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J une 14, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The Jlortianh ©bscruvr
SR 1
<©:
Saturday, May 27,
NRC President the Rev.
Jesse L. Jackson gave
his address at our annual policy
conference. Below are key
excerpts from the speech.
“ We meet at a time o f intense
polarization. The language o f hurt,
hate and hostility has lost its shame.
Congressmen Doman, Gingrich and
Arm ey, Senators D ’ Am ato and
Helms seem to have no limits in their
attacks, race baiting, gay bashing
and resentment o f civil rights, eco­
nomic justice and gender equality.
"The G O PAC lexicon o f code
words says, call your opponents trai­
tors, pathetic, sick and corrupt. That
spirit is poisonous to the political
environment, and polarizes the peo­
ple and the government.
“ The top one percent inourcoun-
try owns 20 percent o f the wealth.
The top 20 percent owns 80 percent
o f the wealth; the largest gap be­
tween the haves and have nots in the
industrialized world - and the gap is
w id en ing . Yet, speaker Newt
Gingrich led the charge against clos­
ing a tax loophole for two dozen tax-
evading billionaires who live off­
shore and have denounced their
American citizenship in order to
avoid paying millions in U.S. taxes.
“ The Gingrich-driven budget
priorities assume'that the rich have
too little, the poor have too much, the
corporations are taxed too much, and
themilitary istooweak Thus,wesee
these reverse Robin Hood schemes.
tests and civil disobedience.
“ Urban policy has essentially
been abandoned. Jails are the num­
ber one growth industry. H alf o f all
public housing built in the last 10
years has been ja il cells. The attacks
on welfare, public schools, Medi­
care, Medicaid, scholarships and the
minimum wage have had the effect
ofdemonizing the poor, making pov-
erty a crime.
“ The Rainbow w ill continue to
build a multiracial coalition o f con­
science. However, we will expand
our options. W e’ve tried registration
with one hand while with the other
and Get-Out-The-Vote (G O V T ).
they take food o f f o f their
W e’re the best at it and done the most
ta b le...ed ucatio n out o f th eir
o f it. We delivered. Then they ig­
schools...housing out o f the range o f
nored us. W e’ve tried leveraging
their pocketbooks...national health
without an independent contract.
care out o f their expectations...a
They took us for granted. In the pri­
meaningful jo b making livable wag­
maries we were at the table. Then, in
es out o f their future.. .and hope out o f
the general election, they distanced
their dreams. They paint the problem
themselves from us. We do not in­
as Black, while their real agenda is to
tend to be ignored, taken for granted,
reduce the life options o f all but a
pushed o ff and exploited any longer.
few.
The days o f expecting us to sow the
“ The Brown Supreme Court
seeds, cultivate the ground and pick
decision in 1954, the C iv il Rights
the cotton-then turn it over to them
Act o f 1964 and the Voting Rights
to bail it and sell it-are over. We
Act o f 1965 were the keys to a new
need a line on state and local ballots.
South...which is the key to a new
We must develop independent ballot
America , which is the key to a new
access. New York is one model where
world standard...of human rights,
there is the possibility o f fusion, but
s e lf - d e t e r m in a t io n ,
not exclusion. One party with two
democracy...which are the keys to
names, or two parties with one as­
world economic growth. The Olym­
sumption, makes the parties inter­
pics would not be coming to Atlanta
changeable and indistinguishable,
nor going to South African unless we
and that’s why shifts take place so
had succeeded in our marches, pro-
easily.
C O A L IT IO N
Visions ‘96
“ While his budget cuts million
from the poor, women, children and
students, Mr. Gingrich raised mil­
lions o f dollars from corporate spe­
cial interests. The last five years,
G O PAC--his secretive political ac­
tion committee-has raised over $7
million by accepting unlimited, un­
disclosed donations from corporate
executives with major interests pend­
ing before the federal government.
“ Beneath all o f this is the race
component. They paint welfare Black
so they can cut programs for the
poor-w ho are mostly non-Black.
They paint affirmative action Black
so they can do away with that pro­
gram-even though the primary ben­
eficiaries o f affirmative action have
been white women. They focus on
under-funded and, therefore, failing
Black inner-city schools so they can
cut aid to education-which will hurt
the nation’s economic future. They
bait and feed White America racism
V c m + o g e P o i n t : The Rainbow Coalition A Decade Later
R on D aniels
by
tten d in g the recent
Annual Policy Confer-
ence of Jesse Jack­
son's Rainbow Coalition in
Atlanta reminded me that the
Rainbow idea has been on the
scene for nearly a decade.
Originally developed by former
State Representative Mel King dur­
ing his campaign for Mayor o f Bos­
ton, Rev. Jesse Jacksonpicked up the
concept and popularized it through
his campaigns for President in 1984
and 1988. In essence the concept o f
the Rainbow is to forge a multi-racial
liberal-left coalition to promote a
progressive social justice and policy
agenda with and on behalf o f poor
and working people, people o f color,
women, and the struggling middle
class. No concept, in my judgement
has held out more promise for funda­
mental change in this country in this
century than the idea o f the Rainbow
Coalition. Unfortunately, noconcept
has also engendered so much hope
and produced so much disillusion
ment.
The 1984 Jackson for President
crusade was one o f the most electri­
fying campaigns this nation has ever
witnessed as Rev. Jesse Louis Jack-
son injected the vision and vitality o f
the civil rights movement into the
electoral political arena. The cru­
sade captured some 3.5 m i I lion votes
and Re v . Jackson went into the Dem­
ocratic Convention in San Francisco
with more than 400 delegates. Rev.
Jackson’s nationally televised speech
at the Convention captured the imag­
ination o f the nation and catapulted
him into national and international
prominence as one ofthe preeminent
leaders o f our time.
The challenge facing Rev. Jack-
son after the 1984 election was to
harvest the energy and enthusiasm
engendered by his presidential cam­
paign to create a permanent indepen­
dent political movement and organi­
zation. Many who become Rainbow
activists, hoped he would build a
mass based, democratic membership
organization or even a Rainbow par­
ty to fight for change at the ballot box
and in the streets. However, it is the
challenge to build a permanent orga­
nization that has proved to be the
Achilles tendon o f the man who has
described himself as a “tree shaker
not a je lly maker.”
For whatever reasons, Rev. Jack-
son was slow to capitalize on the
enormous momentum generated by
the ,’ 84 campaign. Months elapsed
before the Rainbow faithful were
convened to assess the campaign and
discuss the feasibility o f creating a
permanent structure. Once an agree­
ment to develop the National Rain­
bow Coalition was reached with Rev.
Jackson’s guidance, it was well into
1986 before the founding conven­
tion o f the National Rainbow Coali­
tion was finally held. By then disillu­
sionment over the slow pace o f orga­
nizational development, poor follow
through by Rev. Jackson and the lack
o f democracy within the Rainbow
had already set in.
The prospect o f another Jack-
Civil Rights Journal: Vacation
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
ow that summer is at
4 \j
hand and as schools
c '
close for v ac a tio n ,
many parents begin to think
about w here to take their
children for summer vacation.
W hile beaches and mountains
are fun, there are vacations which
can teach our children the history
seldom found in history books -- the
legacy that African Americans have
left for us all. Here are two such
educational opportunities.
Historic Memphis
Memphis was a Southern mecca
for black business and culture and no
one can tell you about Memphis A f­
rican American history better than
Heritage Tours, a business owned by
two African American sisters. Their
tour includes stops on the Under­
ground Railroad, Beale Street, the
Lorraine Motel-now the C iv il Rights
Museum; Auction Square, where
slaves were actually auctioned off;
Church Park, developed by the first
black millionaire for the black com­
munity since it had no parks in the
city and the sties o f the Freedman’s
School and the Freedman's Grocer,
where black store owners were
lynched by a white mob in the 1890’s.
Elaine Lee Turner and Joan Lee-
Nelson founded Heritage Tours some
eleven years ago to help teach African
American children about their history
in Memphis. For example, historic
Beale Street was the home for black
business in Memphis at one time; to­
day there are few, if any, black-owned
businesses on Beale Street. It is also
the site o f the newspaper office where
son for President Campaign in 1988,
however, rekindled interest in the
Rainbow among the true believers.
As the election season approached
those o f us on the national staff
worked to transform what had be­
come a tired idea into a living reality.
By early 1988 a number o f Sates
including New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Ken­
tucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,
California, Washington State and
Vermont had met the qualifications
to become fully accredited Rainbow
State Chapters setting the stage for
one o f the most remarkable cam­
paigns in the history o f this country.
All o f these “could have beens
and might have beens” represent lost
opportunities rooted in the failure o f
Jesse Jackson to transform one o f the
most promising ideas of the century
into a viable mass based organization.
Perhaps we should not despair, how­
ever. There are signs that Rev. Jack-
son may have learned his lesson and
that the Rainbow may yet rise again.
Education
Ida Wells Barnett wrote her stories on
lynching which catalyzed anti-lynch­
ing campaigns throughout the world.
Perhaps the most remarkable site
on the Heritage Tour is the Burkle
Mansion. It was the home of a German
immigrant who despised slavery and
made his home a station on the Under­
ground Railroad, only a stone’s throw
from the nation’s largest slave auction
houses A wealthy livestock owner,
Burkle built several tunnels to the
Mississippi River and to Beale Street
from his cellar, lining them with the
bricks he made in his own kiln. There
is even a railroad track running under­
neath his house, where it is thought
slaves could lie on flatbed cars.
Ms. Tumer and Ms. Lee-Nelson
are hoping to make this house, now
owned by an African American wom­
an, into a museum on slavery. They
have already put up posters advertis­
ing the slave auction houses and
showing some o f the horrors o f sla­
very and have gotten the city to put
up a plaque in front o f the house.
Black American West History
When Paul Stewart played cow­
boys and Indians as a child, he was
told he had to play the Indian, be­
cause there was “ no such thing as a
black cowboy.” His playmates were
wrong (nearly one third o f cowboys
were black), but history still don’t
tell much about black cowboys.
Paul Stewart’s childhood expe­
rience led him to begin collecting
stories, memorabilia, documents and
photographs about the African Amer­
ican experience in the West. It is this
collection which forms the nucleus
for what is now the Black American
West Museum in Denver.
better Tfo Tfhc (Sifditor
Send your letters to the Editor to:
Editor, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
Kaiser’s
Dragon
C j/
remember as a very
young boy riding in the
back of my father's ‘52
Ford, watching the construct­
ion of Bess Kaiser Medical
Center as we drove up Greeley
hill.
J
On hearing that the new hospital
would be Kaiser, I asked my father,
“ Like the foil?" and had the mental
image o f St George and The Drag-
on.
When the construction was com­
peted, I asked my father, “ Where’s
the dragon?” I told him about St.
George, and he explained that the
story referred to Reynold’s foil, not
Kaiser's. “There’s no dragon at K ai­
ser,” he laughed
Thirty-Five years later, I know
there IS a dragon at K a is e r
Permanente. It does not reside within
thc*walls o f Bess Kaiser, however,
but lives within the hearts o f admin­
istrators and bean counters who
would sell a well-earned reputation
o f service to the community for first
quarter earnings, and subvert the
“ Health Caring People" to the “ Mon­
ey Caring Corporation.”
Just as St. George’ s dragon
wreaked havoc on the local villagers,
the Dragon o f Kaiser is wreaking
havoc on the neighborhoods o f N/
N E Portland, instead o f actively
spreading pestilence, Kaiser's Drag­
on is removing community inpatient
care and urgency care. Instead o f
burning villagers’ homes, it is burn­
ing the trust it has built over 35 years.
And instead o f sacrificing our chil­
dren, an entire region o f this city’s
economic health and wellbeing will
be chained to the rock.
There is no knight in shining
armor waiting in the wings to save
North Portland.
It is up to each o fu s to be our
own St. George. N o one else is
going to do it for us. Please c a ll,
w rite or fax yo ur concerns to
R eg io n al A d m in istrato r M ichael
K atcher, K a ise r Permanente, 500
N E M ultnom ah Street, Suite 100,
P o rtlan d , O regon 9 7 2 3 2 -2 0 9 9
(Phone 5 0 3 -8 1 3 -2 8 0 0 , Fax 5 0 3-
8 1 3 - 4 7 3 3 ), Because There Is A
D ragon At K a ise r.
David Venable
l/> e r s p e c t / v c s\
Surely, President Thomas Jefferson
Must Have Felt Ashamed (?)
pression.
his article appeared in
Moreover, he “ freely and cheer­
the May, 1947 issue of
the “Negro digest”, a
fully” added, "I am of the African
popular national magazine
of and in that color which is natu­
race,
the time.
ral to them of the
®
I am very
darkest dye.” And
distressed that so
he asked that
fly
manyyouthinthe
Jefferson aid in
Professor “ eradicating that
Portland School
Mckinley
System get so lit­
train o f absurd and
Burt
tle of this kind of
false ideas and
motivational ma­
opinions, which so
terial. There was a time, several de­
generally prevails with respect to us”
cades ago, when I was called into the
and to acknowledge that “one uni­
area’s schools several times a month
versal Father.. .hath not only made us
to give relevant lectures based on my
all of one flesh, but that he hath also,
book, “Black Inventer o f America” .
without partiality, afforded us all the
"We hold these truths to be self
same sensations and endowed us all
evident; that all men are created
with the same faculties.”
equal...” . Nodoubt Thomas Jefferson
The Secretary o f State’s reply
squirmed as he read his own words in
followed two weeks later. After
a letter written to him by Benjamin
thanking Banneker for the book,
Banneker, Negro mathematician and
Jefferson wrote: “ Nobody wishes
astronomer of the republic’s early
more than I do, to see such proofs as
days.
you exhibit, that nature has given to
The author ofthe Declaration of
our black brethren talents equal to
Independence had included this bold
those ofthe other colors o f men; and
phrase in the rallying cry for revolu­
that the appearance ofthe want of
tion, and now a black man hurled it
them, is owing merely to the de­
back at him in an impassioned plea
graded condition o f their existence,
that it apply to the hundreds of thou­
both in Africa and America.”
sands of slaves in the U.S.
Jefferson forwarded the alma­
The letter, written August 19.
nac to the Marquis de Condorcet,
179 1, provided a sorely needed les­
Secretary o f the Academy o f Sci­
son in democracy for the First Secre­
ences at Paris, referring to Banneker
tary of State.
as a “ very respectable mathemati­
At the age o f 60. Benjamin
cian." He also stated: “ I have seen
Banneker, a remarkable free Negro
very elegant solutions o f geometri­
living in Maryland, had compiled an
cal problems by him. Add to this |
almanac. The unique volume, con­
that he is a very worthy and respect­
taining a table of motions o f the sun
able member o f society. He is a free
and moon, their risings and settings,
man.”
calculations demonstrating the dif­
But there was another member
ferent aspects o f the planets and “ in­
o f Washington’s cabinet who de­
teresting and entertaining essays” on
clared his belief in the equality of I
a vast array o f other subjects, was
man in stronger words than Jefferson
worked out independently by him
had used. James McHenry, also a
with the aid of a few instruments,
Marylander, and the Secretary of War,
astronomical tables and textbooks
said in a letter to be publisher of |
given him by a neighbor. George
Banneker’s almanac:
Ellicott, a white engineer.
“ I consider this Negro as fresh
For six years Banneker pub­
proof that the powers of the mind are
lished his almanac, the last issue, so
disconnected with the color o f the
far as is known, appearing in 1797.
skin, or, in other words, a striking |
The first volume was at the printers
contradiction to Mr. Hume’s doc­
when the author sent a manuscript
trine, that the Negroes are naturally
copy to Jefferson for his inspection.
in ferio r to the whites, and
Banneker had seen the infant
unsusceptible o f attainments in arts
national rally around slogans of free­
and sciences.’”
dom; he had seen black men fighting
Banneker’s almanac was discon­
and dying with Washington’ s army
tinued when the author reached the
o f rebellion from Bunker Hill to York­
age of 67. During the remaining eight
town.
yearsofhis life, he turned his thought
“This, Sir," Banneker reminded
to the international scene. He worked
I Jefferson, “was a time when you
out plans for a league of nations to
clearly saw into the injustice of a
outlaw war and advocated the imme­
state of slavery, and in which you had
diate establishment of an office of |
just apprehensions ofthe horrorof its
Secretary of Peace.
condition...” .
Banneker’s lesson for Secretary
“ But, sir,” he added bitingly,
of State Jefferson appears to have
“ how pitiable it is to reflect, that
had little effect upon him. In a letter
although you were so fully convinced
to the poet, Joel Barlow, in October,
o f the benevolence of the father of
1809, Jefferson restated his doubts as
Man-kind, and o f his equal distribu­
to the equality o f Negroes which he
tion o f these rights and
had expressed in 17 8 1.
privileges., that you should at the
Yet Jefferson’s position, which
same time counter-act his mercies, in
was, at any rate, one of uncertainty,
detaining by fraud and violence so
remains a more advance one than
numerous a part of my brethren, un­
that generally held by white Ameri
der groaning captivity, and cruel op-
cans today.
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