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A prii 10, 1996 «Tu» P ori land O bserver
DI
ome days, there’s just
too much rain In the Rain­
bow. Since 1 9 6 8 . April
4th has been a solemn tim e -
today marks the 2 8th year since
Or. M artin Luther King's assassi­
nation pushed the course of
American history into a down­
ward spiral.
Editorial Articles Do Not Necessarily
Reflect Or Represent The Views O f
The JJortlanb © bscrucr
C O A L IT IO N
A s we reflect on those 28 inter­
vening y e a rs-o n the failure o f this
great and wealthy nation to protect
the social safety net that Dr King
helped expand and create; on the
malign neglect o f our declining ur­
ban centers, now seen m ainly as site
locations for new stadium s and jails;
those o f us who knew him personal­
on the lack o f attention to our chil­
ly. w ere touched by his w arm th,
dren. 1/4 o f whom are grow ing up in
graced by his generosity, or elevated
p o v e rty -w e can m easure how far we
by his leadership
still m ust travel on Dr K ing’s road
Ron B row n's personal history is
April 4th is a day to think about
strongly intertw ined with or own
our own history ; a day to renew our
M ovem ent When, in February. 1989,
com m itm ent to the struggle; a day to
Ron Brown was elected as the first
rem ind our nation that D r King died
A frican-A m erican chair o f this na­
defending the rights o f w orking men
tio n ’s largest political party, he en ­
and w om en o fa ll colors to organize,
tered his name in the history books.
to strike, to participate fully in our
His historic election cam e as a
dem ocracy, and to live in peace; a
direct result o f the success of, and his
day to rem em ber those who have
role in, Jesse Ja ck so n ’s 1988 Presi­
m ade a difference
dential Campaign.
In the true spirit o f April 4th, R ev­
Ron Brown oversaw our National
erend Jackson spent the pre-daw n
Convention operations in Atlanta that
hours Thursday rallying the mostly
July, helped negotiate a united D em ­
female, m ostly African A m erican,
ocratic Party that left the convention
very underpaid w orkers at a poultry
with a 17% lead, and insisted that
plant in rural N.C, as they prepared to
R everend Jackson had earned the
vote in a union election.
prim e-tim e nationw ide speech that
T his year, April 4th carries an
riveted 50 mill ion A m ericansto their
even heavier burden, with the sad
television sets.
and prem ature death o f Ron Brown
(I would also proudly note that along
We will not forget him, especially
with current White House Deputy Chief
Brown Is A Color
In Our Rainbow
■ -
o f Staff Harold Ickes, Ron Brown
helped us win the fight for proportion­
al representation above 15% that we
had waged for years. That change in
the delegate selection rules has pro­
duced the two least fictionalized, least
bitter primary fights in the party’s re­
cent h isto ry -a result directly opposite
o f the conventional w isd o m ]
In the fall o f 19 8 8 ,1 found m yself
one o f the lucky few brought togeth­
er to map out Ron B ro w n ’s cam paign
for party chair. By uniting the Jack-
son and Kennedy w ings o f the D em ­
ocratic Party, along w ith organized
labor and despite both vocal and
covert opposition, w e were able to
system atically drive 4 other o p p o ­
nents out o f the race.
By the tim e the votes were cast,
the “ unthinkable” had becom e the
"inevitable”—and Ron was elected
C hair o f A m erica’s oldest political
party by acclam ation
DNC Chair Brown proved much
more
than - a - / symbol.
literally
------------
- v v . . He .iiw
m i; is re-
-
built a dispirited Democratic Party
Ron brought in Paul Tully to reinvent
Coordinated Campaigns; he raised
more money than ever; he opened up
the Democratic Party to all its constit­
uencies; he carried the torch for the
party when G eorge B ush's ratings
soared above 90%; he travelled end­
lessly for the party. bu i Id ing a structure
that helped elect Dinkins in New York.
W ilder in Virginia, Rice in Seattle (all
candidacies built upon the foundation
o f Jesse Jackson ’s 2 Presidential rac­
es!); and finally, he led the party to
victory at all levels in 1 1/92—bringing
an overdue end to the Reagan Bush
Era. This will be Ron Brow n’s legacy.
R on w as R e v e re n d J a c k s o n 's
frie n d ; h e w as my frie n d ; he w as
th e R a in b o w ’s frie n d A n d his
v ic to rie s w o u ld h av e b ee n im ­
p o s s ib le , w ith o u t th e sw ea t o f
J e s s e J a c k s o n an d th e N R C .
We will m iss him. Brown is a
color in our Rainbow . Today our
sw eat has turned to tears.
[O ther notes, in a day o f eulogies:
we note with sadness the passing o f
C lev elan d ’s first A frican-A m erican
M ayor, C arl Stokes, w ho won a
g ro u n d -b reak in g victory in 1967
(Rev. Jackson will speak at M ayor
S tokes' service M onday ); an untim e­
ly car crash in South A frica, Which
took the life o f H ayw ood Burns, dis­
tinguished law school dean and free­
dom fighter; and the death o f our
friend Bill M orton, form er aide to
Rev. Jackson, w ho also died in the
plane crash that took the life o f Ron
Brown. They all served our people,
aiiu
e ir ] fam ilies well. 1
and we
we wisn
wish in their
Civil Rights Journal: Burying Racism
V LI I J I ackson
4 / 1Z A.’ K.'
m B ernice P owell
t \
m a
ill
K e hear the stories of how
racism Is a thing of the
past. We see the inter­
views with those who write books
based on that premise. We hear
th e sto ries of th e C laren ce
Thomases and Ward Connerlys
who say they have never experi­
enced racism. But too often we
don’t hear the stories like that of
iX
i
I
■
V A / ■ — * — .
X ■ ««
Jam ie W irem an and Jeffrey
Johnson and their baby, Whitney.
Jam ie W irem an is a 18 year-old
w hite w om an in love with a young
b la ck m an, Je ffre y Jo h n so n , in
Ihom asville, GA. Last month their
baby, W hitney, was b om incom plete
and not fully form ed. She lived only
19 hours. “G od let her live long
enough so that I could hold her I
w o u ld n ’t take a m illion dollars for
a
a
I
that tim e,” said Ms. W irem an in a
N ew York Tim es interview .
But the death o f their baby was
only part o f the nightm are for Ms
W irem an and Mr. Johnson. The ba­
b y ’s m other w anted W hitney buried
next to her grandfather so she would
have com pany. But three days after
her burial, the deacons o f the church
found out that W hitney’s father is
black. They asked the parents to move
■
W H ILE Y O U 'R E TRYING TO
F IN D THE R IG H T W O R D S, YOUR FRIEND
MAY BE T R Y IN G TO STAY A L IV E .
W hitney’s body for their all-white
cemetery.
Segregated cem eteries are still a
way o f life in som e parts of Am erica
it seems. Not only can we still not live
together, we still cannot die together.
Many N ortherners areoften surprised
to hear that segregation follow ed A f­
rican A m ericans after death In most
instances that has changed But little
W hitney Johnson, who lived less than
one day, show s us that racism is still
alive and well in cem eteries and in
churches in this country.
W hen my father died in the N a­
tio n 's C apital in 1956, he was buried
in the all-black Lincoln M em orial
Cem etery, w hich was all the way
across town from w here we lived.
A cross the street from Lincoln was a
w hite cem etery and as a child I re­
m em ber looking at its little brook
with the picturesque bridge going
over it as we entered our very plain
cemetery.
It was nearly tw enty years later
before the cem etery nearest my house
in W ashington began to bury black
fo lk s . L ik e th e c e m e te r y in
T hom asville, it, too, was a church
cem etery.
A fter the storm o f condem nation
that follow ed the d ea co n s’ decision
to ask the fam ily to rem ove little
W hitney’s body, they relented and
let her stay. A nd after the b aby’s
grandm other insisted, they even apol­
ogized to the parents. “ I w anted them
to adm it what they did and say they
w ere sorry for it,” she explained.
U nfortunately, this story does not
stop there. The deacons now have
told the young parents that they were
living in sin and that their baby w as a
product o f that sin. But, when the
parents asked to be m arried in their
church, the deacons refused. M aybe
W ard C onnerly, the w ealthy ally o f
G overnor Pete W ilson o fC alifo rn ia
and the sponsor o f the C alifornia
Civil Rights Initiative to end affirm a­
tive action, has never experienced
racism . But W hitney Johnson, who
only lived 19 hours, did and so do her
parents.
b e tte r
e r s p e c l I res
Community Overwhelmed By
Extent Of School Problems
m P rof . M< kinlev B i
ri
cussed, o f course, are the highly
he Oregon Education
em otional issues centering around
Association has sug
pay scales, seniority and m erit pay,
gested that our ‘prob­
classroom size, state-w ide equal­
lems’ may very well be “The
ization o f funding/local options and
M a n u fa c tu re d C r is is .” The
even the less-heated argum ents cen ­
March, 1 9 9 6 issue of its month­
tering around the ‘risk ’ o f im m uni­
ly publication featured support­
zation -- and escalations o f the use
ing quotes from the coauthor of
o f the drug Ritalin to “quiet the
a book by that title (David C.
unruly.”
B erliner, A ddlslon, W esley,
Funding, o f course, is the m ost
1 9 9 5 ).
im m ediate problem , granting that it
And the sam e article abstracts
has been a perennial structural fail­
the follow ing portentous advise­
ure o f local, state and m ost national
ment from a feature story appearing
education system s for ages. N ext
in the M arch, 1966 issue o f B etter
week we will exam ine som e o f the
Homes and G ardens M agazine.
many proposals being offered as
"T he G ood new s A bout O u r
solutions for a very vexing prob­
Schools - S chool-bashing is a p o p ­
lem, an adequate, stable and afford­
ular Pastime, but A m ericans are
able support system. In the interim
being misled. It’s tim e to set the
I will indulge m yself in the follow ­
record straight.”
ing com m entary,
B ut P o rtla n d
given that there
(a n d
O re g o n )
are th o se w ho]
b " r
By
Teachers, pupils,
would rather n o t|
Professor
parents and tax­
know.
payers all seem o f
W
c V Mcklnley
It h a s b een ]
Burt
the opinion that
p
e
rs
o n s o f an
1
s o m e th in g ‘ is ’
....
........ ‘A frican persua­
wrong with the educational system
sio n ’ w ho have pioneered well-
and they will be “dam m ed if it's
structured educational p ro cesses)
m anufactured’.” Last w eek I point­
throughout history. N ational G eo­
ed out some critical concerns, “ M e­
graphic M agazine has detailed that
dia Reports Indicate P o rtlan d ’s E d­
4000 years ago the Africans in Egypt
ucation System Ready For T riage"
had set up “endow m ent funds to |
(an em ergency m edical system for
support the many tem ple schools.
m axim izing disaster survivors).
Farm ers and orchardists w ere as­
And it was in this colum n that I
sessed each year fo ra fixed percent­
reported the rather urgent tone o f
age o f the agricultural bounty. The |
the recent G o v ern o r’s E ducation
records left, etched in stone detail
Summit, “ led by the C E O o f the
the efficient educational process that
IBM C orporation w ho paraphrased
produced the erudition at which
the very same “ basic-skills-deficien-
Plato and other G reeks w ere to |
c ie s’ I have cited tim e and again.”
m arvel; stability over m illennium s,
As a group o f concerned teachers
not ju st year-to-year.
rem arked to me, “Som e o f our g lo ­
A nd th en , o f co u rse , it w a s|
rious leaders seem to have adopted
S hakespeare’s jet-black conquering,
that Humpty D um pty’ logic you
A rabic-speaking M oors w hose uni­
have often written about (things are
versities in Africa and Europe re­
w hat I say they are).”
stored learning in the W estern W orld I
The sad spectacle does m ake it
and rescued Europe from its "D ark
seem as though our school system
A ges". And then in A m erica, we
has been transform ed into a Lewis
find that contrary to the m ovie “ Birth
Carroll fairytale. The teacher o rga­
O f A N ation”, the C ongressional
nizations and the industry/hum an
record show s that intelligent an d j
resource people are poles apart in
well educated black congressm en
their evaluations o f the graduates
- n o t o n ly p a te n te d th e ir m any J
who seek to enter the w orkforce;
in v e n tio n s an d p ro m o te d in d u s ­
"just what is it they know and how
tria l fa irs - b u t in tro d u c e d the |
well do they know it? - and beyond
first fe d e ra l le g is la tio n to s u p ­
that, isn 't there som ething else they
p o r t a n d s t a b i l i z e e d u c a tio n ]
should know ?”
( 1 8 7 0 ’s S e n a to r B la n c h e K.
The most reported and m ost dis­
B ru c e ).
ilr t JJ.lortIatth (Obsernrr
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