Oregon Advance Times_1968-02-08

The Oregon Advance/TIMES Publishing Company A non-profit corporation • • •...•.•.....•.....••..•.•.•..... Publis.her Chairman of the Board • . • . • •...•••.•...........•....... Rozell Gilmore Vice-Chairman • • • • . . • • . . • • . . • . • .•.......•.•...•...... Hazel G. Hays Secretary • • • • •. , •......•••...•.....•...•.•........ Amelia Stiggers Treasurer ...• , •.•...••.•...•...•••......•.... Samuel Johnson Editor • • . .••...•••.•.........•......••...•..•... Dan Hayes Assistant Editor •••....•.•.•.•.•.••.•.•......•......... Larry Lakey Office Co-ordinator •.•••.......•.•...............•..... Averill Geus Advertising Manager •.••.•..•.................•.........• Joe Harr-is Offices at 714-1/2 N, E. Alberta, Portland. Phone • • . . • . . ....... 288- 6409 Mailing Address .•..•....•...... : Post Office Box 11274 Portland, () re. 97211 Subscriptions: By mail, $4.50 semi-annually, in advance. By carrier, 40¢ per month (voluntary) Newstand, single copy, 10¢ STATEMENT The Oregon Advance/TIMES goes to press weekly to serve residents of the North-,,01·th– east .Central area of Portland with news about the life of our community; info . ruation on the opportunities before us; discussion of the social and political issues that confront us. The Oregon Advance/TIMES gives to our community a newspaper which factually reports the news of our area and aggressively seeks the full rights of our citizens. It will pro – vide a forum for community expression and help people become more conscious of their obligations to themselves and their community. In all this, the truth, as we see it, will be consistently presented. Page 2 Vol. l, No. 2 February 8, 1968 Nea,o Hi1to,g Week In this issue, the Advance/ TIMES pays special attention to National Negro History Week. In each issue we have articles about the heritage of the black race because we believe that this is one of the most over– looked subjects in both the black and white communities. If you did not read carefully the first article by Charlotte Rutherford in last week's is– sue, we recommend that you go back and read it. Its story of the beginning of Mankind in Africa, the development of the first society in Egypt by blacks and the way the exploitation of Africa was carried out by Eu– ropeans is an excellent founda– tion for the series. Same Old Jobi A Portland television pro– gram, "Opportunity Line," is designed to find jobs for Ne– groes. Job openings are reported and those who want the jobs call in for them. It's a fine idea but - What are the jobs? They are the old stereotypes. Jobs for janitors. Jobs for por– ters. Jobs for servants. Jobs for the black man because the white man doesn't want them. We know these jobs are im– portant. But we are tired of having only these low-skill or unskilled jobs offered to Ne– groes; tired of sitting back and seeing the better jobs offered only to the whites. The Out1ide,1 Look On January 21 the Northwest Magazine of The Oregonian did an '' in depth'' series of articles covering the Albina community. From this article, you would think this was a land of milk and honey. It was from the outlook of someone who has never seen a black face up close, who has noted the color of the skin but not the features. It told of one church's prac– tices and its rituals and com– pletely overlooked the fact that black churches, like white churches, follow different doc– trines in accordance with their creeds. Another article on food in the stores dwelt long on pigs' feet and mustard greens and yams and never noticed higher prices and inferior quality of the ma– jority of the goods. As usual, the white man was afraid of finding out the truth of the Albina area. Instead of using a black man who is fa– miliar with Albina to tell the story, the magazine s~nt white reporters to view the commu– nity as outsiders who saw everything superficially. They looked at the commu– nity the way children v~ew an– imals in a cage at the zoo, These animals look like they are having lots of fun in their cages. But they aren't. What', in a Name? When the big downtown store changed its name from Olds and King to Rhodes, the newspapers went along and called it Rhodes. When the town of Marshfield changed its name to Coos Bay, the newspapers changed, to. But when Cassius Clay said his name was changed to Mohammud Ali, the newspapers couldn't hear him. They'd never flunk a color blind test. Ga,baae Coll~tion In our letters column this week an Albina resident, Art Wallace, speaks of the things we need. Among those he lists is municipal garbage collection. This is one of the· important things that should be possible for us to work for with the health authorities; A great deal is said about protecting the health of the people. But they seem to have overlooked the fact that in poverty areas, people cannot pay for garbage collection. We would like to ask the city health officer and the State Board of Health, v.rill either of them do anything about this? Will they write and let the Advance Times print their an– swer to the people? J 7k 'P~fe Sµd J Model City The Albina community does not have a single voice. Each Control person has ideas that are his own and many groups speak only for their members, This newspaper In its edito– rials says what its editorial board believes. But it is only one of the voices of Albina. You, too, have a voice. And you can speak out by writing letters to the editor. Our pages are small and our space is Iim ited. So please speak about things here, at home. If we do not have room for all let– ters, those that are about national and international af– fairs will have to be set aside in favor of letters that talk about the special problems and hopes of people here at home. And keep them short. If they run over 250 words, we probably will have to shorten them. WHAT WE NEED To the Editor: What do we want from the model city program? As a resident of many years I ask myself what? Number l on my list of course is a decent standard of living. Without nourishing food and shelter or rest areas everything else becomes a farce. As one of our residents said on TV recently, we can't eat the damned parks. Jobs of course: not just talk. If we have to make jobs, make them. Another must is municipal garbage pick up. People pile garbage up simply because they can not out of welfare checks pay for same. A local police precinct manned by local people should be considered. Nurseries under Head Start should be tripled. Dormitories should be established so that any man, woman or child can get a night's shelter and food, when cold and hungry, and NO BIBLE POUNDING. Young men and women who desire to further their educa– tion should be aided without red tape and buck passing. Anyone wanting to learn a trade should be helped on the same basis. The old ways must go. Time gro\,·s short. We must make the radical change or it will be made for us and it won't be pleasant. Art Wallace 4019 N. E. Garfield WHO ARE LEADERS? To the Editor: Again that nasty word, "Leader," comes to Portland Negroes. Portlanders, as well as other people, are "duped" by the terms "leader" and "experts." I don't know whether the news media is aware of the fallacies attached to the terms. Leaders and experts fall into categories: 1. Self appointed who claim "expert" knowledge on a given subject and go half informed or unaware that the people that they say they are "speaking for" could care less. No one speaks for the Negro in Port– land or anywhere else. Their actions should read as ''in their opinion." The recognized responsible "leaders" are a few n8llles that the powers that be can call on to give an assessment of what is al ready common knowledge, and represent no one, or speak for no one, not even their spouse. Another less unimportant "leader" is the imported "ex– pert and leader" who comes to town supported financial– ly by either Negroes or white to mouth or brainwash a few into their views. So I take a dim view of the terms "experts and leaders" when discussing Negroes, and try to fit the leader in these phases of op– portunistic agrandizement. Over the years, ahd es– pecially since World War ll, I have been wondering why someone can't see the need to talk to or work with the un– recognized i r re s p o n s i bl e "leaders" and the non-experts in fields that need exploring. There are too many "experts and leaders'' that know too much about everything and nothing about anything. Oliver E. Smith 1128 N. E, Knott St. STREET SOLICITING To the Editor: I am aware of the fact that the Portland Police Depart– ment, after pressure from residents of the Albina com– munity, finally exerted an ef– fort to discourage prostitutes from openly soliciting bus– iness on our streets. Now, how much longer will it take them to dissuade white men from coming into the community with the speci– fic purpose of getting them a "nigger girl?" While looking to satisfy their lusts, these lecherous white men have more than often insulted many Black women, especially our young Black women, by attempting to proposition them. ltmakes no difference how the Black woman is dressed; it mat– ters not whether she's down– town, in broad daylight, or she's sitting on her front door– step, the comment remains the same, "How would you like to make five dollars?" Evidently, white men are under the misconception that all Black women are tramps and prostitutes and command little or no respect (or money either). This crude image stems directly from slavery, when it was the common custom for the white slave master to rape our Black women. ',\!ell, that was almost 100 years ago, and those days are def– initely over! It seems to me that Black women are not treated with respect by outsiders who en– ter the community, let alone by those outside the com– munity. Though our police depart– ment claims to serve "all" the people of the city, they have certainly overlooked the Black woman in our commu– nity, by passively condoning the actions of their white coun– terparts, by sitting back and doing nothing. Police protection for resi– dents of the Albina commun– ity seems to be in the form of stopping and harassing Black motorists, inquiring where they're going and what they' re doing. (In their own community, even!) Yet, noth– ing is asked of the roving bands of white men, who parade up and down our streets on the weekends and even during some weekdays, as to their presence in the com– munity. What's to be done about this situation? - well, that re– mains to be seen. Beverly Nicholson 6614 N. E, 8th GOOD WISHES To the Editor: On behalf of the Human Relations Commission of the City of Portland, we wish to Jom the chorus of well– wishers for the success of your newspaper. We know that it will improve commun– ications among all sectors of our population. We know it will give factual interpreta– tions which will assist in solutions of problems that face our community - it will provide a climate of mutual concern. Again, our congratulations on this new venture. Russ Payton Executive Director by LARRY LAKEY What are the citizens of the Model Cities asking when they say, "We want citizens' control of the Model Cities program?" We are saying that we want to chart our own future; we want self-determination: we want a say at every level and throughout all phases of model cities. We are saying that we can best determine how the quality of our lives can be improved. We want to keep Albina residential in character. We want to insure that any work done in the Model Cities neigh– borhood is done by the resi– dents of the area. We want jobs to open up for residents of the area and we want low income persons or people on welfare to have the first chance of getting these jobs. We do not want contractors coming into the area getting richer at our expense if resi– dents of the area are not on their payrolls. We want young people in– volved in the program. We want adults involved and we want senior citizens involved. And this is what we tried to communicate to members of the City Council Jan. 30. We feel that these objec– tives (we did not name all of them) can best be insured if the area residents have the deciding say on all programs, projects and plans that are to go into the Model Cities Neigh– borhood. The structure that we want the city to adopt calls for a Governing Board made up of two-thirds area residents. This number would be 17, which will be elected by you, the citizen. The Governing Board will be responsible for approving all plans and proposals that affect Model Cities. This Governing Board must report to you, the citizen, at least once a month in an open town meeting. This Governing Board will have its own staff of experts to ad– vise on all matters of a pro– fessional, technical or legal nature. There will be a number of committees in areas such as housing, education, health, welfare, crime reduction, recreation and employment. We will ask all the people in the area to serve on these committees to insure at all times that your interests are being served. We call for the Model Ci– ties co-ordinator, the Rev. Paul J. Schulze, to work for the Governing Board and report to it and not to the city Council. Schulze will have an administrative and technical staff and we want his staffs to be made up 100 percent of people from the Model City neighborhood area as nearly as possible. Briefly, the foregoing, is what Larry Lakey and Al Ba– tiste presented to the Portland City Council. For years it has been ex– pected of Black People to cooperate with the powers that be as they dictated what was good for us. Now we say, that we intend to become the operators, not just co-opera– tors. Remember that it is your homes, your children, your jobs, your future, your health and your property that is at stake in Model Cities. Editor's note: The news stories on Page I show the degree to which Mr. Lakey's proposals have been incor– porated in the revised plans which will be presented to the City Council by Mr. Schulze. i