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Volume XXVII, Number 37
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Committed to cultural diversity.
ri i
<ETIjc F o rtia n i) (©bseruer
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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.
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