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9
A ugust 9, 1995 • T he P ortland O bserver
New Hotel Named
Pioneer Place Suites
Portland new Kimpton Group
Hotel, formerly the Frederick &
Nelson building on the com er o f
Washington and Fifth Avenue has
been named Pioneer Place Suites.
The name was chosen from a
contest and entry from Grant Brackett,
a 20-year Portland resident.
“Since the new hotel is so close
to Pioneer Place, “Pioneer Place
Suites seemed like an obvious name,”
Brackett said
Bracket will have a room in the
new hotel named after him as part o f
his prize He will also receive a week­
end fo • two at the new hotel, dinner in
the new adjoining restaurant and a
weekend for two in San Francisco at
the Hotel Monaco with dining for
two at the Grand Cafe.
Pioneer Place Suites is sched­
uled to open next spring The first
class hotel features 160 suites, 60
deluxe rooms and four grand suites.
It will also offer approximately 6,000
square feet o f meeting and catering
space and will be able to accommo­
date groups from 10 to 200.
For more information on the
hotel, call 226-6855
“Fall Into Fashion”
Senior Style Show
Join us for our “Fall Into Fash­
ion” Senior Style Show to be held
Friday, August 25,1995 from 2:00pm
to 3:30pm at Forest Grove Residen­
tial Center W e’re featuring lovely,
new fall fashions from K Mart,
M ervyn’s J.C. Penney, Raintree
Town and Country and My Sister’s
Closet.
Door prizes will be given and
refreshments will be served.
There is no charge for our enjoy­
able afternoon and reservations will
be accepted through August 22nd.
Call Barbara or Judy, 357-3288
Come join the fun.
NAACP Youth Delegates Urged To Find Inspiration
And Guidance In African American I listoru
The Encore, Part II:
There Are Ways To Deal With Things Before Its Too Late
by
P rop . M c K inley B urt
That was a rather mild response
to that “y ’all come” appendage to
last week’s article o f this series, but
a number o f us are betting that this
will change as the community seeks
to assess or even comprehend that
volatile article in last w eek’s “Ore­
gonian Newspaper” (See my Per­
spectives” column, page 2A).
Several o f us who consider our­
selves to have a better than average
understanding o f how the Portland
infrastructure w orks (and “has”
worked over se vera I general ions) see
a pressing need to build and launch
new, innovative systems that are
based on such reality and experi­
ence. The imitation and replication
o f economic programs designed de­
cades ago in the hey day o f President
Johnson’s “Great Society" leave you
“behind the curve":
Above all, “there is an addition­
al need,” ! tell in my peer group and
many others with whom we come in
contact at initial information meet­
ings: Share the knowledge! Lets get
away from the cliques and blocking,
(he envies and jealousies that have so
crippled the minority community for
so long. Early this century, blacks
had a saying, “Slaves don’t l^ve
secrets.”
When we inspect and analyze
the paperwork and processes sub­
tending many current soc ial and “eco­
nomic” programs, I am taken back to
my early 1970s experience as admin-
istrator/accountant for a large U S.
Department o f Labor training pro­
gram designed by Washington, D.C.
planners to “escalate the quality o f
lifeforthe inner-city disadvantaged."
The “maze” is still "amazing.”
Some o f my industry acquain­
tances on the far west side, accus­
tomed for the most part to the smooth-
work ing systems and forms for pro­
duction, processing and quality con­
trol, shake their heads in disbelief.
They have already learned in their
plants, for instance, that no computer
in the world can do a decent job o f
accounting if the system designer
wasn’t an experienced accountant.
And, ofcourse, industry still has
the complaint that I articulated here
several years ago: If, in an alleged
effort to save money, an economic
program is heavily loaded with re­
cent graduates armed only with the
jargon, idioms, vernacular and slang
of the game >md good intentions),
then the game may be lost quite early
on.
The economic successes will be
the office supply houses, van-leasing
companies and the coin machine
operators. The targeted clientele will
be just beginning a long-term merry-
go-round ride, as happened during
“Model City” days: from program to
program.
It is important, we feel, that a
community should learn from its ex­
periences and should develop its own
systems and paradigms for dealing
with an exploitive world. Just as it
was with “Urban Renewal/Model
Cities,” the “planners” know exactly
what they are doing, and as much o f
the process is designed to fail, as to
succeed. They have always worked
hand-in-hand with the commercial
interests. If not, they would never
have had their programs funded. That
is the “American Way.”
O f course my personal forte has
been in the science/math mode and I
have had time to update those early
designs that won the National Sci­
ence Award. There seems to be a
good start on evading the past road­
block o f a less-than-innovate Port­
land School System (despite protes­
tations to the contrary). Several edu­
cation publishers and game manu­
facturers have been out to monitor
some demonstrations in outlying dis­
tricts - with industry backing. You
can do it too!
Especially liked is the innova­
tive “Science Club” mode I started in
The Dalles, Oregon several years
ago, but had been brushed offby two
former Portland school superinten­
dents. Others in the community have
started doing their thing, moving
around the “blockers” with our en­
couragement.
More and more minorities with
inventions are calling me for direc­
tions (mostly female). Two o f the
west side plants with guest facilities
are putting up out oftow n visitors for
us this summer and providing a shut­
tle bus (educators, publishers and a
major foundation.)
Next week, “ Real Estate.”
NAACP Promotes Education - Earl T. Shinhoster, Acting Executive Director, NAACP, second from left,
joins Kimberly Weaver, NAACP National Youth Work Committee, second from right, in welcoming
honored quests to the recent Roy Wilkins Scholarship Luncheon during the Association's 86th Annual
Convention in Minneapolis, Minn. With them are Dr. Roger Wilkins. Professor of History and American
Culture, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va., keynote speaker, and Ms. Kim Reed, Territory
Development Manager, Pepsi-Cola Company.
Dr. Roger Wilkins, Professor o f
History and American Culture at
George Mason University in Fairfax,
Va., told NAACP youth Convention
Delegates that young Blacks can bet­
ter meet the challenges presented by
the recent “re-emergence o f racism”
i f they are armed with a knowledge o f
their own history.
Dr Wilkins made his remarks at
the Roy Wilkins Scholarship Lun­
cheon, sponsored by Pepsi-C ola
C om pany, at the 86th A nnual
NAACP Convention here.
The nephew o f the late NAACP
Executive Director Roy Wilkins, Dr.
Wilkins said history shows that gov­
ernment at all levels worked to limit
opportunities for Blacks for genera­
tions, giving racial preferences to
.'¿tites,
W ilkins e n c o u ra g e d young
NAACP members to draw inspira­
tion from the pioneering efforts o f
African American heroes such as
Harriet Tubman, A. Philip Randolph
and Sojourner Truth.
Dr. Wilkins cited the widely-
held belief among non-racist whites
that America is a country where any­
one who works hard can succeed.
Many o f these individuals say the
proof o f this lies in the experience o f
their grandparents, who arrived here
as poor immigrants in the late 1800s
or early 1900s, worked hard, educat­
ed their children, and watched their
families succeed -- all without ever
owning slaves or hurting Black peo­
ple.
But Dr. Wilkins pointed out the
flaws in this argument, outlining the
historical events that served to bene­
fit immigrant whites while keeping
blacks within clearly defined region­
al, occupational and economic pa­
rameters.
He said that in “the rotten deal of
1877” — known as the Tilden-Hayes
Compromise -- members o f the House
o f Representatives, attempting to
settle a closely-contested presiden­
tial election (betw een Samuel J.
Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes),
agreed to a compromise that sent
Hayes to the White House. Other
parts o f the agreement assured the
N orth’s control o f national indus­
tries while the South was to regain its
agricultural prowers through low-in­
come Black laborers. The agreement
took place 14 years after the emanci­
pation o f the slaves.
This resulted. Dr. Wilkins said.
in northern industries welcoming
European immigrants for factory
work for generations and building a
white working and middle class.
When African American migrants
moved to northern cities and factory
jobs earlier this century, they found
themselves too late for the peak o f
America’s Industrial Revolution.
Dr. Wilkins said that helping the
poor who still suffer because o f his­
torical inequitiesm ustbe“apriority”
for the NAACP. He quoted Harriet
Tubman’s famous words, “ I am not
free until the least o f my brothers and
sisters is free.”
Concluding his remarks, Dr.
Wilkins encouraged the delegates to
recognize the NAACP as “the stron­
gest weapon in our arsenal” in the
struggle against racism.
As the nation’s oldest and most
powerful civil rights organization,
the NAACP has a long and proud
history o f battling inequity, Dr.
Wilkins said. But, he said, the orga­
nization’s constituents now face a
new hurdle that can be seen in the
widespread “playingofthe race card,”
especially as it regards affirmative
action, by cynical political forces
across the nation.
i
TltE P o R t I a N c I ObsERVER W e I comes t I- ie
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W e AppREciATE Y our B usíness Ai\d S upport
ThANk You
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