Page 2
Portland Observer • March 14, 1990
E ditorial I O pinion
Memo to Cultural Policy Planning Task Force
by Prof. McKinley Burt
I was not at all surprised at the magni­
tude of the reader response to the ‘‘Family
Reunion” theme. I knew of the extensive
interest being expressed in other parts of
the country, and saw no reason why Afri­
can-Americans in Portland would not fol­
low suit-in fact, could be expected to evince
even greater interest, given the relative
isolation o f this area.
My citations of individual reunion
experiences proved useful to a number of
planners, so I will cite several more. In
answer to one readers query, yes Alex Haley
( “ Roots” ) did organize a family reunion
among his own Kin. this was in July, 1982,
and it was held in Henning, Tennessee,
H aley’s boyhood home. Gathering first at
the family home, the entire enclave later
moved to a parklike area along nearby U.s.
Highway 51 ( “ Alex Haley Rest stop” ).
Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander
stopped in to visit, stating, “ this family is
one of the state's resources.” The get-
together was the first formal reunion of the
Haley, Palmer and Murray families.
I hope that you have access to the July,
19877 issue of "Essence Magazine." There
is an article by Lloyd Gite (p. 51). “ Keep­
ing Our Families strong,” which relates to
every element of a successful reunion proc­
ess You will especially appreciate the quote
attributed to Dr. Vincent Harding; "Strong
families have brought us this far . . . The
family has been the central institution at the
heart of our lives. Every other institution is
built on that. It is critical in these times that
black families be nourished, revived and
reconstructed. O u r lives depend upon it. ”
Strong and poignant words that need end­
less repetition.
The article cites several families who
have adhered to this creed most religiously
(including that o f Dr. Harding). Particu­
larly I would comment on the Burns Family
of Virginia, since their situation quite typi­
cally reflects problems relating to the pres­
ervation of Black ownership o f valuable
lands. When “ Cleavie B um s” (80) strolls
on her property, it is upon land purchased
by her great-great-grandfather, William
Daniel, a freed slave and skilled carpenter
who paid $1,000 for the 100 acres in Hal­
ifax, Virginia. Currently, seven members
of the clan live there, but retaining posses­
sion has not always been easy.
The trials and tribulation of the B um ’s
family have a common thread with the
experiences of others I have written about;
as recently as Feb. 28 in this newspaper, the
Sea Island People of South Carolina and
Georgia ("N o Man Is An Island Unto
H im se lf’). Here we had it that “ More
disillusioned generations went off to the
big cities,” with a consequent loss of the
necessary continuity, identity and "n o u r­
ishm ent.” In the case o f the bum 's family
the common th rea d was the accumulation
over generations of m ultiple interests and
titles among heirs. Without structure, plan­
ning and communication among family
elements the inevitable results are the forced
sales to facilitate distribution of monies to
quarrelling heirs--or tax foreclosures upon
aged elders who can no longer cope.
This family, however, astutely formu­
lated a structured program that identified
all the heirs and purchased their interests.
No give-away here of properties that may
become a shopping center, mall or a M arri­
ott Hotel.
There are several pamphlets available
from the U.s. Government Printing Office
that can provide further assistance in ob­
taining these records. The pamphlets are:
“ where To Write For Birth and Death
Records” ($0.35); “ Where To Write For
Marriage Records” ($0.35); and “ Where
to Write For Divorce Records ($0.25). Write
to: Public Document Sales Branch, Gov­
ernment Printing Office, North Capitol and
H Streets, Washington, D.c. 20402. The
Public Document Sales Branches for publi­
cations by the government are found in
many federal office buildings.
Some public libraries in major cities
have copies of the federal population cen­
sus. The census record will give you infor­
mation such as age, place of birth and
marital status. The older census records
will list the names of slaveowners, and
sometimes the names of the slaves they
“ ow ned." It will also list the free Black
members of the state, county or commu­
nity. “ Soundex” is a slate-by-state index
to some of the earlier census records, which
is now on microfilm. Each state Soundex
has been filed as a separate publication.
Examine Records of the
Freedmen’s Bureau
This was a federal agency that was es­
tablished just before the close o f the Civil
War to help newly-emancipated slaves adjust
to “ freedom ” . They provided assistance in
the areas of employment, housing, educa­
tion, medical treatment and other matters.
A related agency was The Freedmen’s
Savings and Trust Company, which was a
system created to assist freedmen and oth­
ers in establishing savings accounts from
1865 to 1874. Many of the branch banks,
which were scattered throughout the South,
kept records on depositors or organiza­
tions. Contact the National Archives in
Washington, D.C. to obtain further infor­
mation.
Federal Military Records
Many free Blacks, and in some cases
slaves, performed military service in their
state of residence, as well as in the major
wars which took place during those time
periods. These records contain valuable
data on persons who served in the military,
with regard to payrolls, pension benefits,
VA homes, medical treatment in Va hospi­
tals, burials in veteran cemeteries, etc. This
information would also be kept in the N a­
tional Archives in Washington, D.C.
Other sources that should be valuable
include church records, in the city or county
or residence; and plantation records, found
mostly in the South where the plantation
was located, they will most likely be kept in
the State archives. Records that were main­
tained o f Black religious, fraternal, social
and political religious, fraternal, social and
political organizations might also provide a
wealth of information.
The Locker Room
by Ullysses Tucker, Jr.
The Development of Reggie Theus
in Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson. Most
of the good players are the result of hard
work.
“ He literally paid the price,” Spauld­
ing said of Theus’ desire to improve. “ He
worked seven days a week for three years.
H e’d have us open the gym and h e’d work
out on Sundays.”
Family life for Theus was not what one
would call ideal. His m otherhad remarried,
and Theus, a brother and two sisters lived
with their father.
And matters got worse. Theus’ father
died at the beginning of his junior season at
Inglewood.
Reggie Theus
Enter Spaulding and Henry, Theus'
basketball parents. As Theus puts it, ’ ’they
[Henry and Spaulding] taught me how to
have an attitude, to be the type of player I
am now. They taught me about having a
game face.”
In his junior year, Theus averaged 18
points a game as Inglewood improved to
17-5 on the season.
Spaulding said Theus developed both
physically and emotionally that year.
‘ ’The responsibilities of life were play­
ing on him ,” he said. “ His mom would
come to the games and keep in touch. He's
very close to her.”
In his senior year, Theus proceeded to
do it all at Inglewood. Besides averaging 23
points, he led the team in assists, rebounds
and, according to Spaulding, “ floor bums."
After Theus concluded his basketball
career at Inglewood High, he went on to
bigger and better things in college. He
played for Jerry T ark am an at UNLV for
three seasons, becoming a dominating player
by his junior year. That season, 1977-78,
Theus earned All-America recognition,
averaging 18.9 p.p.g. after scoring in double
figures all 28 games. He was also chosen as
UNLV’s team MVP.
Theus decided to enter the NBA Draft
after his junior season, and was selected by
Chicago with the ninth pick in the first
round.
Now with his fifth NBA club in his
eleventh pro season, Theus entered the current
campaign having scored 16,067 points for
an 18.5 career average. That placed him
seventh on the all-time scoring list among
active players.
The Magic have benefited from Theus'
veteran experience this season. He is cur­
rently second on the team in scoring with a
20.4 ppg average.
Indeed, that skinny kid has come a long
way.
SH O RT SHAKES: Well, my hat goes
off to the Portland Trailblazers for their
manhandling of the Atlantic Division re­
cently. One thing for sure, if they make it to
the NBA finals against the Knicks, 76ers, or
Celtics, the locals should not have a prob­
lem. Unfortunately, if they get by Los
Angeles, Utah, Phoenix, San Antonio, or
out of the West, chances are they will play
the Pistons. O rigirally, just because it is
hard to repeat, I picked the Knicks but they
are starring to play inconsistently . . . Eleven
of the Blazers next twenty-one games are at
home. Happy birthday Buck Williams.
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University Announces
Presidential Finalists
The Presidential Search Committee at
the University o f Portland has announced
the two finalists for the position.
They are the Rev. Charles David Sher-
rer, C.S.C., academic vice president at the
University of Portland and the Rev. David
T. Tyson, C.S.C., vice president for student
affairs at the University of Notre Dame.
Sherrer, 54, was president of K ing’s
College in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., from 1974-
81. He has been academic vice president at
the University o f Portland since June 1987.
Sherrer, who came to the university in
1963, has served as assistant professor of
English and chaired that department, and
was dean of the Graduate School, and act­
ing dean of the College of Arts and Sci­
ences. He was a member of the university’s
board of regents from 1983-84 and 1986-
87. He holds an A.B. in philosophy from the
University of Notre Dame, a licentiate in
sacred theology (STD) from Gregorian
University in Rome, a master of arts in
English from Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in
English from the University of North Caro­
lina at Chapel Hill. He also has acertificate
in educational management from Harvard
University.
Tyson, 41, has been vice president of
student affairs at the University of Notre
Dame since 1984. Prior to that, he served as
executive assistant to then-president Rev.
Theodore Hesburgh. He holds a bachelor’s
in sociology, and a m aster's in theology
from the University of Notre Dame and an
Ed.D. in higher education administration
from Indiana University. He was an associ­
ate instructor at Indiana University. Since
1980, he has been a professor of manage­
ment at Notre Dame.
The candidates will be on campus for
interviews April 2-4.
The Presidential Search Committee is
chaired by regent David Grove. Members
include the Rev. Carl Ebey, C.S.C., provin­
cial superior of the Indiana Province of
Holy Cross; regents Joseph Ferguson, Mary
McCravey and Philip Robinson; Herman
Asamow, Ph.D., associate professor of
English; Robert Duff, Ph.D., professor of
sociology, Michael Snow, Ph.D., professor
of biology; James Kuffrier, director of
administrative services; and Bruce Patter­
son, student government president
The university's former president, the
Rev. Thomas C. O ddo.C.S.C., was killed in
a car accident in October.
The University of Portland is an inde­
pendently governed, residential, four-year
Catholic university offering a curriculum
of arts, sciences, humanities and profes­
sional programs at the undergraduate and
graduate levels.
-TV.*
affect the minority ethnic/cultural artist or
organization, NOTHING has changed. You
are perpetuating the very system and men­
tality that keeps us separated and polarized.
If your argument is that there are no
“ qualified" people to serve in these posi­
tions, that becomes a question of by who's
standards and why in the devil do you
continue to call on myself and my peers for
our input?
I t’s time, my friends, to chuck the
“ standard traditional” way of institution­
alized racism and just let go of the unneces­
sary power strings, so that all people can sit
down at the decision making table and we
can all grow together. But, you see, this
‘new* way has to involve inclusion at the
beginning of the process or it will never be
a true end result o f equal opportunity in our
communities.
Because you have no one on your task
force of color, your policies are far too
generic to ever have any influence, for
example, on the Vietnamese, Hispanic, Indian
or Black artists in the communities of our
state. And the language used to promote art
education will never reach a young Hmong
student to encourage his art talent as a
cultural endeavor. Such a waste for all of
us. Until specific policy is written that
targets the needs of at least the three largest
ethnic minority groups in our state, in the
cultural policy plan for our stale, why should
the heads of the organizations represented
on this panel be expected to implement
specific policy within their organizations?
For that fact, why should anyone else be
expected to carry the ball? But within the
system of institutionalized racism, that's
the whole idea. And so the same old process
continues with the much-needed change
never occurring.
Dear friends of the arts, there is no
more time left. The time is now for you to
have the courage to break from the ’norm*
and do whatever it takes for the decisions to
be made by a representation o f all parties
concerned.
Please understand that I am an advo­
cate of the arts and the inclusion o f all
artists in the development of a diverse,
culturally-enriched community. I shall
continue in my efforts to work towards that
end. If I were to offer a suggestion, it would
be that you take one of the two positions
held by members of the OAA and invite a
person of color to join your panel. There are
many capable people to consider.
Sue Busby,
Concerned Oregonian
Single Mother (and proud of it).
(Answers fo r puzzle from Page 5)
Continued Next W eek . . . .
SPORTS/EVENTSl
Seventeen years ago in Southern Cali­
fornia, an assistant basketball coach at
Inglewood High School took one look at an
“ uncoordinated” 14-year-old and quickly
determined he w asn’t ready to play varsity.
The skinny sophomore had junior varsity
written all over him.
Michael Spaulding, the JV coach at
Inglewood, said the 5 -fo o t-ll teen-ager
had long legs, but that’s where the youth's
physical development ended.
Reggie Theus was not good enough for
this team, not yet anyway.
Seventeen years later at the Orlando
Arena, Spaulding, 42, watched Theus prac­
tice and recalled how that skinny kid even­
tually became a talented guard in the NBA.
Spaulding took Theus on the 1972-73
JV team. “ As the practice season went on,
Reggie began to improve very rapidly,’ ’ he
said. "A fter about two games on the JV
team we began to see potential for the
varsity.”
Midway through his sophomore sea­
son at Inglewood, Spaulding persuaded Coach
Leon Henry to take Thetus on the varsity
squad. “ We decided to develop him ,”
Spaulding told Nick Sweers of Magic
Magazine. “ Reggie got playing time. By
the end of the year, he was playing a lot at
point guard.”
The Sentinels finished the season with
an 8-12 record and Theus averaged seven
points per game. Spaulding said Theus made
tremendous progress but also ' ‘grew like a
week. "T h e u s was 6-1 at the end of the year
and would grow to 6-7 before he graduated.
What surprised Spaulding the most about
Theus, however, was a conversation he had
with the 15-year-old junior as he prepared
for the 1973-74 season. "R eggie just came
up to me one day and said he wanted to play
professional basketball." Spaulding recalled.
" I t was amazing to me that a kid that young
knew what he wanted. He asked for all the
help we would give him .”
Spaulding obliged, but not without
conditions. As he explained it, few players
have the “ God-given talent” that's found
Dear Editor
Thank you for sending me a copy of
your draft. I am very grateful for the oppor­
tunity to state my position to your distin­
guished group o f ‘ ’white paper’ ’ members.
I am writing this letter because the time has
arrived to say the following.
You can take your cultural policy plan
draft and stuff it in your “ prestigious files
of important mem orandum ." I personally
no longer have the time to devote to provid­
ing consultation to groups, organizations,
and individuals regarding ethnic minority
art/cultural inclusion, for the simple sake of
the above covering their “ asterisk.” For
the past two years in particular. I'v e had
calls and callers from the federal, state, and
city levels of government, the Oregon and
Metropolitan Arts commissions, the art
museum, the opera, the school of arts and
crafts, the City Club, etc., etc., who "think"
they are interested in changing the status
quo of ethnic minority artists in this state,
but in reality are only rejuvenating their
own narrow levels of consciousness. It may
be very hard to swallow what I am saying,
but I ’m going to say ¡tone more time. Until
you place people of color on the task forces,
committees, panels, that make the final
analysis, policy, and/or decision that is to
Dear Editor
I am writing to express how appalled I
was at Ulysses Tucker’s article "W hy I
D on't Date Women with Children.”
As a young, responsible, hard-working
Black woman with two beautiful children,
I found myself personally offended by this
article. I think it lacked merit and reeked of
journalistic irresponsibility. All Mr. Tucker
accomplished by writing this article, and
your newspaper by publishing it, was add to
the stigma already attached to single moth­
ers. If Mr. Tucker’s intent in writing his
recent articles is to indeed improve rela­
tions between the Black women and men in
this community, he fell far short of this
intent with this article. In fact, all he did
was throw up another hurdle for the single
mothers to jum p over and the single men to
walk around (or hide behind).
B lack men in this community are going
to have to come to the realization that there
are nice, professional, hard-working single
Black women in this community, but that a
great number of them have children.
Quit downing the single mothers, and
giving the men in this community more
reasons to look down on us! One thing is for
sure, we didn't conceive these children by
ourselves!
Lisa Manning
Single Mother (and proud o f it!)
Judge Ancer Haggerty Files for
Election in May Primary
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge
Ancer Haggerty, 45, recently appointed to
the Circuit Court by Governor Neil
Goldschmidt, filed for election to his posi­
tion in the May primary. He lives in NE
Portland with his wife, Julie, a teacher at
Alameda Elementary School and their three
children.
Haggerty previously served on the
Multnomah County District co u rt Prior to
his service on the bench, he was a partner in
the law firm Schwabe, Williamson and
Wyatt for 11 years. In his early career he
worked as an attorney with Metropolitan
Public Defenders for four years.
Haggerty is a graduate of the Hastings
School of Law in San Francisco and the
University of Oregon. While attending the
U o f O, Haggerty was selected twice for the
All-Coast College Football lineup. He served
in the U.S Marine Corps in Vietnam and,
for 20 years, was the most highly decorated
Black Marine Corps officer in history. His
decorations include the Silver Star for gal­
lantry in com bat
Haggerty said, “ The Court offers areal
opportunity to serve, because I work to
ensure that victims, jurors, witnesses, par­
ties and all affected persons, including the
community, are treated fairly. To protect
the community, I sentence convicted, dan­
gerous felons to the penitentiary.”
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