February 12, 1992...The Portland Observer...Page 13
Heroes and Heroines Gone But Not Forgotten
Black Cultural
Affairs Board
Presents an
Evening with
Nikki
Giovanni
Lorene Car
Saturday, February 15,1992
Smith Memorial Center
Ballroom 7:00pm
p re s e n ts
BLACK ICE
(Vintage)
.
Sat. February 22
Nikki Giovanni is a black
poet, best-selling author,
and activist. Tickets are
available
at
Portland
State’s Ticket office, $7
General, $5 Students. A
reception and book sign­
(Grove Weidenfeld)
ing will follow at 9:00 pm
in the Cascade Room.
PLEASE JO IN US FOR THESE FREE EVENTS
P o w e ll's Books 1005 W est B u rn s id e P o rtla n d
Black History Month
--“ Duke Ellington: In His Own Words” -
NPR’s “ Horizons” Salutes
In February, National Public R a­
dio (NPR) celebrates Black History
Month with a four-part series "D uke
Ellington: In His Own W ords," which
airs on N PR ’s acclaim ed documentary
program . Horizons. This special series
features rare tape o f Ellington recalling
some o f the important aspects o f his life
and music. This is probably the first
time radio listeners will have an oppor­
tunity to hear these exceptional inter­
views. (Check local public radio sta­
tions for broadcast times.)
The Ellington tapes were drawn
from interviews spanning the years 1955-
72. “ This is the real man giving us
insight into parts o f his life w e’ve never
known about,” said series producer
Donna Limerick. In one interview,
Ellington him self says, “ I spend most
of my time listening to music, but I
have big ears for a lot o f other things.”
Included in the program are interviews
from G erm any, Canada, the United
States, Calcutta, Amsterdam, Denmark,
and France.
A substantial contributor to A m eri­
can music, Duke Ellington created four
major musical styles-jungle style, mood
style, concerto style, and standard style.
Early in his career, Ellington was an
innovator in using the jazz ensemble
and was the first to use the “ voice as
instrum ent” in his 1927 composition,
“ Creole Love C all.”
Known as the “ grand old m an” of
big-band jazz, E llington exerted
enormous influence upon the big-band
style even into the 1970s. Ellington was
the first jazz com poser to write ex­
tended, musically abstract compositions
such as “ The Flaming Sw ord,” Beau­
tiful Indians,” ‘‘SepiaPanoram a,’’ and
“ Mood Indigo.” But Ellington claimed,
“ I don’t use the term ‘ja z z ’ because I
d on’t believe in categories.” Many of
Ellington’s larger workers, including
“ Black, Brown and B eige,” “ Liberian
Suite,” “ Harlem,” “ Deep South Suite,”
and “ New W orld A -com in,” took their
themes from black history.
The Horizons programs arc as fol­
lows:
- In the first program, “ Duke Elling­
ton: My Evolution,” Ellington rem i­
nisces about his early musical career
and how he evolved into a great ban­
dleader. Ellington remembers his m usi­
cal mentors: Harlem jazz pianist James
P. Johnson, W illie “ The L ion” Smith,
and Thomas “ F ats” Waller.
- In the second program, “ Duke
Ellington: My Innovations,” Ellington
reveals how he formed one of the most
impressive bands of the 20th century
and talks about how he composed popu­
lar hits like “ M ood Indigo,” Broadway
musicals, the sacred concerts, and long
orchestral suites.
- In the third Horizons program,
“ Duke Ellington: My T ravels,” Elling­
ton recalls his experiences with other
musicians, people, and performances
all over the world.
- In the final part of the scries,
“ Duke Ellington: My Im pressions,”
Ellington shares his opinions about many
issues, including racial conflict in
America, myths about jazz musicians,
the role of music critics, and the devel­
opment of new musical styles such as
rock ‘n ’ roll.
Host of Horizons is Vcrtamac
Grosvenor; senior producer is Donna
Limerick. Horizons is produced by NPR’s
Division of News and Information.
Funding for Horizons com es from NPR
member stations nationwide.
Resources Documenting Connections And Continuity Of
Historical Identities In The Pacific West (Oregon, Utah,
Washington & California)
By J. M. Gates, MBA
“ Independent Scholar Projects"
(The Voice of Wç>rk)
with research and interpretive history by Gates
implemented 1977 - 1992 regarding 19th century and 20th century
endeavors...
c/o Circle Forum
P.O. Box 176
Portland, OR 97207
For Best Results
Advertise in the Observer
Co-sponsored by Diversity
Coordinating Committee
and Women’s Union. For
more
information
call
BCAB at 725-5660.
BY D. BELL
In 1962, a young woman arrived in
Portland from Long Island, New York
who would have a pronounced effect
on the community and the yet unrecog­
nized drug epidemic that followed in
the succeeding years.
Rosalie J. Boothe and her husband
Tom came to Portland in the early
1960’s. A time long before it became
popular to address the damaging ef­
fects o f alcohol and drug abuse. She
also arrived with psychological scars
that came from a direct experience w ith
substance abuse in the lost of a father
and brother to alcoholism.
in an effort to reconcile these is­
sues she dedicated many years o f per­
sonal research and attended courses
that were related to alcoholism and
drug abuse. This culminated in the
establishm ent of the House of Exodus.
O ne o f the first com prehensive drug
treatm ent centers to base in inner N/NE
Portland.
Mrs. Boothe came from a religious
and supportive family, and earned a
Bachelor’s degree in bacteriology. She
was also an accom plished vocalist who
sang at many churches, and with the
Portland Opera during the sixties and
seventies.
After working numerous years with
the Multnomah County Alcohol Rcovery
Project, she opened the House o f Exo­
dus in 1976. Her husband Tom Boothe,
a managem ent consultant, donated two
houses at 5011 and 5027 NE 27th. The
Boothes initiated this endeavor with
their own personal assets. T heorginal
program was soley geared toward out­
patients.
The following year, Multnomah
County funded a limited number of
clients. In 1978, the county doubled
their funding. This enabled the House
o f Exodus to move to 15th and
Killingsworth. Further demonstrated
success in 1978, led to the County
tripling their funding. The Federal
D epartment of Labor also funded a
youth com ponent
By 1981, House of Exodus had
expanded from 50 clients in it’s initial
year to a program with 300 clients, which
included a residential component, a youth
com ponent, and a state wide referral
system.
Curiously enough, even though
House o f Exodus was based in inner N/
NE Portland, 60% o f their clients were
white.
In an effort to meet the needs of
their clients, many o f whom were indi­
gent, the program provided residual
services, as in the matters of job referal
for exam ple. A client m ight receive
clothing, transportation, and even daycare.
In February 1984, Mrs. Boothe
succumbed to cancer. Reverend Ings
the assistant Director was unable to
continue the mission of the House of
Exodus due to changes in personnel and
the politics o f the the time.
However, Mr. Tom Boothe contin­
ued to provide diagnostic evaluation,
through public contracts and to private
clients.
Mrs. Rosalie J. Boothe was indeed a
pioneer in the area of alcohol and drug
abuse treatment. She dem onstrated both
vision and caring in her efforts to deal
with addiction, long before it became
fashionable.
She was truly a heroine in our own
local community.
Black History Month: A Time to Assist
People of African Descent Everywhere
BY WALTER E. FAUNTROY
Retired M em ber of Congress and
ANC Advisor on International
Department, Finance and Trade.
As we celebrate Black History
Month, 1992 and honor the experience
and achievements of black people in
America; as we pause to chart a course
for the continued survival and progress
o f blacks in America, let us include in
our celebrations, homage to the experi­
ences and achievements o f blacks in
Africa and elsewhere in the diaspora.
For example, we cannot let the
month o f February pass without cele­
brating the dramatic release o f Nelson
Mandela from prison, two years a g o -
Fcbruary 11, 1990-after 27 years of
confinement in South Africa for his
uncompromising resistance to apart­
heid. The streets of American cities
were flooded with those who shared in
the ecstasy of black South Africans and
who pledged their continued support to
end apartheid and its tentacles.
Mr. Mandela reminds us in a re­
cent letter which he sent to Congress­
man Dymally (D-CA, Chairman of the
House Subcommittee on Africa) in honor
Black History M onth, that the struggle
against apartheid is not yet over, and
even when it is over, the struggle against
the deprivations and inequities which
are the legacy of apartheid will neces­
sarily continue for many years. For
example, the lives o f millions of black
South Africans hang in the balance as a
result o f wretched and pervasive pov­
erty occasioned by the immoral South
African system of apartheid. As a re­
sult o f this racially oppressive system,
81% o f black South Africans who live
in the homelands live in abject pov­
erty, with no electricity, no plumbing,
no tap water, diseased and m alnour­
ished.
In Mr. M andela’s letter to Con­
gressman Dymally he cites some addi­
tional horrifying statistics about the
plight of black South Africans: that
median schooling for whites is 9.2 years
but for blacks is only 2 years; that there
A. Philip Randolph
is one doctor for everv
whites but
only one doctor fix
9 blaek\
that average month? n
i win'. -
is $950 but for blacks o> z 190; that
there is an im m ediate i
r 2 m il­
lion homes to house th< .t *ho must
now live in cardboard shacks or worse.
Sharing our meager resources with
our South African brothers and sisters
is both noble and practical. Most o f the
people reading this news story are
probably substantially better off than
the average South African black (re­
member: median schooling, 2 years;
average monthly income $190). B e­
cause South African blacks are cur­
rently in the midst o f a major assault
on the apartheid system, each dollar
received now may well be worth much
more to them than the same sum sent
in a year from now. Assisting South
Africans is a splendid way to celebrate
Black History M onth, 1992. I, there­
fore, encourage you to "P ick Up Your
Phone. Let our South African Brothers
Know They A re Not A lo n e !''
Martin Luther King, Ji
lack Labor History
These excerpts are fro m M anning
M arable’s book "H ow Capitalism Un­
derdeveloped Black Am erica, 1983."
Marable is a professor o f history and
economics at Purdue University and
writes a column syndicated in 140
newspapers.
Over twenty-five years has now
passed since the major upheavals of
Black workers, youth and students which
was termed the Black Pow er and Civil
Rights Movements. Black political
militancy spread from streets and lunch
counters to factory shops and produc­
tion lines across the country. Black
unrest at the point o f production cre­
ated new and dynamic organizations:
the League o f Revolutionary Black
Workers in Detroit; the Black Panther
Caucus at the Fremont, California
General Motors plant; and the United
Black Brotherhood in M ahwah, New
Jersey. In the Deep South, civil rights
activists from the Southern Christian
Leadership Council helped to organize
sanitation w orkers’ strikes in St. Pe­
tersburg, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, and
Memphis, Tennessee. Ralph D. Aber­
nathy, Hosea W illiams, Corctta Scott
King and A. Philip Randolph supported
the vigorous unionization efforts o f the
American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
in the Deep South. Abernathy, W il­
liams and Andrew Young were arrested
in September, 1968, for nonviolently
blocking the path of garbage trucks in
Atlanta. On June 21, 1969, Abernathy
and W illiams were arrested in C har­
leston, South Carolina, for supporting
A FSCM E’s Local 1199 attempts to
unionize hospital employees. By Sep­
tember, 1972, hundreds of Black trade
unionists, led by AFSCME Secretary-
Treasurer William Lucy and Cleveland
Robinson, president of the Distributive
W orkers o f America, created the C oali­
tion o f Black Trade Unionists in Chi­
cago. By its second annual convention,
held in W ashington, D.C., May 25-27,
1973, 1,141 Black delegates represent­
ing 33 unions were in attendance; 35-40
percent were Black women.
It cannot be overemphasized that
the Civil Rights and Black Power
Movements were fundamentally w ork­
ing class and poor people’s movements.
From the very beginning, progressive
unions were involved in the desegrega­
tion campaigns. The United Auto W ork­
ers, United Packinghouse W orkers,
District 65, Local 1199 in New York
City, and the Brotherhood o f Sleeping
Car Porters all contributed funds to Martin
Luther King Jr.’s Montgomery County
bus boycott of 1955-56. And in rural
areas o f the Black Belt, small independ­
ent Black farmers risked their fam ilies’
safety by opening their homes to free­
dom riders and Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) work­
ers. Black farm workers, sharecroppers.
service workers and semi-skilled op­
eratives were the great majority of those
dedicated foot soldiers who challenged
white hegemony at Selma’s Pettus Bridge
and in the streets of Birmingham. SNCC
understood well the importance of Black
working class support for the Civil Rights
Movement and thus recognized the need
to develop an employment strategy for
Blacks.
Labor unions also understood the
connection. In November, 1963, a
num ber o f labor unions financed a
conference at Howard University that
brought dem ocratic socialists, trade
union organizers and radical civil rights
activists together. C ivil rights workers,
Black and white, recognized by late
1964 that dem ands simply for desegre­
gating the South’s civil society lacked
economic direction. In 1965 Jessie
Morris, SN C C ’s field secretary in
Mississippi, helped to establish the Poor
People’s Corporation. Serving as its
executive secretary, Morris funnelled
financial aid for various labor projects
initiated by poor Black workers. That
same year, the Mississippi Freedom
Labor Union (MFLU) was created by
two Council o f Federated Organiza­
tions staff members. Historian Clay
Carson relates that ‘‘within a few months,
the MFLU attracted over a thousand
members in several counties through
its demands for a $1.25 an hour m ini­
mum wage, free medical care, social
security, accident insurance, and equal­
ity for blacks in wages, em ploym ent
opportunities, and working conditions.”
MFLU relied upon the fund raising re­
sources of SNCC and “ by that fall had
developed its ow n sources o f financial
support.” As “ W e Shall O vercom e”
gave ground to “ Black P ow er’’ in the
mid-1960s, a wave of nationalist activ­
ism seized the new generation o f Black
urban workers and students. M ilitant
Black construction unions were formed,
such as the Trade Union Local 124 in
Detroit, and United Com m unity C o n ­
struction Workers of Boston. Black steel­
workers at Sparrows Point, M aryland,
formed the Shipyard W orkers for Job
Equality, pressuring Bethlehem Steel
to halt its policies o f hiring and prom o­
tion discrimination against Blacks. In
most of the protest actions, there was
the recognition that racism in the plants
also undercut the “ econom ic status o f
white workers.” For exam ple, when
the United Black Brothers struck at
M ahw ah's auto plant in A pril, 1969,
they urged white w orkers to “ stay out
and support us in this fight.”
Submitted by Donna Hammond and
Jam ie Partridge o f the A. Philip R a n ­
dolph Institute. The Portland C hapter
o f the A. Philip Randolph Institute meets
the 2nd Thursday o f each m onth at
1125 S.E. Madison, Suite 103. F or in ­
form ation, call 235-9444. G uests are
welcome.
(