a population of 5,900 people with about 40 African-Americans. The incidents in Clive and Howard Beach were bound to happen. Their roots go back to the days of what is now known as "White flight.” “ White flight” refers to the attitudes of whites who moved out of the cities rather than live as neighbors with non-whites, African-Americans in par ticular. Intended or not, the impression given was, "We prefer not to live near or in your neighborhoods." Ironically, these were the same neighborhoods they called home a few years before. When they took flight, so did their money and their businesses. In fact, many businesses followed them to the suburbs, leaving the inner city depleted of important economic resources." Now, in many of these suburbs, African-Americans are being told, in no uncertain terms, “ You are not welcome here. We don’t want to see your black face around here.” That was the message of Howard Beach. That is the message coming from the suburbs of Clive in Des Moines. That was the message of Forsyth County. It’s a message we can expect to continue to hear. See “ Racism in Iowa’’ — Page 4 by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. The date was February 18, 1965. The place was Marion, Alabama. What happened there that night was to change the course of history dramatically. It would also have un told affect on the right of African Americans to vote in the South and throughout the country. On that night in February, voting rights activists, including Albert Turner from Dr King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), had organized a march. The march would show, again, that African Americans would not be in timidated by the unbridled violence inflicted on them by Alabama offi cials every time they tried to register to vote. Soon after the march began, Alabama State Troopers rioted. They began beating and clubbing the demonstrators, among them an 84-year-old marcher named Cager Lee. Lees grandson, Jimmie Lee Jackson, immediately came to his grandfather’s aid and carried him into a nearby Black-owned restaur ant. The troopers followed, still clubbing everyone in sight, including Jimmie Lee’s mother. When he tried to protect her, the troopers promptly shot the young man point blank in his side. Then, propping him up, they shot him twice again. Jimmie Lee Jackson died seven days later. This was the death which promp ted voting rights organizers to in itiate the Selma to Montgomery March to protest his murder. On March 6, 1965, the march was set to begin on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma. As Movement organizers from SCLC and SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commit tee), along with local residents, began to move forward. Alabama State Troopers viciously attacked the unarmed group. Only this time it was different — the brutality was televised. Televi sion viewers throughout the nation watched, horrified, as the evening news showed troopers relentlessly clubbing the fallen, many of them women. Movement organizers had endured countless acts of violence over the years during the voting rights struggle. However, this one act of senseless brutality, fed to America with its IV dinners, meant that the violence could no longer be ignored. As a result of intense public pres sure, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965. The Act cleared the way fcr the registration of hundreds of thousands of African American vot ers throughout the South. This year a national committee has been formed, based in Selma, Alabama, which plans to com memorate the historic voting rights struggle there. The main celebration takes place on March 6th in Selma. The Annual National Celebration of the Right to Vote was initiated by Atty. Rose Sanders, the dynamic ac tivist attorney from Selma. She and her husband, State Sen. Hank San ders, have long been in the forefront of voter mobilization and education in the Alabama Black Belt. She speaks of the importance of begin ning this yearly celebration through out the country, saying, “ Rather than every 20 years, we need to celebrate our voting rights victories every year — in our classrooms, our churches and our homes. We must keep uppermost in the minds of the community, and particularly our children, how many of us died for this precious right. And if we don’t use it, we ll surely lose it.” Albert Turner, still a tireless civil rights worker in Perry County, Alabama, echoes these words in an inspiring television documentary, produced by WNYC-TV in New York City. Entitled, “ Somebody Marched for Me,” the film is about the continu ing voting rights struggles in the Alabama Black Belt. Mr. Turner is shown pointing to the bullet-riddled gravestone of Jimmie Lee Jackson. He explains, "White racists still shoot at Jimmie Lee s grave. They keep trying to kill what he stood for but it won’t die. And every time we vote, he lives again through us." As the Presidential primaries and elections draw near, we would all do well to remember his words, and to remember, too, the blood which was shed throughout the years for the right to vote. The Civil Rights Journal, written by Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., is a publication of the United Church of Christ. . PORTL Established m 1970 Alfred L. Henderson /Publisher Leon L. HarrisGen PORTLAND OBSERVER Richard J. Brown Editor Gary Ann Garnett Business Manager Nyewusi Askari Richard J. Brown Writer Photographer M attie Ann Callier-Spears Leslie V. White Religion Editor Art Director Fred Hombry Arnold Pitre Sports Sales Representative Joyce Washington Rebecca Robinson Sales Representative T ypesetter / Production Lonnie Wells Distribution Deadlines for all submitted materials Ads Tuesday 5 p m Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and wdl be returned d accompanied by a sell addressed stamped envelope Subscriptions 115 00 per year m the Tn County area The P O R TLA N D OBSERVER - Oregon oldest African American Publication is a member of The National Newspaper Association Founded m 1886 The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association and The National Advertising Representative Am algam ated Publishe rs. Inc . New luck. eannea« 'Ä x S t t S r ' >,««*>»*** • ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To start the Portland Observer coming every week □ $15.00 for one year □ $25.00 for two years PORTLAND OBSERVER Box 3137, Portland, UK 3/208 N a m e --------------------------------------—------------------------------ —------------- A ddress----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- City ------------------------------------ -- State_______________________ - s»- ’» V ? ./ * * Joe Clark, the crusading Black principal of Eastside High School, Patterson, New Jersey, has re ceived a great amount of media at tention and public praise in recent weeks. And when viewed superfi cially, its easy to praise Clark as a valiant educator who’s been unjustly maligned by liberals of various stripes. Clark was named principal of one of New Jersey’s worst public schools about six years ago. Eastside was overrun by drugs and violence, and Clark was determined to turn things around. Cultivating a style which was simultaneously pro vocative, c o n fro n ta tio n a l and charismatic, he patrolled school cor ridors with a bullhorn, shouting out orders. Clark promoted the Protes tant work ethic, and praised young women who were virgins for uphold ing morality. The principal criticized families who relied upon welfare as lazy, and condemned difficult stu dents as "leeches, miscreants and hoodlums." Although the principal had no legal authority to expel stu dents without the approval of the Patterson School Board, Clark purged 300 of Eastside’s 3,000 stu dents in 1982, and in late 1987 he banned an additional 60 students. Clark’s premptive actions stirred a hornet’s nest of public criticism. Educators condemned Clark’s ac tions as counterproductive, noting that under New Jersey law, all indi viduals are entitled to a public edu-.. cation until aqe 21. Patterson's School Board condemned dark, and ordered him to reinstate the 60 pupils who had recently been expel led. But a groundswell of support for Clark occurred, initially from many working class and poor Black resi dents of Patterson who favored a hardline approach on educational issues. Supporters noted that scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test for Eastside students have risen since Clark’s tenure, as well as school marks on the statewide profi ciency test for Math and English composition. Clark presents himself as a toughminded educator, an urban prophet struggling for quality stan dards in the public schools. Regrett ably, some Blacks have cheered his bombastic and bullying tactics, thinking that bullhorns and expul sions are a substitute for real educa tion. But Clark is a false prophet, a shallow and demagogic adminis trator who prefers to exert authority at the expense of the broader goal of enriching the educational experi ence for innercity Black and His panic youth. The Reaganities see in Clark a cheap but sensational way to win over a fragment of the ghet to's Black working class, frustrated by poor schools and high crime rates. But Clark's strategy is nothing but a dead end. Dr. Manning Marable is Chairperson of the Black Studies Department, Ohio State University, Columbus. Ohio. “ Along the Color Line" appears in over 140 newspapers internationally. Identity and Survival by J.M. Gates, MBA G e n e ra tio n a l c o n n e c tio n s in the positives of keep-on-keeping-on appear in Black film connections, paper fans, posters, pag eants, benevolent so cie ties and the on-going positive tra d itio n s that b o lste r an in spired w illin g n e s s to risk all for im provem ent of self and the next generation. C ultural id e n tity and sur vival were the what o f it all. C e rta in le tte r s in th e George P. Johnson F ilm C o lle c tio n at U niversity of C a lifo rn ia (Los A ngeles) te ll how A fro-A m erica ns sought m oney from the United States governm ent to make film s fo r Black troops w ho w ould go to Europe in the First W orld War. Even before that, stock c e rtific a te s o f Black film investm ent evidence the serious th in kin g and planning. Mgr /Controller is published weekly by Exie Publishing Company, Inc. 5011 N.E. 26th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97211 P.O. Box 3137 Portland, Oregon 97208 Phone Number: (503) 288-0033 T h e ' Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions “FALSE PROPHET: JOE CLARK” Letters to the Editor OREGON'S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Articles M o n d a y 5 p m Along the Color Line Arthur Schomberg’s Dream Fulfilled Editor: I’m in clin e d to believe we m ust judge beginnings by endings, not endings by begin nings. It m atters not how the developm ent of the eye took place nor how im p e rfe ct was the firs t sense of sight, if the eye now gives us co rre ct in form a tio n o f external objects. So it m atters not how the in tu itio n s of right and of God originated, if they now give us know ledge of o bjective truth. We m ust take fo r granted that e volution of ideas is not from sense to non sense. We can understand the amoeba and the polyp only by a lig h t reflected from the study of man. We m ust elim ina te an in fer io rity com lex. We are not so un cultured. We m ust learn to con verse w ith educated, cultured people w ith o u t trem bling w ith fear. We m ust m otivate our youngsters o f p o te n tia lly great achievem ent. They have lived in a w orld of deprivation, blocked against anything educational. We m u st fig h t a g a in s t the poverty-nurtured a ttitu d e o f peo ple. You really learn the d if ference between good and bad when you live in an area where you have a choice. It’s tim e to remember, what happens to us tom orrow depends on what we teach o u r c h ild re n today. H isto ry show s that the strength o f today has com e out o f the im m igrant group of yesterday. We m ust lift our people to the ir potential. Harlem in the 1920’s, a period that was know n as the Harlem R enaissance, sw ung to the m usic of Duke E llin g to n and F le tche r Henderson. Caucasoid New Yorkers flocked to Harlem n ig h tc lu b s to be hypnotized by the voice o f Ethel W aters and the dancing feet of B ill “ Bo- ja n g le s ” Robinson. But it was in amazed fa s c in a tio n tha t the dow ntow ners beheld the erudi tio n o f the s c h o la r W.E.B. DuBois and the elegant lyrical prose of Jean Toomer. These literary voices co ntra d icted all o f the stereotypes that dom i nated the ir perceptions o f Black people. Stated Sybil G ow ly, in the now -defunct Negro W orld Statesm an, "Everyone wanted to w rite a book about Negroes and everyone wanted to read what everyone had w ritte n about the m .” During th is period, Ernestine Rose was head librarian at the branch of the New York Public Library on 135th Street between Lenox Avenue and what is now A d a m C la y to n P o w e ll, Jr. B o u le v a r d , th e n S e v e n th Avenue. C urious and eager to learn a b o u t B la ck p e o p le ’ s o rig in s and a c tiv itie s past and present, H arlem ites and others w ere e m p ty in g the lib ra ry ’s shelves of books like M cK ay’s novel, "H o m e to H arlem ", and Jam es W eldon Jo h n so n ’s an thology, “ The Book of Am erican Negro Poetry.” As the people came in, Ernestine Rose got busier and became in creasingly concerned — the c ity ’s budget for replacem ent o f volum es hav ing been depleted — about preserving and expanding the li brary’s stock. By now, A rthu r A. Schom burg had been living in New York City for more than 30 years, having e m m ig ra te d th e re fro m his native Puerto Rico. As a ch ild in San Juan, S chom burg had had burned in to his co nsciou sn ess th e w o rd s o f h is m u la tto teacher. “ N egroes,” she had told her pupils, “ have made no h istory.” Incredulous in lig h t of the capable Black businessm en, a rtists, m in iste rs and teachers he knew w hose ancestors, he surm ised, could not have been stupid, the little boy had grown up to be the man w ho w ould travel halfw ay around the world gathering evidence to expose his teacher’s lie. S chom burg's reputation as a c o lle c to r of b o o k s a b o u t A fric a n s and A frican-A m ericans was known to librarian Rose and, through friends, she contacted him. If he was so su ccessfu l in fin ding b o o k s fo r h im s e lf in th e bookstores of Latin Am erica, the C a rib b ea n , E urope and the United States, he m ig h t be able to help the library obtain books, too. In 1929, S chom burg's private c o lle c tio n was deemed to be of such im portance that, at the urg ing o f the o ffic ia ls o f the Na 2p.----------------------------------------- * * ri • *j< t io n a l U rg a n L e a g u e , th e Carnegie C orporation bought it fo r $10,000 and donated it to the D ivision of Negro Literature, H istory and Prints, at the 135th Street Library. Since then, the S c h o m b u rg C o lle c tio n has grown trem endously. Jean H ut son, u n til recently the curator fo r the C enter for the last 35 years, says, “ The library is grow ing steadily. The Schom burg C olle ctio n, always a part o f the C ircu la tio n Departm ent of the N e w Y o rk P u b lic L ib ra ry , became, in 1972, one of the four main com ponents o f the New York P ublic Library’s Research Libraries. Its name was also changed in 1972 to the S chom burg C enter for Research in Black C ulture. Alex Haley did a great deal of research fo r his best-selling book "R o o ts ” at the Schom burg Center. P sychologist/educator Dr. Kenneth Clark supports the Center. It was at the Schom burg Center that Kwame Nkrumah firs t read about A frican history. In Ghana during his childhood, the E n g lish c o lo n iz e rs only allow ed the history of England to be taught. When I last spoke a t H u n te r C o lle g e B la c k S tudents Union, I n otice A rthur S cho m b u rg ’ s dream fu lfille d , the dream that young Black peo ple in the generations suc ceeding his own w ould know nothing of the lie his teacher had told him — that "th e Negro has made no h is to ry ." Dr. Jam il Cherovee