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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1997)
. r^rsh; FV Volume XXVII, Number 37 ¿ a a .» ' : * • * * M* -'• * * fcÄ ¿ ¿ iO 2 » / Ä > fc. * * *w t S c its 1 Ä 3 ® ^® * A .4 . ?*r* âæfeaü s ‘•AU SEP I . IO. 1907 Committed to cultural diversity. ri i <ETIjc F o rtia n i) (©bseruer HriMtmM College empowers area n nt m u n i t o a I e u it a r Pond builder featured Jeffrey Reid, author of How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls, will present a lec ture and slide show at the Japanese G ar den on Sunday, Sept. 14 from I p.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free with admission to the garden which is $5 for adults and $2.50 for seniors. PCC Cascade job information fair not just for students Defense theater Witness This, a dynamic theater per formance about domestic violence and self-defense will be performed every Saturday in September at 11 a.m. and I p.m. at the corner of North Albina and Ainsworth, across from Peninsula Park. The realistic violence will be portrayed by the Portland group Hip Chicks and Activists. Y March supports youth A march to celebrate children who are "doing the right thing” will be held Satur day, Sept. 20, beginning at the Urban League of Portland. 10 N. Russell St. at 8:30 a.m. and heading north to Jefferson High School. Call 280-2600 to register and show support for the children of today and the youth of our future. New Max train cars pressed into service A Max train made up of two new low-floor cars pulls into the new Kings Hill/Salmon Street Station at Southwest 18th Avenue and Salmon. Next week, more than a dozen o f the new cars will be pressed into service on Max's eastbound Gresham line to carry commuters rerouted by the repair o f the 1-5 bridge. Sport safety help Red Cross will offer sport safety train ing to help you provide a sale environ ment for athletes participating in sports will be held Monday and Wednesday, Sept. 15 and 17 at the American Red Cross, 3131 N. Vancouver. Call 280- 1440 for more information. Quality of life grants awarded ix north/northeast Portland orga Talton said the goal is to build a minimum nizations will share a $29.(X)0 do of 27 raised bed gardens to provide families nation from Pacific Power to im with a sustainable source of nutritious food. prove the quality of life in the utility's ser Martin Luther King Junior Elementary's vice area. Early Education Center received $1,000 to Pacific Power general business manager help fund a summer school for I 15 students Carl Talton announced the grants on behalf w ho need assistance in reading, w riting, math, of the company's PacifiCorp Foundation. leadership and self-esteem skills. The Portland Home Garden Project re The YMCA of the Columbia-Will amette ceived $2,500 to help fund vegetable gar received $ I .(XX) to support the B kick Achiev dens for the low-income neighborhoods of ers program in north/northeast Portland. Portland. Two grants to the YWCA of Portland: S Cosmetic surgery explained Autumn Accent, a free seminar focus ing on cosmetic and reconstructive sur gery will be held in the main auditorium at Woodland Park Hospital, Saturday. Sept. 13 from I p.m. to 3:30 p.m. You are asked to pre-register by cal ling 257-5588. Student show at IFCC Traditional African symbols are enliv ened with brilliant color in the student artworks of the Black Educational Center on display this month at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N. In terstate. P City council members and Multnomah County commissioners will discuss their jobs and answer questions during a 10 week series sponsored by the Older Adult Services and Information System at the downtown Meier & Frank store. The free lectures begin Friday, Sept. 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30. Pre-registration by phone at 241-3059 guarantees seating. Writing for veterans Writing war stories, a beginning cre ative writing class designed for men and women veterans will, be offered on Tues days evenings this fall at Mt. Hood Com munity College. The course will teach veterans of World War II, Korea, Viet nam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Somalia and Bosnia to capture their ex periences for personal or historical pur poses. Call 669-6679 for more informa tion. House plant show An unusual house plant show and sale takes place Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Mall 205 Shopping Center. See begonias of all kinds, African violet relatives and Afri can violets, orchids and other rare and unusual plants. SI B M IS S IO V S : C om m unity ( aleudar in fo rm a tio n w ill be given p rio rity i f received two weeks before the event dale. Led by Keith Terry, a percussionist/ rhythm dancer, Crosspulse is a group o f five percussionists who move and sing. erformers drawing on their own multicultural backgrounds w ill per form a dazzling drum repertoire, Friday, Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m in the Evans Auditorium at Lewis & Clark College. National Public Radio calls Crosspulse, a Berkeley-based percussion quintet, "a crossing of cultures, a blurring of bound aries and at its most sensitive, most hu manistic and most magical." Part international drill team, par, polycultural rhythm section, the ensemble brings together synchronized movement, world drumming and innovative body music. Human side of politics Guild shows art $ 11.000 to help renovate and expand Camp Westwind on the Oregon coast. A second grant of $2,000 will assist in funding the Y W CA 'sTransitional School transportation program for homeless children, preschool through eighth grade. P o rtla n d C e n te r Stage has receiv ed a general grant o f $12.500 w hich will be used to p ro v id e tic k e ts for stu d e n ts from sch o o ls in n o rth /n o rth e a st P o rt land to attend p e rfo rm a n c es produced by C e n te r Stage. A crossing of cultures f A fine art show and sale, presented by the North Clackamas Arts Guild, will be held Sept. 19-21 at the Milwaukie Cen ter, 5440 S.E Kellogg Creek Drive. Meet the artists and enjoy refreshments served as over 200 original art works go on display. o u'll see the balloons, the tables with brochures, the job applica tions. But the Cascade Community Career & Job Information Fair at Portland Com m u nity C ollege's Cascade Campus on W ednes day, Oct. I. will be a little bit different. “People are not obligated to look for work," said Ed Joseph, workforce develop ment representative at PCC Cascade Skills Center. Instead, the emphasis is on information and inviting the Northeast Portland Com munity on campus. “It's a win-win situation. It’s not just for the students. It’s not just for the companies. We want to empower this community — econom y-w ise, com puter literacy-w ise, computer literacy-wise. So the Northeast community knows that the urban campus is user-friendly, and Cascade Campus is part of the com m unity,” said Joseph, who also works as a counselor and community liai son. M ore than 80 em ployers — such as Fujitsu, Nike, the Oregon Lottery, Standard Insurance and Blue Cross -- will join hun dreds of eligible students, graduates and community members on Borthwick Mall to hear keynote speakers and music, as well as to share information about the career paths and opportunities at their organizations. The Cascade Community Career & Job Information Fair will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at PCC's Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St. For more information, contact Ed Joseph at 978-5343. The Triple Nickles: The Rest Of The Story Oregon’s Black Smoke Jumpers Bv P rof . M c K ini . ky B ijrt I < ’’"5 unday. Sept 10, the Oregonian Newspaper featured a story. "Re- K - X union H onors Black A irborne Unit,” (p.CIO). The account was of an all African American parachute battalion based at Pendleton, Oregon, the 555th. or “Triple Nickles" as they were known in World War II. The hazard o u s duty of these c o u ra geous in fantry men was to parachute in to b u r n in g f o r e s ts o r to fin d unexploded ja p a n e se balloon bom bs and d isp o se of them . And. of co u rse, their jo b req uired them to fight naturally - cau sed fires as well A U.S. F orest S e r vice sp okesm an is quoted. “ In 1945. they helped save m illions o f acres of N orthw est fo re sts from fires ignited by lighting and balloon bombs.” I first became aware of th is missing saga of black history in 1975 while making pre sentations for the Northwest Multicultural I Programs contracted by the U.S. Forest Ser vice After returning Io my instructor-base at Portland State University following a ses sion at Smith River California (just over the Oregon border), I got a package from the Forest Ranger at Cave Junction. Oregon He said that he had been very impressed with my interesting accounts of hitherto unknown contributions by African Ameri cans - and believed that the enclosed mate rials would further the appreciation of their role m building and preserving America. O f principal interest was news item and photo graph in a faded issue of the Cave Junction Times around August 1945, 30 years ear lier. A full score ol black smoke jumpers were depicted in various states of their opera tions. This was the first time that I or any ol my associates had ever heard of this role played by black Americans We. and every one else had been made aware of the smoke- jumping exploits of the Zuni Indians from Arizona - but by African Americans, never! Som e su b se q u e n t in v e stig a tio n s of m ine rev ealed a re c u rrin g p attern in resp ect to W estw ard black m ig ra tio n . Just as early on as a youth w o rk in g on the railro ad I found several black w heat farm ers in W estern Idaho w hose g ra n d fathers had been p u llm an p o rte rs at the turn o f the c e n tu ry and b e c a m e e n ch an ted w ith the b e a u tifu l land along the railro ad -- I found that som e o f the 555th black p a ra c h u te b a tta lio n had r e turned to the N orthw est a fte r the war. S o m e s p r e a d in g fa ra fic ld fro m P en dleton. O regon, e sta b lish in g hom es, b u sin esses and farm s. It was quite a coincidence that in 1977 while again making a multicultural presenta tion at a U.S Forest Service workshop - Spokane. Washington - I met the son of an original 555th paratrooper who established a Ford repair shop in the city. The son had been a helicopter pilot in the Air Force and now owned his own helicopter service, con tracting with the Forest Service and the Sugar Beet Growers to spray pesticides. Beginning with one helicopter, put to gether from several makes bought at a sur plus outlet in Los Angeles and hauled back to Spokane on a ‘sem i’, he now owned 3 copters and had 4 em ployees He had three children, all very bright and mannerable, but the mother had been lost in a tragic accident when the anesthesia apparatus exploded dur ing a routine operation. I have not given the name of the family because I can n o t lo c a te the p a rtic u la r n o te s, but I w ill su b se q u e n tly . T he son, too. w as k illed in a tra g ic a c c id e n t w hen his h e lic o p te r c ra sh e d w hile sp ray in g su g ar b eets in the e a rly 1 9 8 0 's. I n c l o s ing, I w ould rem ark here that o v er the y e a rs F o re st S e rv ic e p e rso n n e l p r o vided m uch new and valuable information about African American pioneers, innova tors and inventors of the Northwest. 1
