Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1988)
March 30, 1988, Portland Observer, Page 3 NATIONAL NEWS UPDATE Reconstruction and Reaction Jesse Jackson on INF Treaty and Education mination. I believe we need to invest in children from the start. We need to restore and expand programs for fam ily security, such as mother and infant health care, nutrition and food assistance, family counseling and teen pa renting services, and adult edu cation and literacy campaigns. We must ensure that stim ulating preschool education and child care are available for all fam ilies. Special a tte n tio n m ust be given to the problems facing teens and young adults. Pro grams to address drug and alco hol abuse, sexual responsibility, and dropout prevention should be expanded. We also need to invest in teachers. Teachers need more pay and more say in constructing better schools. Federal funds Invest in Children can underwrite new state efforts. and Teachers We need a massive national pro gram to recruit tom orrow’s tea We need full funding for com chers — especially from m inority pensatory, bilingual, and special stu d e n ts — through co lle g e education programs so that all scholarships and college-bound students eligible can benefit programs. from them. The federal govern Finally, we must open the m ent supplied federal funds doors to higher eucation. We where the need is greatest. A need to help get many more system w ith funding levels that children to college and through range from $5,000 per pupil in college by restoring and expan upper-income d istricts to $1,500 ding college grants and loans. per pupil in lower-income dis We can restore productive liveli tricts is bound to promote failure. hoods to unemployed and d is On top f that, the Justice Depart placed workers by funding adult ment should be put back to work education, college entry, and enforcing the laws against edu vocational retraining programs. cational segregation and d iscri cent reduction is a good starting point. We must not increase our con ventional forces in Europe be cause of some perceived threat resulting from the INF agree ment. Real security for Europe does not depend on a conven tional force buildup. Western European countries have twice the GNP of the USSR. Trade and travel between East and West have increased since World War II and borders have been settled. There is a real chance to bring the m ilitary situation in line with the p o litic a l re a lity . We sh o u ld follow up on INF by responding to Warsaw Pact proposals for substantial troop reductions. We should also encourage European efforts to establish nuclear and chemical weapons-free zones. Needed: More Significant Arms Reductions W ith the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) as an icebreaker in the Cold War freeze of the past decade, we can hopefully work toward significant arms reduc tions with the Soviets. A next step would be a moratorium on nuclear weapons and an end to the constant “ m odernization” that drives the arms race. With a mutual halt to the arms race we can sit down w ith the Soviets to negotiate mutual and verifiable agreements for deep cuts. The Reagan-Gorbachev proposal made in Reykjavik for a 50 per Tri-Met wants to do Business w ith you ! Our new “Bid & Proposal Hotline” can keep you informed of contracting opportunities with Tri-Met. This recorded message lists all projects out for bid or proposal and is updated weekly. Call the Hotline number at (503) 239-6486. Is your firm certified by the State of Oregon as a DBE/WBE? If so, please call us at (503) 239-6466 for information about how to get on our vendor list. The defeat of the southern states which com prised the Confederacy brought an end to the Civil War. The war also pro duced the Emancipation Procla mation and freedom for slaves. What the war did not change was the attitude of most white Americans, North and South, toward Americans of African ancestry. When Black men first attem p ted to enlist in the Union Army, they were rejected. It was not until 1862 when the Union Army and President Lincoln were des perate for fresh troops that Black men were prem itted to serve in segregated units called Blacks in P o litics the “ United States Colored Troops." Not until 1864, did these men receh e the same pay as white soldiers. A total of 186,000 Black men served in the Union Army. T M ir valiant ser vice meant victory for Lincoln and the United States of Am eri ca. There was, however, pre cious little gratitude. At the tim e of the Emancipa tion Proclamation there were bit ter signs of racial hatred and un rest. Rioting occurred in C incin nati in 1862, when Black and Irish men competed for jobs on the riverboats. Riots also occur red in places like Newark, New Jersey and Buffalo, New York, when white opposition to Blacks getting jobs could not be con trolled or contained. In New York City 34 Black people were killed by mobs of whites who ob jected to being drafted into the Union Army and losing their jobs to Black men. Yet even in the face of bitter racial hatred Black Americans were full of hope. The Civil War had ended slavery. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were adopted, giving citizenship rights, the vote and the promise of equality to Americans of African des cent. There was reason for hope. In a matter of months Black men whose humanity has been de nied were being elected to high offices and making public po licy. A former slave, Blanche Kelso Bruce, was representing M ississippi in the United States Senate. Pinckney B.S. Pinch- back was serving as Governor of Louisiana. In three southern states Black men served as lieutenant governors. A Black man served on the State Sup reme Court in South Carolina. It is a fact that life was hard for the former slave. Despite the great political strides made by the former slaves, the Recon struction era was a period of considerable challenge to the four m illion newly freed men and women. The two biggest chal lenges facing the nation after the Civil War, were the problem of rebuilding the South along with restoring it to the union, and what to do with the eman cipated Black popu'ation. After the war many former slaves werer homeless and job less. They were unable to read and write and were defenseless against their former masters. Many died of hunger and disease. There as a growing despair about this “ freedom ” and what it meant. In March, 1865 Congress created the Freedmen’s Bureau which was the firs t social welfare program ever created by the Federal Government and the first indication that the Federal Government felt a real obliga tion to the Freedmen. The Freedmen’s Bureau pro vided citical assistance to the former slaves. It set up 46 hospitals. It also helped Blacks resettle in other parts of the country. However, its most im portant contribution was in pro vid; '.g education to the Black masses that yearned for it. The Bureau set up all kinds of schools. Among the colleges assisted by this agency were Howard, Fisk, Hampton and Atlanta Universities. Teachers came down from the North in large numbers. In 1870, the Bureau had 4,329 schools providing instruction to thou sands of Black men and women. It was during those days that Black literacy became a fact of life. The Reconstruction period is very much m isi nderstood to day. Racism in America has per mitted the creation of the idea that R e c o n s tru c tio n m eant “ negro rule" by ignorant and vul gar former slaves. There is no appreciation of the crucial role played by Black people in the building of America, of the mo ral issues involved in the abo lition of slavery and the re lation which Reconstruction had to democratic government and economic justice. Dr. BuDois wrote in his book “ Black R econstruction” that, “ white historians have ascribed the faults and failures of Recon struction to Negro ignorance and corruption. But the Negro insists that is was Negro loyal ty and the Negro vote alone that restored the South to the Union; established the new democracy, both for white and black, and instituted the public schools. As soon as Southern whites took an oath of loyalty to the Federal Government and return ed to political activity, they sought to relegate Black people to an inferior position. Dis enfranchisement was the first step. Blacks who defied the Ku Klux Kian and tried to vote faced an array of obstacles. If that wasn’t enough discourage ment, there was always the threat of physical violence. In many Southern states the voter registration procedures were changed so as to bar any Black person who could not read, understand and interpret the Constitution. Some state c o n s titu tio n s provided that those who failed the tests could vote anyway if their grandfathers had voted. Clearly no former slave had a grandfatner who had voted. In 1896, the total number of Black registered voters in Lou isiana was 130,000. Four years later, after revising the voter registration procedures in the state the total number of Black voters was reduced to 5,000. Louisiana was not an exception. The theft of the ballot from Black people was carried out in every Southern state. When the United States Sup reme Court, in 1883, declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875 un constitutional, Southern states began to enact laws to separate and segregate races. In 1896, the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson approved “ separate but equal” facilities; it was then that segregaton became an established fact of life, by law as well as custom. Black people found them selves in separate cars on trains, with separate hospitals, schools and even separate cemeteries. This segregation always meant discrim ination. The separate was never equal. On trains all Black people, including those with first-class tickets, had to sit with the baggage. In public buildings Blacks had to use freight elevators. Black teach ers were paid less than their white counterparts. At the close of the nineteenth century the African-American population in the United States had its status reduced to that which was just a little better than that of the slave. Racism was the order of the day and it seemed that it would always be so. 1-800-GC-BUIIT 1-8OO-632-FISH 1-800-423-W W 1-8OO-852-SAFE 1-800-SEVnME 1-8OO-443-FUMP 1-800-722-WffR spell help in some very Z unusual ways. For instance, the number above that ends in PUMP puts you m /t o u c h with all kinds of information on heat pumps. The number that ends in SAFE yields informa tion on outdoor lighting. The number that ends in WAIR covers electric water heaters And the number that ends in WARM is for weatherization. Fact is, we have a direct line for virtually every one of our services - so we don t waste your time switching you from line to line. To call, simply look us up in your local TRI-MET PORTLAND OBSERVER "The Eyes and Ears of the Com m unity” 288-0033 telephone directory. There, help is spelled just like youd expect Tbrtland General Electnc. ) R ' n n g f : n f r /