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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 9, 2016)
Page 2 The Skanner March 9, 2016 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Where is the Madam C.J. Walker of Today? Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor W Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Arashi Young Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2015 MERIT AWARDS WINNER The Skanner has received 20 NNPA awards since 1998 The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2016 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar RSS feeds BE A PART OF THE CONVERSATION #SkNews omen entrepreneurs have a powerful role model when they consider Madam C.J. Walker. One of our nation’s first female self-made million- aires, her story of combining herbs to develop and manu- facture a hair pomade, of em- powering tens of thousands of women as sales agents for her products, and of estab- lishing a beauty school to teach beauty techniques (and provide economic empower- ment for even more women) are the stuff of legend. She was not only an entre- preneur, but also a philan- thropist. She “lived large,” owning two cars and a sprawl- ing estate, Villa Lewaro in Ir- vington, New York, but she shared her wealth. She was possessed with an amazing self-confidence that served her well in business and in life. Madam — as she is called by her great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles, the keeper of the family history and author of several books about her ancestor — was a character! She changed her name from Sarah Breedlove to Madam C.J. Walker to provide herself with a “classier” sounding name, and to help prevent white people from calling her “Aunt”, as they called so many African American women. Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist For years, she sought the opportunity to speak at Book- er T. Washington’s National Business League, but was de- nied. As legend goes, she went to one of the meetings and took the mic and made her speech, despite official denial. Perhaps Booker T. Washing- “ moted herself from a washer- woman to a businesswoman, speaking to the fact that few were available to help her to achieve her goals and the goals of tens of thousands of other women. Her audacity, her self-pos- session, her activism were no- table during a time when few women, regardless of race, promoted themselves, instead choosing to walk softly and speak quietly. Today, women like Cathy Liggons Hughes (TV/Radio One), Sheila John- son (co-founder of BET), and Oprah Winfrey stand on her times. You may have heard that there has been an eco- nomic recovery, but if you are like most people in these Unit- ed States, you haven’t felt it. Incomes have hardly risen since 2009, and barriers to employment entry are high, especially for some young Af- rican Americans who, despite similar qualifications to their White counterparts, take much longer to find meaning- ful and remunerative work. If the labor market won’t absorb these young people, African American entrepre- neurs, the inheritors of Mad- am C.J. Walker, must. Younger women, es- pecially, are motivated by job markets that they perceive to be unwel- coming. While our col- leges teach some edu- cational fundamentals, they ought also be encouraged to teach entrepreneurship. If the job market contin- ues to generate an official Black unemployment rate of around 10 percent, and an employment population ratio of 60 percent (which means that just 60 percent of the adult population is work- ing – it is closer to 70 percent for whites, then the need for Black entrepreneurs is criti- cal. In the name of Madam C.J. Walker, let’s keep our entre- preneurial gene thriving! As legend goes, she went to one of the meetings and took the mic and made her speech, despite official denial ton was being sexist, or per- haps (it is sometimes said) he had an ideological opposition to a woman whose product was perceived as straighten- ing hair. (By the way, Walker did not invent the straighten- ing comb. Annie Malone, who preceded Madam Walker in making her fortune with beauty products and a beauty school that Walker attended, invented the straightening comb.) Still, she had the audacity to take the mic and say her piece. She noted that she had pro- shoulders. And today, in time for Wom- en’s History Month, Madam C.J. Walker’s products are making a comeback. Her historic formulas have been modified for contemporary use, with four formulas made available based on hair tex- ture. A’lelia Bundles has been supportive of the line which, as of March 4, is exclusively available at the Sephora cos- metics stores. The Madam C.J. Walker story takes on a special sig- nificance in these economic What I Learned from the Rise and Fall of the Black Panthers W hen Beyoncé gave tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the start of the Black Panther Movement, I thought, “She doesn’t know what she is celebrating.” A look back at the years of the Black Panthers demands attention to other groups who equally tried to force this na- tion into equal rights for all — especially Blacks. America was about to change one way or the other. In the late 1960s, the an- ti-war movement, frustration with discrimination and lost faith in our political system caused many groups to form. Groups that were anti-es- tablishment. One particular Black group was formed in Oakland, California. It was the Black Panther People’s Party then shortly changed to the Black Panther Party. Its foundation was to follow socialist/Marxist doc- trine and to protect and gov- ern their own communities. They carried weapons, called police “pigs,” wore black leather jackets with black be- rets fitted over their afro and promoted revolution. Violent skirmishes with the police started becoming frequent as their chapters started popping up in cities Harry C. Alford NNPA Columnist throughout the United States. Some members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) decided to become violent and join the Panthers. Most notably Stoke- “ full hour. Two years later ev- eryone else was sporting one, and so was I. I even bought a black leather coat. What I didn’t know was that Gwen had joined the Black Panthers. A couple of years later, while I was at the University of Wisconsin, my mother sent me a local news article. Gwen, who was going to the University of Califor- nia at Santa Barbara, joined a fellow Black Panther and hijacked a commercial jet tak- Violent skirmishes with the police started becoming frequent as their chapters started popping up in cit- ies throughout the United States ly Carmichael (author of the term Black Power) and H. Rap Brown. I was going to Ventura Community College near my hometown of Oxnard, Cali- fornia. Suddenly, members of the Black Panther Party — Los Angeles Chapter came on our campus to recruit Black students into the movement. Amazingly, they succeeded. Gwen Harvey, fellow student, was the first in our commu- nity to grow a “natural” or Afro. I laughed at her for a ing off from the Santa Barbara airport. They commandeered it to Havana, Cuba where they refueled and then flew across the Atlantic Ocean to land in Algeria. Algeria greeted them with open arms and allowed a new chapter of the Black Panthers to be formed there. The nation even funded them. That is where Gwen spent the rest of her days. She died of natural causes a decade or so later. The FBI went to “war” with the Panthers. In her autobi- ography, Elaine Brown clear- ly discusses the adventures and soon deterioration of the Panthers through J. Edgar Hoover’s infamous COINTEL- PRO investigations and assas- sinations. If you want to know about life with the Panthers and how vicious a nation can be, this is a must-read. While I was attending the University of Wisconsin, I had the opportunity to meet and quickly chat with Fred Hampton, who ran the Chica- go’s Black Panther chapter. He gave a rousing speech at an event sponsored by a White communist organiza- tion – Students for a Demo- cratic Society (SDS). My buddy and I were so in- trigued we decided to drive to Chicago, go to his headquar- ters and request an on the spot interview and then write a paper for one of our pro- fessors. Fred took us in! The brother had the makings of a great leader. A few weeks later the Chi- cago Police Department as- sassinated him via a couple of dozen bullets as he laid in his bed beside wife, who was eight months pregnant. It was devastating! It was a hard lesson for me. Fight the power, but remember the power follows no morals.
