Clarion Defender_1968-02-01

OLtVfe'~ fttklfttSf Oliver is in Seattle, Washington on vacation. Watch for his exciting, revealing column on prostitution February the 15th. Commentary I Am Black America Hilburn I am as old as the nation. I was born in 1492, reared thro~gh slavery and reborn in 1865. The blood lines of the world run in my veins, not because I wanted it, but because I have always . been able to adjust, no matter the circumstances. I am many things, many people, and many colors. I am black, brown, beige, and white. I am 25 million souls on the record, but closer to 35 million as a matter of fact. I am Crispus Attucks, but I am also a black Pharoah named Karnes. I am Clitus, black commander of Alexander the Great's cavalry at the Battle of Arbela. I am the three wise men: Gaspard, king of Ethiopia; Melchior, king of Nubia; and Balthazar, king of Saba. Yes, I am Pedro Alonso Nino, pilot of one of ColumbQs' three ships. I was with Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean. I blazed the trails west and dis– covered two areas now known as t-1estern states. I am William Tucker, first recorded American born black man. I am the creator of The Three Musketeers. I am not always passive, but I believe in freedom. My blood, as red as any, stains crimson battlefields of the world in mute testimony to my willingness to give the last full measure for my belief. I led a slave revolt in New York City in 1712. I led another slave revolt in 1800 in Virginia. I am Denmark Vessey fighting for freedom in Charleston, S.C., in 1821: I am Nat Turner racing through the fields in 1831. I am proud to say I was the famed Black Division on Sept. 29, 1864. We were on New Market Rd. leading into Richmond, Va., where General Butler ordered us to take a Confederate-held hill. I am one among the 16 black Americans \<Tho won the Congressional Medal of Honor before 1900. I am P.B.S. Pinchback, governor of Louisiana, Blanch Kelso and Hiram Revels, black U. S. Senators from the state of Mississippi. I am Norris Wright Cuney, candidate for mayor of Galveston, Texas, in 1870. I am the famed Buffalo Division of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., the 99th Pursuit Squadron of Tuskegee, Ala. I am Booker T. Washington, ~George Washington Carver and Brig. General Benjamin 0. Davis. I am Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Hilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Bill Russell, Kenny Washington, Marion Motley, Big Daddy Lipscomb, Jim Brown. I am the cream of the athletic world. I am Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr., and Sidney Poitier. I am a nation within a nation. You can look at me and see Dorie M'iller at Pearl Harbor, Ralph Bt!nche at the United Nations, Carl Stokes in Cleveland's city hall, and Edward Brooke in the United States Senate. I am the dishwasher, bootblack, cotton picker, bus driver, schoolteacher, scientist, forest ranger, architectural draftsman, and the astronaut. Yet, I am the invisible American. Wherever you look, I am there; yet, few ever really see me, I am the mournful voice of the dispossessed. I am the American hybrid. I am the only American that other Americans expect to be silent and wary, politic and sly. I am expected to be pleasant, endure petty insults with a smile, shut my eyes to all wrongs against my people. I am expected to replace manline~s, impulse, and courage with patience, humility, and adroitness. This is expected of me even though I die physically each day in the ju~gles of Vietnam and mentally each day in the isolation of race hatred in the United States. Still I am an American. I thrill to the Star Spangled Banner·. I pledge allegiance to the flag. I love the rocks and rills, the woods and purple hills from Maine to California, from the Canadian • • • I border to the Gulf of Mexico. And though I know there is a long way to go to reach the place the Constitution spoke of, I will not rest, I will not retreat; I will, God willing, enter as a full partner in freedom and progress into goodness of the land of my birth. I am Black America. I am Lin Hilburn, with commentary. Stepping up his campaign for the Democratic nomination to the U. S. Senate, Phil McAlrnond will spend the week of February 5 filling a series of major speaking en~agements in the central Oregon area. Tuesday, February 6, McAlmond will speak at a noon meeting of the Prineville Lions Club, and that evening will journey to Mitchell for a pot luck supper sponsored by the Mitchell Democratic Club. " I N S I D E NEWS OTHERS DARE NOT PRINT" That black commercial artist, who painted those white Christmas carolers for his lavm, also has a dog singing with his lilly-white group -- ye Gods, a white do~. 6th and N. E. Ainsworth. Please tell him he can take them down now. Remember last week's reporting about the shake-up at the Neighborhood Service Center in a Board Meeting Wednesday, A.M. Rozell Gilmore, director of the Center and a pastor of a Baptist Church with a 70 percent white membership, was an~ry over the state– ment made in Lake Oswego, and while Hilson, 5'5", 135 lb., was explaining his statement Gilmore, 6'2n, 210 lbs., told him to shut up-- board members had to work fast to keep them from tearing each other apart. Drinking Vodka used to turn Mrs. Dorsey on but now all she has to do is listen to a Lou Ravrls Album. Dick Bogle, new T.V. man on news for Channel 2, and doing A-1 job. Nobody knows why, but "The Ole Lady" of a post office worker no longer wants to keep their illicit romance under cover so now she blabs at the wrong times in the right places. That singer that's over 6ft. paid his back rent, coll~cted his a~e and headed for Seattle. End of running account. That wasn't Ccmnie's wife with him at the"Therne" the other evening, and we really wish Earl told us who the chick was. Sunday will be the day when after two weeks Edwina and Joe Banks bury their well-notched hatchet. She'll return here from mommie's in San Francisco. The latest sepia bombshell in town is the Defender poster girl CAROL LaBRIE. She's with John True, Ann Young, at the Club Venus at Rose City– Piedmont Drug Store, Union at Failing, and this is the only place in town where you can get one, a 1968 Cardui for \olomen, a ladies birthday almanac, plus the old favorite with the ladies, the Cardui Calendar & Weather Chart, free. Tell him you savr it in John Roberts Portland Newsletter. NUFF said. .......................................................................................... . . . . . : . .. Among The Stars . Among the Stars with Lee Ivory ' ' 1. .. Mickey Stevenson, head of Venture Records in California and the guy who speaks in superlatives, twisted my arm and made me listen to a record entitled "Down in the Ghetto," recorded by the r1aj or; Four. It was a pretty groovy tune and, according to Mickei, "It's so fantastic that it sold 14,000 copies on th~.' initial order! That's fantastic!" And, that's Mickey, you di~! But, of interest to Chicago recording talent scouts, is the fact that the Major Four are from Chicago -– but nobody would listen to them! That's how it ~oes in the Windy City ... we pass up five Barbara Streisands to get to one Lee Ivory -- and I can't sing a note! Also, Mickey told me that the large orchestra backing up the ~1aj or Four are only kids from the ghetto "to give it authenticity," he reported. And those kids svTing . . The group waited over eight months for his office set up in California. They to loan him some money to help him get hardly could come up with the reported supplied by MGM, though! ruckey to get even offered started. They $250,000 ., I They "kept the faith," however, and rUckey never for~ot it. Stevenson is also working with Johnny Nash on h-:J:s \ next release and he has already produced an album on the Righteous Brothers. Sounds like Motown Record Corporation has moved West -- again! .~. Speaking of moving, word comes to us that Eddie Holland, of the song,.,rri ting team of Holland-Dozier- , Holland, has pulled up from Motown Record Corporatio~! *******************AA U AU*A U U UUic*** 1 S MA R T B E V E R A G E S PEPI'S 281-2731 1349 LLOYD CENTER l+H-.1__ ......,.1-a-io..o.+£-.A.ollioJ. 0 ..1. 0 ,.J- 0 .A--• L-L- 1....1 l .. t • • • • ••••• •