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Page 10...The Portland Observer...December 16, 1992
Rebecca J. Black, Portland, Oregon
Nominee For Professional Services, 1993
NCLC Lewis Hine Awards
“ You’ve gotta pray for the dead
and work like hell for the living.” These
words are Rebecca Black’s inspiration.
Five years ago, Portland suffered
its first gang-related shooting. Shortly
after this tragedy Becky Black moved
to Northeast Portland, a neighborhood
experiencing the reality of gang vio­
lence. She volunteered to establish an
information and referral desk at aneigh-
borhood center to assist youth in the
inner-city community to find jobs or
enter school. She discovered that few
resources existed for those who had
dropped out o f school, or who were
court or gang-involved. To fill the void,
in 1988 BlackcreatedOregon outreach,
Inc. (OOI) as a non-profit organization;
she serves as executive director. During
its first two years, the organization op­
erated with a total annual budget of
$18,000 and countless volunteer hours
for Black, an outreach worker and a
clerical person as permanent full-time
staff.
Since 1988, Black has demon­
strated the incredible gains that are
made when agencies link together to
provide services, and she has seen clear
evidence that, given the opportunity,
young people will “do the right thing.
In 1989 she formed a construction
crew made up of opposing gang mem­
bers, “Bloods” and “Crips.” She con­
tracted with a Portland construction
company and put her crew to work
building the Portland House of Umoja,
a residential treatment (trogram for gang
members. This project enabled the crew
to earn money and leant job skills. It
also assured that both groups could
claim the program as their own because
each had a hand in its construction.
In 1989, in an effort to find positive
outlets for younger children (12 and 13
years old) who could not be legally
employed, she created a garden project
by utilizing a volunteer from an older
worker’s program and requesting and
receiving donations of land, rototilling
services, seeds and fencing. While the
time of young people was involved in
positive activities, they were also learn­
ing about gardening and providing fresh
vegetables for their families.
The following summer, with a small
self-help grant from the city and the
donation of an overgrown lot by a
church, she obtained donated electric­
ity and water and had several of the
garden beds raised, creating the tirst
handicapped accessible garden project
in Oregon.
As work continued in the commu­
nity, Black met many young people
who were heavily gang involved.
Through contact with Stale Juvenile
Parole, she was assigned every gang-
identified youth reluming from state
incarceration. She discovered that these
young men did not want to live a lile ot
looking over their shoulder, knowing
they might be dead by morning. By
providing a spark of hope, she main­
tained contact with them until she could
develop a program. The local schools
would not accept youth with violent
behavior history. Most had been ex­
pelled from existing alternative schools.
After trying for three months to have
these youth entered into regular or al­
ternative schools. Black recognized the
futility, and created an Oregon Out­
reach, Inc. alternative school. Since
then. Black has opened two additional
schools in Northeast Portland. The three
schools are fully accredited by the State
of Oregon. One is for gang youth, one
for youth with drug/alcohol problems
and one for middle-school students who
have been expelled.
In 1990, through a contract with
the U.S. Forest Service, she organized
a crew of emergency fire fighters, pri­
marily African-American youth, form
inner Northeast Portland. In 1992, at
the end of their second year as emer­
gency fire fighters, the crew members
were presented certificates of achieve­
ment from Oregon Governor Barbara
Roberts for their contributions to the
state. Most of these youth had left gang
life behind and were reaping the ben­
efits of their first positive accomplish­
ment.
Following the Los Angeles riots in
Spring 1992, numerous community
leaders collaborated to develop a
proactive employment plan for Port­
land youth that would increase pros­
pects for employment, especially for
African-American youth and those
whose families arc justover the income
level for entrance into the subsidized
work program funded through JTPA.
OOI was selected to administer the
program. The Portland Chamber of
Commerce and the Association for Port­
land Progress became active partners
by recruiting job opportunities trom
employers. Local businesses and gov­
ernmental agencies provided funding
for the project. The program linked
community-based youth-serving pro­
grams and private sector employers,
with Black’s office as the hub for youth
referrals, Some of the placements were
into subsidized jobs through The Pri­
vate Industry Council, but most were
placements with private employers.
The goal was employment for 300
youth; by the end of six weeks, 450
young people had been placed in jobs
through Black’s office. Some 700 youth
were helped to acquire documents nec­
essary for employment (birth certifi­
cates, photo ID, food handler cards and
work permits), work clothes and bus
tickets. A pre-employment program
provided instruction in on-the-job be­
havior. The average cost per student
was $18.00.
O regon’s G overnor presented
Black and OOI with a donation on
behalfofthe state for their effort to keep
peace through the summer. The pro­
gram was acknowledged as an out­
standing cooperative effort, prov ing that
business, social agencies and govern­
ment can provide better services by
working together.
Besides ongoing year-round em­
ployment assistance, Black has imple­
mented:
A tool lending library where com­
munity members may borrow the tools
they need for a job until they have 1 unds
to purchase their own;
A “free” store where clothing is
available to community residents who
are interviewing for a job or do not have
sufficient clothing for work;
An environmental education pro­
gram offering inner-city youth oppor­
tunity to live and work in the wilder­
ness;
A teen hot-line where parents and
youth can get information concerning
employment and services.
Becky Black’s innovation will con­
tinue. As she says, “Every day, when I
talk to young people., I see past the
colors, the language and toughness. 1
see children who need us to do some­
thing now. If old methods do not work,
we must dare to make fools ol ourselves
by trying new things, which may or may
not work. Our youth have not been lost
to us; they are just wailing for us to
help.”
With The Name Allah The
Road To Self Mastery
The self Master must find the road
that leads to God (Allah), study the
truth that is locked up in the Bible’s
signs and symbols, study the pure truth
from cover to cover in the Holy Quran,
study nature, identify the inner and
outer workings in nature.
The self Master ipust submit him­
self or herself only to God (Allah).
(The truth that makes all things
plain).
The Self Master must always give
thanks to Almighty God (Allah) and his
most gracious gifts, divine wisdom,
knowledge and understanding. The Self
Master must always be conscious of the
battle that is going on for his or her mind
to distract us away from God (Allah),
our salvation. In this battle, the enemy
uses as his toolsof warcolorconscious­
ness, one of the greater crimes commit­
ted againstGod (Allah). Satan uses this,
forcing us to be more conscious of our
skin color as opposed to our consciously
being aware of Almighty God (Allah).
Examples: Media being one of the co­
conspirator of this unaccepted mental­
ity, uses statements like “New York’s
Black mayor” or “the United States
now has it’s first Black woman in the
Senate. The latter example is another
subtle but brutal effort to distract our
minds to trivials. The correct state­
ment would have been; God (Allah)
has blessed our nation with its first
person of color etc.. To be a self Mas­
ter requires total honesty with ones
self; we have to choose that which
compliments and promote human
qualities, which brings us to another
example of media’s crimes that go for
the most part unnoticed by the victims
(the innocent masses). Prime Time
recently did a documentary on the
Nation of Islam and a gay top ranking
official in the armed forces. It ap­
peared as Prime Time went to great
lengths to discredit the Nation of Islam
while at the same time win the sympa­
thy of it’s audience in favor of the top
ranking gay official in the United States
of America’s armed forces. Thus pro­
moting homosexuality, however on
the other hand, condemning what may
be a major break to be subtly suggest­
ing that regardless to how immoral it
is, if the act is coming from persons
housed in so called “white body”, it
should be accepted. However, if a
moral attempt is made to rid the world
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of self destruction from a person housed
in a “black body”, it is discounted as
worthless before being given a benefit
of a possibility.
We must be careful about what
we’re buying from the media, or else
we may find ourselves falling victims
to the beast who’s mark is in his head
(Satan). Once we accept, believe and
actout his suggestions and are carrying
his mark on our hands (meaning that
we’re unaware of doing Satan’s bid­
ding), the self Master must be aware of
jealousy and envy, and unjust suspi­
cion within themselves. These urges
and tendencies act as a destructive
force against his or her human fiber.
The Nation of I slam offers the best
opportunity for proper defense against
psychological (tricks) played on the
masses, which in fact, if accepted,
renders us unfit to be called civilized,
cultured or for that matter, a well in­
formed people.
You are invited to come and learn
self discipline and self mastery at your
local Islamic facilities.
May Allah grant us all proper di­
rection in our quest for truth.
ABDUL HASAN
Toy And Joy
Makers Need
Your Help Now!!!!
Donations are down 30% from last
year and many Portlanders need to know
now is the time to check the family toy
box. If you have some toys for us that
are in like new condition just drop them
off at any Portland fire station, or when
you are out shopping for your own
children, pick out one extra present to
leave with the Toy & Joy Makers.
If you would like to send money,
just send it to:
Portland Fire Bureau
c/o Toy & Joy Makers
55 S.W. Ash
Portland, OR 97204
Last year over 14,000 children in
Portland benefitted from your help and
support. 4,600 families were under fed­
eral guide lines for low income.
Dean Johnston says, “we are ex­
pecting approximately a 33% increase
in families who are calling in for help
on our request lines which are 823-4550
and 823-4551.
Compassion, Safety, Comfort And Convenience:
The Genius Of The Black Inventors
A
f.
BY PROF. MCKINLEY BURT
Before I continue with my recita­
tion of the great ones whose innova­
tions were inspired by compassion for
their fellow human being, let me present
an African American engineer par ex­
cellence, David Crosthwait, 1891-1976.
Famous around the world (in industry
circles), Dr. Crosthwait wrote many of
the code books and manuals that are
standard in the fields of heating, venti­
lation, refrigeration and air condition­
ing.
Both a craftsman and an innovator,
this mechanical engineer dedicated 62
years of his life to the design and instal­
lation of building systems that made
possible the expansion, comfort and
convenience of our big city infrastruc­
ture. But, let me quote from a past
writing:
“Without his inventions and engi­
neering technology in the field of heat­
ing and air conditioning systems and
controls for skyscrapers, modem man
could not inhabit buildings over 12
stories tall anywhere in the world. He
gave us the concept of the “Intelligent
Highrise”, highlighted by his design
and installation of the computerized
control heating and variable vacuum
p ro c ess in such building as the
Rockefeller Center in New York City
(34 U.S. and 80 foreign patents).
Before his death in 1976,1 spent
many hours talking with this brilliant
African American about the incredible
potential and resources possessed (but
not used) by our group. Our conversa­
tions usually began on a ‘high note’,
with general discussions of pioneering
and seminal technology developed by
blacks from ‘day one’.
His favorite genius was Normand
Rillieux, the black engineer from Loui­
siana whose “Triple-Stage Sugar Evapo­
rator” (PatcntNo.4,879, Dec. 10,1846)
not only made the United States the
world leader in sugar refining technol­
ogy, but that the German industrialists
used his developments in Thermody­
namics to become world leaders in the
area of the chemical and dye industries
(The United States Department of Ag­
riculture did pronounce R illieux’s
patent,’ The greatest invention in the
history of chemical engineering”.
On the downside to this story, there,
again, is a gross failure of African
Americans to realize and exploit the
resources and genius for learning that
we possess. Dr. Crosthwait complained
bitterly that though he offered time,
money, knowhow and patent trusts (for
foundations) to the black community
and school in the Detroit area, he was
rebuffed and blocked at every point by
the ‘ traditional” black organizations and
“closed incestuous power groups (tell
me’ about it).”
There is no “avenue to the people”
he would say; few people (blacks) seem
to understand the importance of our
technical contributions to our motiva­
tion, self-image or career development.
In our almost weekly long distance
conversations he would sound so very
sad and defeated as he cited failures in
this respect, even at his alma mater,
Purdue University. As lie would say,
“Our great technological abilities must
be seen as a critical and effective tool of
intervention—unemployment, family
dissolution, crime and street gangs are
growing and growing.” and this was 20
years ago.
I will always remember a state­
ment by Dr. Crosthwait; “Other cul­
tures in the world honor technology; the
Japanese even have a term; hari Kuyo;
fora shrine where broken sewing needles
are put to rest after a life of service .
Our next black inventor was truly
the most able contributor to the “hu­
man dimension”. How much more care
and compassion can be involved in
inventions than in the innovations of
Garrett A. Morgan (1877-1963). Dur­
ing his long life he gave the world the
“ Mine Rescue Mask”, Patent No.
1,113,675, Oct. 13,1914; And the “Au­
tomatic T raffic S ignal”, No. 1,475,024,
Nov. 20,1923. The mine rescue mask,
through continuous improvements,
reigns today as a premier safety and
rescue device around the word. All
firemen and emergency crews use
cquipmentbased uponMorgan’sorigi-
nal design.
In 1914, Mr. Morgan set up the
“National Safety Device Company” to
manufacture and sell his“Safety Hood”.
Through exhibitions and demonstra­
tions around the country his invention
sold very well (The military adapted
hisdevicc to become the standard army
gas mask). Things did go very well
indeed-that is until a racist establish­
ment discovered that the great inventor
was a black man. Orders from fire
departments, industries and munici­
palities decreased to a trickle, Morgan
turned to politics and advocacy, found­
ing the Cleveland, Ohio, “Call and
Post” newspaper.
The situation with the “Automatic
Traffic Signal” went much better, at
least financially, for he sold the device
to the General Electric Company for a
very tidy sum. Perhaps our compas­
sionate inventor had learned a valuable
lesson about “ free” enterprise in
America. At any rate millions around
the world undoubtedly have owed their
lives to this electrical arbiter of our
motor vehicular traffic. Or is it that
they are indebted to Mr. Garrett A.
Morgan for their lives?
A reminder that the holidays
are a time of giving.
en M».
The Portland Observer encourages our readers to write
letters to the editor in response to any articles we publish.
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