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P O R TL
ERVER
“ The Eyes and Ears of the Community"
VOLUME XX • NUMBER 7
President
Moriarty's
response:
H A W A II: AMERICA'S BEST KEPT SECRET
U.S. Marines Ordered To Make Historic Black Palace A Parking Lot.
by P rofessor M cK inley B url
When lhe U .S. M arines surrounded the
beautiful palace o f the last A frican Q ueen
o f H awaii, M innie L iliuokalani, the end
was at hand for the 200 y ear rule o f B lack
dynasties over the fabulous islands o f Hawaii
(January 17, 1893). O ur pictures, inside,
bear out the com m ents o f C hicago n ew sp a
per w om an, M ary H. K rout: “ Strong and
resolute, features irregular, the com plexion
quite dark, and the hair streaked with gray
- and she had the large dark eyes o f her
race.” T hat strength and resolu tio n led the
queen to ask for the return o f “ H awaii to the
Hawaiians”, even as she yielded under protest
to the bayonets. T he entire ugly co n fro n ta
tion w as reported the next day in “T h e
Pacific C om m ercial A dvisor”.
seum after being saved from the bulldozing
barbarians by a m ore enlightened segm ent
o f the populace. So, rather than a parking
lot, there were fcatured many beautiful treasures
of early Hawaiian culture including a magnificent
100 piece silver place setting given to the
last royal couple by their esteem ed friend,
E m peror N apoleon III.
all six islands after subjugating all m inor
chieftains wi(h the aid o f new ly acquired
European firearm s. Like Psam m etichus, the
A frican Kir(g o f Egypt (7th century B.C.),
he m ounted an eager qu est for pow er and
wealth, prom oted international trade, brought
in E uropeans o f every ilk and d enom ina
tion, rapidly developed industry despite the
cultural shock and dislocations— and at the
sam e tim e brought in diseases like syphilis,
tuberculosis, and m easles, the latter killing
the successor royal pair (A frica revisited).
His grcatestdrawback as described by LeGrandc
H. Elegg III, noted B lack historian, was
“his unequivocal faith in E uropeans.” Like
Psam m etichus, he p roved to be the b egin
ning o f the end.
King Kamehameha
Queen Minnie.Lilliuokalan
"I, LIL IU O K A L A N I, by the G race o f
G od and under the C onstitution o f The H a
waiian K ingdom , Q ueen, do hereby so l
emnly protest against any and all acts done
against myse If and the ConstitutionalGovemment
o f the H aw aiian K ingdom by certain p e r
sons claim ing to have establish ed a Provi-
sio nalG overnm ent o f a n d fo r the Kingdom .
N ow to avoid any co llisio n o f arm ed
forces, and perhaps loss o f life, I do under
this protest a n d im pelled by said fo rc e yield
my authority until such tim e as the G o vern
m ent o f the U nited Sta tes sh a ll upon the
fa c ts being p resented to it undo the action
o f its representative and reinstate m e in the
authority w hich I claim as the C o n stitu
tional S o vereig n o f the H aw aiian Islands.
T he U nited States chose n o t to “undo
the action of the representativ e” , and by
1900 the "trillio n dollar em pire”o f H awaii
had becom e an A m erican Territory, and a
state by 1959.
T hese events culm inated a century o f
effort on the part o f A m ericans to outflank
the Europeans in the great “ M anifest D es
tiny” predicated race to gobble up and annex
the rem aining lands o f the earth still o ccu
pied by peoples o f color. U.S. corporations
and m issionaries had gained a foothold in
every aspect o f H aw aiian infrastructure and
culture, and had now m ounted a final a s
sault upon thclast Black ruler. Queen Liliuokal-
ani was im prisoned but, noble w om an that
she was, com pose several beautiful songs.
A verse from one spoke forgivingly, "B e
hold man not with m alevolence, b u t with
forgiveness.” A B irm ingham Jail, if you
will!
Here w e need to understand that the
Q ueen and her husband. K ing K alakaua
(1836-1891) w ere very talented and sch o l
arly people, w riters, poets, m usicians and
inventors. A lm ost all o f the H aw aiian d y
nasties w ere o this intellectual and cultural
stature. T his B lack royalty entertained and
exchanged visits with other royal fam ilies
throughout the w orld. (R em em ber that last
year I exhibited m any o f the E uropean
C o a to f Arms displaying the African for bear
ers of prom inent fam ilies.) M uch cultural
detail o f the happier earlier tim es is r e
vealed in an excellent book by M axine
Krantz, H aw aiian M onarchy: The R o m a n
tic Years.
This past Sunday, January 13, on the
“C ollectors" program . Educational C h an
nel 10, the cam era panned through several
room s o f Q ueen L iliuokalani s form er p a l
ace— preserved as a historic site and mu-
The v ideo showed many m arv e lous ren man ts
o f other and better days, but now here was
anything show n that w ould give even a
vague hint that the genre w as A frican. N ot
unless the view er already possessed some
cultural aw areness as he view ed the in stru
m ents, calabashes, garm ents, paintings and
icons. In the case o f ‘p a in tin g s’, we m ust be
cognizant that the artists w ho rendered the
illustrations o f the early H aw aiians (like
John W eber, the official artist o f C aptain
John Cook, the alleged‘discoverer‘of Hawaii),
translated the A frican visages into Anglo
Saxon look-alikes; som ething we pointed
out last week, w hat the R ussians did no t do
w ith the statue of A lexander Pushkin, their
fam ed B lack poet who overlooks Pushkin
Square and the new, noisy M acD onald’s
fast food outlet.
It was som ew hat different in 1982 when
the N ational E ndow m ent for the H um ani
ties and U nited A irlines cosponsored a trav
eling exhibit “Hawaii: The Royal Isles From
A ncient C hieftains To the 50th S tate”. O ne
did not have to be nearly so sw ift to d eter
m ine that a great deal o f this display w as
basically A frican in content (though re
ferred to as Polynesian). V isitors to Hawaii
m ay see the perm anent exhibit at the B er
nice Pauahi B ishop M useum in H onolulu.
A brief one page description is given in a
S m ithsonian M agazine o f 1982, p. 164.
In the Sunday O regonian for 12/25/88,
w riter B J . N oles inform s us that the is
lan d 's “last reigning m onarch” was King
D avid K alakaua, and that it is for him that
the fam ous H aw aiian M aritim e C enter is
nam ed. We know very w ell, no, that he was
not the last reigning m onarch, and that this
is ju st another typical d odge by perverse
historians w ho w ould hide this entire ugly
chapter in A m erican colonialism ; Mr. Noles
could be ju s t another victim o f the C h arla
tans w ho w arp our history. In any case, the
center w as five years in the planning and
‘research ’ stage w hich w as carried out by
five m ajor U.S. and H aw aiian corporations.
T he ex h ib it typically reflects the euphem is
tic nom enclature w hich anthropologists use
to conceal the obvious A frican ancestry o f
those who peopled the Pacific Islands: "Melanesia
[Black Islan d s]”, M icronesia, Polynesia,
P rotoaustraloids, M elanesians (you nam e
’em ),Tahiti, Samoa, Palau and Fiji included.
It was in the 1970s w hen a w hite student
in my B lack history class reported that his
father who operated one o f P o rtlan d ’s larg
est C ruise Line C lubs had told him about
his lessons. “ Your talking rubbish— w ho in
the hell d o you think I can persuade to
spend $5,000 on a South Seas cruise to see
a bunch o f niggers (sic)? T hey can do that
right dow n on U nion A venue!’’T hat is when
I coined the term, ‘T ra v e l A gency A nthro
po lo g y ” .
To trace the 200 years o f A frican D ynas
ties in H aw aii is to large a task for this
article but here are a few particulars. An
excellent place to begin is w ith the dynasty
o f King K am eham eha (1810), first to unite
Princess Liliuokalan
Later, a King K am eham eha 111 estab
lished free schools th roughout the islands,
introduced H awaiian language new spapers,
established a code o f law s and The first
H aw aiian C o n stitu tio n ’. His greatest re
form was his program o f ‘T h e G reat M ahclc”
or land reform , w hich p erm itted com m on
ers to share in land that had previously been
the exclusive property o f the King and his
clients. It w as at this point that the A m eri
cans and E uropeans becam e frightened o f
the possibility that a loyal and loving body
politic o f A frican descent could foil their
plans to convert H awaii into a vast con-
glomcratcof foreign-owned sugar and pineapple
plantations w orked by cheap docile labor.
A lready (1 850s), they were hearing dreaded
news from the American mainland that African
slavery m ig h t be abolished.
From this date onw ard the foreign e x
ploiters, w ith the aid o f the U.S. govern
m ent, m ounted their p ressures and in filtra
tion, prevailing against the w eaker m onar
chies that held sw ay until the reign o f the
noble Q ueen M innie L iliuokalani. W hite
im m igrants were rushed in from many lands,
including the Portuguese w ho m iniaturized
their guitars to becom e the fabled H aw aiian
‘u k elele'. T h e die was cast, fatally.
' SCHOLARSHIP
DEADLINE
High school students who are
interested In applying for $1,000
college scholarships should request
applications by March 16,1990 for
Educational Communications
Scholarship Foundation, 721 N.
McKinley Road, Lake Forest, Illi
nois 60045. To receive an applica
tion, students should send a note
stating their name, address, city,
state and zip code, approximate
grade point average and year of
graduation. Slxty-flve winners will
be selected on the basis of aca
demic performance, Involvement
In extra-curricular activities and
need for financial aid.
Congratulations
-?.XJ
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1. A llegations o f in sen sitiv ity to stu d e n ts
a n d staff:
“The adm inistration cannot interfere with
the First A m endm ent rights o f the students
press. We m ust protect the stu d en ts’right to
dissent, even if that includes insensitive
rem arks. T he opinions expressed in the
student newspaper do not represent the v ie ws
o f the adm inistration. I regret the lim es our
boards m em bers are criticized in the stu
dent new spaper, but those o f us in decision
m aking roles arc often criticized.”
- VI
2. A llegations of n o t im p lem en tin g an
effective a ffirm a tiv e action p la n .
‘Affirmativeaction for colleges and universities
across the country has been a m ajor ch al
lenge and a major problem . PCC is w orking
diligently to im prove our affirm ative action
record. We are actively w orking tow ard
hiring m inorities and have had som e suc
cess.
“We have probably have a better p er
centage o f m inority faculty than any c o l
lege or university in the state. W ithin two
years, I believe we will achieve our goals,
which are based on national percentages.
We arc very close to parity in our adm inis
trative area, with our goals for m inorities
and women based on national norm s.
“The college needs cooperation and support
from our faculty and staff to achieve these
‘goals. T he facts do not justrfy-A ese broad,
sw eeping indictm ents.”
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3. A llegations of not p ro v id in g s u p p o r t
to Je s sic a Bailey.
"T hese allegations are untrue. I sent a
mem o to the union excoriating the faculty
for their position against Jessica Bailey.
The m em o was reprinted in the college
new spaper. I regret that Jessica’s nam e has
been brought up at this time. She left here
and w ent to and enviable scholarship o p
portunity at Harvard U niversity by her own
choice."
National Urban
League Conference
Scheduled for
July 29 - August 1
T he 1990 N ational U rban League C on
ference w ill be held at the New York H ilton
and T ow ers July 29 - A ugust 1 in N ew York
City. T he conference them e, “Onward! To
aD ccadeofD iffcrcnce!” marks the L eague’s
80th anniversary and its continued com m it
m ent to social, econom ic and political ju s
Willian Pitt Leleihok II
FEBRUARY 14,1990
r/i
tice for A frican A m ericans.
O ver 18,000 civic and social activists,
heads o f corporations and com m unity-
based organizations, and agents o f social
change across the broad spectrum o f the
A frican-A m erican com m unity will m eet at
the N ational Urban League C onference to
exam ine the condition o f A frican A m eri
cans and their quest for parity in this coun
ty -
The Honorable William J. Bennett, Director
of the O ffice of N ational Drug C ontrol
Policy; John N. Sturdivant, N ational P resi
dent o f the A m erican Federation o f G ov
ernm ent Em ployees; The H onorable Lee P.
Brow n, New York C ity Police C om m is
sioner; and D t . C arl C. Bell. E xecutive
D irector o f the C om m unity M ental Health
C ouncil in C hicago and author o f P revent
ing B lack H om icide" in The State o f Black
A m erica 1990 are ju st som e o f the distin
guished speakers scheduled to address the
SKI
... to Wanda Irving, Communications Services
D irector for City of P ortland’s E nviron
m ental Services Bureau, has been selected
for inclusion in the 1990 M aquis Edition o f
“W ho’s W ho o f A m erican W omen”. O nly
one in every three thousand women in the
U nited States, receives this honor. Irving is
currently the second highest ranking B lack
m anager in City governm ent, behind Parks
Superintendent C harles Jordan.
The American Cancer Society, Oregon Division
presents
VINTAGE & VIBES
Vintage & Vibes w ill com bine on S un
day, February 25th at the M asonic Tem ple
for the A m erican C ancer S ociety’s N inth
A nnual W inetasting.
A harm onious blend o f internationally
renow ned wines and gourm et foods from
around the globe w ill be served in concert
with the Big Band sound o f Lionel H am p
ton, M aster o f the Vibes.
T his y e a r’s w inetasting form at has been
changed to include two separate functions.
First, the form al w inetasting will be held in
the Sunken Ballroom from4:0()pm to 6:00pm.
Here, guest will be treated to a full spec
trum o f wines from internationally renowned
vintners, as well as a wide array o f cheese,
pâté and bread. A ugm enting these ep icu
rean delights, Lionel H am pton and his trio
will perform an intim ate set.
A fter the w inetasting, a dinner dance
will be held upstairs in the G rand B allroom
from 6:30pm to 10:30pm . Patrons w ill be
served a light dinner and special desserts
provided by seven "Jazz C lubs” located in
different areas o f the ballroom . T hese clubs
will be operated by seven local restaurants,
and w ill feature som e o f their finest wares.
T hroughout all o f this, everyone w ill be
sw inging and sw aying to the inim itable
sounds o f Lionel H am pton and his full 17
piece orchestra. H am pton is sure to play
m any favorites from his Sw ing Era days
w ith B enny G oodm an’s orchestra, as well
as som e new er com positions.
About his imminent eng agement in Portland,
L ionel H am pton said, “I am very excited
about being in Portland again, and being
able to do a benefit for the A m erican C ancer
Society. I d o n 't know o f anyone w hose life
has not been affected by cancer in one way
or another, and it m akes us feel good to be
able to help out an organization such as the
A m erican C ancer Society that has done so
m uch for so many folks across the country."
T he A m erican C ancer Society is deeply
grateful to K aren H insdale for coordinating
the donation o f all the w ines, as w ell as
E urobcst Foods and Le Panier for their
gracious donations o f the cheese, pâté and
French bread.
For tickets or m ore inform ation reg ard
ing V intage & Vibes, please call the A m eri
can CanceT Society at 295-6422 or 1-800-
227-2345.
Albina Multi-Service Center to Relocate
Back to Vancouver Ave.
conference.
N ational Urban League President and
C hief Executive O fficer John E. Jacob will Oregon Dept. o f Human Resources D irector Kevin Concannon today announced that
deliver his annual policy address during the the Slate M ulti-Service Center w ill relocate to new quarters in m id-August after
keynote session on Sunday, July 29. are ju st untangling legalisms that threaten to delay the proposed move.
som e o f the distinguished speakers sched
uled to address the conference.
N ational Urban League President and
C hief Executive O fficer John E. Jacob w ill
deliver his annual policy address during the
keynote session on Sunday, July 29.
The
Portland Observer
Newspaper
4747 N.E. Martin Luther
King Jr., Blvd.
(Formerly Union Avenue)
The center w ill be located at 5011 N. Vancouver Ave. which was its former home for
more than 10 years before landlord problems forced i t to move to temporary facilities
in 1982.
O rig in a lly designed to be a one-stop shopping center fo r Social Services, the new
location w ill house only four o f the original 22 agencies that provided services to
Portland area residents but is scheduled to be enlarged to 48,000 square feel to accom
modate Vocation Rehabilitation, A d u lt And F am ily Services, Em ployment, and
C hildren Services D ivision.
The project is being redeveloped by the W yant Group o f Salem, o f w hich local
developer Chad Dcbman is affiliated.
Financing problems threaten the project in itia lly but these were resolved after stale
o ffic ia ls agreed to sign a 15 year lease at a cost o f $48,000 per month
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