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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 1995)
P age B 7 T he P ortland O bserver • F ebruary 15, 1995 BLACK HISTORY » 4 rí. ••• (Tip îjîorUatth (©bacrUer Portland Black History. Lost, Strayed Or Stolen B y P rof . M c K inley B urt I borrowed that description from the famous tape created by Bill C osby-just put a little North West spin on it. Our area has produced innovators and achievers to match any other in the country. I was re minded of many during a meeting with a group that will be contributing to the Observer Newspaper's cover age of Black History Month. Last year, there was extensive media coverage of the transfer of the famed Spruce G oose’ to the Port land area for pennanent display. This is the huge wooden 'flying boat’ de signed and built by the eccentric, millionaire engineer and movie pro ducer, Howard Hughes (Jane Russell, "The Outlaw”). What most of us do not know is that the critical controls for the eight huge engines were de signed by a black engineer, Donald Rutherford who grew up in Portland and graduated from Benson Techni cal School. He was on board for that first (and only) flight of what was then, several decades ago, the world’s larg est flying machine His presence and expertise was critical to maintaining the giant power plants required to get the plane airborne. Anyone who has seen camera shots ot the event, mar veled at around the world, can re member waiting with tense and bated breath...will it take oft?... Can that huge awkward ‘goose’ really fly ? Do they make engines that powerful .’ Then Howard Huhes called on the black engineer to "give it all you got!” And he did...and history was made. In 1982 I did a local television program on Black inventors and with the help of a local Volkswagen dealer and a hardware company, I demon strated for viewers the ingenious look ing mechanism invented and patented by Mr Rutherford - the device w hich facilitated the sliding doors now found on most vans in the world. Also he invented those handy little catches that fasten the cabinet doors in your kitchen, bathroom and work shop. I was never able to get the folks at Benson High to honor him or to allow me to make a presentation that might serve to inspire and motivate students with this ideal role model... You want to try ? Liberals and educa tors give preference to that which holds the prom ise o f immediate grants. Its a business, yet! We would not omit here men tion of a Mr. McWilliams, the most innovative of African American en trepreneurs to descend on Portland in the late 1940s. During a strike of the Portland Oregonian and Oregon Journal Mr. McWilliams beheld all those idle, talented white folks walk ing The picket lines on S. W. Broadway and saw opportu nity with a capital 'O ’. Within a week He had rented space on W illiams Avenue just south of Broadway, leased furniture and typewriters, and put in leased wires and teletypes to Associated Press and other news ser vices. A week later I got a call to come down and install an accounting sys tem for the "Algamated News Bu reau" or whatever it was he called it. I almost fainted when I saw all the busy, efficient looking environs and all those happy-looking whites bent over typewriters, reading tapes or pasting up copy. This type ot activity just didn't happen in the Portland ghetto - still doesn’t. What Mr McW illiams had done (and on a shoestring) was to setup a network of small regional papers, eaeh carrying copy and ads of special interest to that community: St.Johns, Milwaukie, Sellwood, Beaverton. Etc., six in all. This weekly format, decades ahead of its time, went over like hot cakes. It seemed to good to be true, and it was. Dependent from the start on an uninterrupted cash flow, he was barely into the second month when the roof caved in. His success and its implications was not lost upon the establishment, two envious and insecure blacks in the community nor on the two Port land daily newspapers who wanted their reporters back. Within am onth, whispering campaigns, pressures on McW illiams creditors, bank ad ad vertisers made continued operation an impossibility. I almost cried at the demise of the operation and not just because I lost an accounting client. It could have been such a beautiful gambit in American enterprise. Oregon's Exclusion Laws To Keep Blacks Out An Act am endatory of an Act passed Ju n e 26,1844, in regard to slavery and for o th e r purposes. Be it enacted by the Legislative C om m ittee o f O regon as follows: Section I. That the sixth and seventh sections o f said act are hereby W lif .i, J. repealed. Section 2. That if any such free negro or mulatto shall fail to quit and leave the country, as required by the act to which this is amendatory, he or she may be arrested upon a warrant issued by some justice ot the peace, and .f guilty upon trial before such justice had, the said justice shall issue his order to any officer competent to execute process, directing said officer to give ten days public notice, by at least four written or printed advertisements, that he will publicly hire out such free negro or mulatto to the lowest bidder, on a day and at a place therein specified. On the day and at the place mentioned in said notice, such officer shall expose such free negro or mulatto to public hiring; and the person who will obligate him self to remove such free negro or mulatto from the country tor the shortest term o f service, shall enter into a bond with good and sufficient security o f Oregon, in a penalty o f at least one thousand dollars, binding him self to remove said negro or mulatto out o f the country w ithin six months after such service shall expire; which bond shall be filed in the clerk's office in the proper county; and upon failure to perform the conditions o f said bond, the attorney prosecuting for Oregon shall commence a suit upon a certified copy o f such bond in the circuit court A. Philip Randolph leads line of protestors outside the 1948 Democratic National Convention. VESSELS Event For Businesses V E S S E L S is n o r m a lly clo sed on M ondays, a day when m any o th e r b u sin esses are also clo sed , and th eir ow ners out and ab o u t. W ell, on M onday. F e b ruary 20, V ESSELS will be open from noon to 4 pm esp ecially for th o se who a r e n ’t able to get to the sto re any o th e r tim e. A dm ission to this sp e cial event is by p re se n tin g a b u sin e ss card, and the first 50 p a tro n s w ill rec e iv e a free sam ple o f trib al w rap p in g paper. B usiness ow ners are enco u rag ed to b rin g th eir em p lo y ees and c o w orkers. V E S S E L S , “ T a b lew are W ith M ea n in g ,” sp e c ia liz e s in ethnic and A fro -c e n tric item s for the din in g room , bath and k itc h en. L ocated at 2605 N E MLK JR B o u le v a r d a t th e c o r n e r o f R u s s e ll, V E S S E L S 's r e g u la r h o u rs are 10 am to 6 pm . T uesday th ro u g h S aturday. For m ore in fo rm a tio n . call 2 4 9 -1 9 5 2 . To Business Owner: Rosa Parks, flanked by her attorney and a deputy, on her way to the jail. Parks refused to move from her up-front seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala, in 1955. National African American History Month From President Clinton Warm greetings to everyone celebrating African American Histo ry Month, 1995. Hillary and I join you in marking the brave efforts o f the countless Americans throughout our nation s history who have demanded justice, declared an end to segregation, and fought to ensure that every individu al has the opportunity to bui Id a bright er future for themselves and their families. Today, there is a renewed sense of hope in America -- a hope based on the idea that our great diversity can unite rather than divide our society. It is the same hope that has inspired African Americans since our coun try’s beginnings to dream of a nation « President William J. Clinton in which all people enjoy the freedom to make their own lasting contribu tions to our world If we are truly to build on history's rich lessons, we must always remember these pioneers' pivotal roles in American history. Ours can be a land o f unprece dented peace and prosperity in the twenty-first century if we have the faith that Martin Luther King de scribed, the faith to “transform the jangling discords o f our nation into a beautiful symphony ofbrotherhood ” We must never cease striving to bring people together across racial and cultural barriers. This is our genera tion's most solemn calling and most important challenge. I urge everyone, during African american History Month and through out the year, to take up this challenge and to learn more about the black Americans w ho have made this coun try great Armed with a "covenant for America Leadership Forum, chaired by Southern Cl President Dr. Joseph E. Lowery (center) Republican led Congress to "protect the guarantee the future advancement of the recent summit was in direct response to Gingrich's "Contract with America". VESSELS is normally closed on your days off, but that is not the case in February. On Monday, February 20th, VESSELS will be open by special invitation, fro m noon til 4 p m , to businesses usual ly closed on Sundays & Mondays. Admission - present your busi ness card. Free tribal gift wrap to the first 50customers. Please bring your employees and co-workers. Please let us know you 're coming, 249-1952. •* . »r . ' «3: ' • if. . ' a? - r ‘A ... . '/ v A ' - -wAV/’» i ? / '- . : <>• - - bY ■Y.Y >•« -»• ■ »- • » »4. / •
