Portland Challenger_1953-04-03

SEATTL~ Negro golfers fi– nally get opportunity to com– pete against an open field. Read results of the first municipal– backed "wide open" golf tour– nament in this large Northwest city on page two of the Port– land Challenger. It's another first in our expanding news coverage. Organizer TellsYouth To Activate Miss Claire Johnson, regional youth chairman of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, urged Oregon youth to support the civil rights measure now before Oregon leg– islators in a speech here last Fri– day at the Central library. The University of California graduate student told the Port– land NAACP Youth Council to "unite yourselves and make your voice heard along with that of your parents." Miss Johnson told the group of young people to take advanatge of educational opportunities while in high school and to get ade– quate high school counseling. She cautioned them against passing up "hard" subjects. "Don't be fooled; you are not getting away with anything," said the youth or– ganizer. Urges FEP Use Noting that Oregon had an FEP law, fair employment prac– tice, Miss Johnson urged the Ore– gon youths to use it. "Before you complain, be sure you can deliver the goods," she cautioned. Vol. L No. 25 Portland, Oregon, Friday, April 3, 1953 MISS CLAIRE JOHNSON Spea·ks to youth Portland Girl Receives Degree Miss Edythe Earline Minor graduated from the University of Washington School of Nursing Race Bios Culled Evil By Hatfield BY J. HAROLD JONES II At a legislative conference sponsored by the Oregon State Farmers Union held in Salem last Saturday, Mark 0. Hatfield, youthful representative from Ma– rion county who is chairman of the Committee of State and Fed– erald Affairs, told those present that discrimination based upon race, creed, color or national ori– gin is evil and vicwus. Hatfield, who is also dean of men and professor of political science at Willamette university, was speaking on the necessity of rewriting the Oregon Constitu– tion. He indicated that the voters cannot instruct the Constitutional convenion as .to the specific laws that should be included from the Friday, March 20. Miss Minor is existing constitution. a graduate of Washington high school in Portland and is a mem- International Relations Hurt 1 ber of the Army Nurse corps re- He commented on the civil serves. rights bill which is now before Present at the graduation cere- the legislators of Oregon, SB 169, monies, held at King county's in reply to an invitation from Harbor View hospital, were her Richard Moeller, president of the parents, Mr. and Mrs. John union and chairman of the confer– Minor; her grandmother, Mrs. ence. Gaskin; cousins, Janet and Robert Miss Johnson said that in order Fuller; aunt and uncle, Mr. and for the Youth Council to be ef- Mrs. Julian Henson; and friends, fective in working for racial un- Mr. and Mrs. Haskell Campbell, derstanding, other groups must Melvin Ward and Mrs. Hattie PRICE 10 CENTS Two problems licked Illness Fatal To 'Sneaky Pete' Richard Davis, 55, died sud– dently at his home, 212 NE Rus– sell, March 8. The cause of' death was undetermined. Familiar to friends as t e hap– py-go-lucky fellow always ready with an act to make someone laugh and known more r~adily as "Sneaky Pete," Davis came home Saturday evening, Mar<fh 7, and complained of a severe (headache to his next door neighbpr, James Brown, 218 NE Russel~ street. When Ester Gibbs, a roomer at 212 NE Russell strc ' r· •, rned home early Sunday mqrning, she found Davis in bed in a coma. He was taken to Eman,uel hospi– tal where he was dead on arrival. be brought into their program. Holliday. She encouraged the youths to ex- Late Bulletin! h l d 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 1 In pointing to the necessity for the passage of a civil rights bill in Oregon, Hatfield said that ra– cial discrimination is a breeding ground for communism and a de– terent in better international re– lations. pose t erose ves an become thor- Committee hearing on the oughly familiar with the different we Can Sell It There \(rere 47 organizations civil rights bill will be held people of our society. represented at the conference. Tuesday, it was announced Miss Johnson conducted a For quick. satisfactory results Representatives of· the Portland Thursday morning by Edwin why not use the Portland Chal- b h f th N t" 1 A · B workshop Saturday on youth or- ranc o e a wna ssoc1a- erry. Ienger classified ad column. We t " f th Ad t f C I All · t t d ganizations in the Library hall. wn or e vancemen o o - m eres e per.·ons are Grover camp be 11, NAACP can sell it for you! ored People were Miss Ruth sincerely urged to wri :e letters youth group president, presided _i111_111_111'_.111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_111_1111_1111_111_,1 '-H_a_e_f_fn_e_r_an_d_J_._H_a_r_o_ld_J_o_n_e_s_I_I_._t_o_m_e_mb __ e_rs_o_f_t_h_e_h_c_u_s..:..e_n_o:..w;.;..:.._. over the meeting. It was directed by Robert Herndon, youth chair– man. Meeting Slated By Urban League April 12 is the date set for the annual meeting of the Urban league of Portland. The meeting will begin at 3 o'clock in the au– ditorium of Benson high school, with an estimattion of 2,000 being present. The theme "Accent on Youth" will be approached through a panel discussion lead by six col– lege students representing Maryl– hurst, Portland State, University of Portland, Reed and Lewis and Clark college. Gary Ring, student body presi– dent of Benson high school, will give the welcoming address fol– lowed by Richard Bogle presiding over the panel. The team will discuss how youth looks at democracy. To further stimulate the discussion, two college foreign students will tell how America looks through foreign eyes. A TV set, which is to be given to the person or organization with the largest new membership ros– ter over 25, will be displayed at the meeting. Refusal of Sea Hag to Serve Negro Brings Interference From Policeman An American citizen by birth, Benny Webb, 7516 NE Everett street, walked into the Sea Hag tavern, 2401 NE Union avenue, recently and was refused service on the premises by the barmaid in what seemed like another case of racial prejudice. The incident turned out to be more than just a racial one to Webb, however, when he returned home to find that an anonymous caller had told his father over the phone that "he had over– stepped his bounds and would be dead within 48 hours." Webb related this story to the Portland Challenger. He and a: friend, Pat Patterson, walked into the tavern shortly before 10:30 p.m. and asked for service. The barmaid told him that she could give them drinks to take out but couldn't serve them at the bar. Man Interferes According to Webb, a stocky man sitting near them, apparently a patron, immediately entered the conversation and, placing what looked to Webb like a police badge on the counter, using good English but talking forcibly, said, ''You heard her, only to go." Ignoring the intruder, Webb at– tempted to continue his conversa– tion with the woman, inquiring as to why he and Patterson were refused service, but the man walked toward him and demand– ed his identity. Webb said he gave the man one of his business cards, but when he attemptE>d to get a better look at the badge the man replaced it in his pocket and refused to iden– tify himself. The unidentified man asked Webb and Patterson if they were from the Urban league and con– tinued to take the conversation from the barmaid. When he agaln started toward the two they left the tavern without seeing the manager as to the reason they were denied service. Phone Call Made Webb claims that he and his companion talked in front of the tavern for about ten minutes. The call to his home came at 10:40 the same night and, according to Webb, no one in the tavern knew of his identity except the fellow who took his card. The following day the incident was reported to Capt. Eugene Ferguson of the pol~·e depart– ment and Webb was .old to re– turn within a week to see what disposition had been made of his complaint. On returning to the police sta– tion a week later, Webb was told by Capt. Ferguson that they had located the man that interfered in his conversation with the wom– an at the tavern and that he was a detective on the Port:.and police force, alledges Webb, but said the detective denied m2'king the phone call. Webb Puzzled Webb says that he was told the incident had been placed in the personal records of the ', police of– ficer involved and that the of– ficer had been reprimanded. ,Webb said the captain also mentioned that the same officer had been involved in a similar incident last fall. Webb accepted the captain's apparent investigation of the case but is at a loss to ur derstand the actions of the detertive, actions not normally expect€ 1 in the true line of duty, in handling such an incident. CIVIL rights legislation in Oregon is having rough going. Every citizen can support this measure in some way. Letters should be written to the rep– resentatives in Salem urging their support of Senate Bill 169. Read late civil rights develop– ments on page two of your Portland Challenger. J. Th OS AddrtOsses Loc UL Julius A. Thomas, director of industrial relations for the Na– tional Urban league, told the Ur– ban league of Portland Thursday mgr.t at their meeting in the YWCA that "we have licked two of our toughest problems." Thomas stated that the first problem was the idea that Ne– groes and whites could not be placed at the same job level with– out creating race trouble. The second problem licked had to do with the idea that skill and race are related. Thomas reported that the Na– tional Urban league's commerce and industry council has done much to improve the lot of Ne– gro workers. This council works on the people who make policy in industry. The council listed 30 men, a cross section of industry and business, and went to work on them. At first it wasn't too easy, for the businessmen didn't want to associate themselves with the Urban league. But finally the council got these businessmen to agree that this is a national, not a Negro problem Thomas said that now the Ur– ban league is doing day-to-day programming with some 150 ma– jor corporations, making studies of plant management. He warned that Utopia for the Negro work– er is not just aroupd the corner and that no one can estimate the effect which could arise if de– fense spending is cut back. I He stated that with all the technological a d v a n c e s being made the Negro ooes not have the technical knowledge needed in industry today. To illustrate his point he said that out of the 26,- 000 engineers who will be gradu– ated from colleges and universi– ties this June, only 110 will be Negroes. On the sunnier side he said that Kentucky graduated a Negro, the first to get a degree from an accredited engineering school in the south. - .... .__,.. __ ,...........