Oregon Advance Times_1968-07-11

Circulation 11,850 copies EVERY week! The Oregon ADVANCE Vol. 1, No. 25 714Y2 N. E. Alberta, Portland, Oregon Single Copy 1Oc July 11, 1968 Transportation Problems Princess ~eturns to Portland Model Cities Planning Will Be Aired - Board Reviews Proposals "Have you lost a job be– cause of transportation prob– lems?" "Have you had to give up a job opportunity?" "Does the cost of getting to work cut too deeply into your pay?" Residents of the Model Ci– ties neighborhood are being asked to report such prob– lems, according to Larry La– key, 4515 N. Borthwick Street, Chairman of the Employment and Economic Development Working Committee of the Model Cities Program. "Our committee will hold a public hearing so that any resident who has had a trans– portation problem has a chance to tell us about it. We need to plan for improve– ments in getting residents to jobs and we can't do that if we don't have additional information about the prob– lems. We need suggestions on how to solve the prob– lems, too," Lakey told the Advance/TIMES. Wednesday, July 17, at 7:30 p.m., Lakey's committee is inviting residents to tell their experiences on trans– portation problems. The meetin 6 will be held at the Cascade College building on Borthwick Street, just north of Killingsworth. People who can't come to the meeting are urged to drop in at the new Model Cities Information Center at 10 N.E. Graham Street and tell Cen– ter staff what their problems and opinions are. The appeal to residents to tell their experiences was the result of a proposal made by a subcommittee headed by Mrs. Ora L. Nunley, 2423 N. E. 12th Avenue, for a Transportation Center to be established by the Model Ci- ties Program. The Subcom– mittee on Location and Trans– portation is also considering problems of automobile insur– ance and other aspects of getting people to where the jobs are. The most important thi"6 about the Model Cities pro– gram is getting the ideas ·of the residents and all people in the area have been urged to take part in the commit– tees which are planning pro– grams for the future. How– ever, for those who are not able to work on a commit– tee there are other ways to help, such as going to the Information Center or at– tending the hearing being called by the Employment i. Committee. Proposals that will affect everyone in the area are start– ing to come out of commit– tee study and need to be looked at by many residents to be sure the needs of the people will be met. Also under consideration are proposals from subcommittees headed by Harvey Rice (Subcommit– tee on Business Development) of 4113 N, E, Garfield Street, Charles Rawlins (Subcommit– tee on Employment Agree– ments) of 2904 N. E. 8th Avenue, and Charles W. White (Subcommittee on Job Devel– opment and E mp! oym en t Practices) of 133 .N, E. Wy– gant Street. These proposals will be discussed at regular meetings of the Committee to which the public is invited. The Committee meets reg.. ular!y at 7:30 p.m. on Wed– nesdays in Room 203, Cas– cade College (Borthwick Street entrance). The Secre– tary of the Committee is Mrs. Ella Mae Gay, 5021 N. E. Garfield Street. Lois Laurin Johnson, who was first Negro princess on Rose Festival Court when she represented Girls' ~oly– technic High in 1967, visited her mother in Emanuel Hos– pital rose garden during the Festival. The former prin– cess is the daughter of Mrs. William (Letha) Cook, right, 715 N, Shaver, who is employed at Emanuel, Lois is now enrolled at Patricia Stevens Career College in Hawaii, where she is studying fashion and merchandising and work– ing part-time in sales at Sears. Periodic letters from the school director report the Portlander is "doing well,'' her mother says; the year-long course ends in September. Lois plans to continue her studies in Hawaii or Oregon, where she can use her Rose Festival scholarship, During her high school years, she was president of her social service club, Sigma Tau Kappa; secretary of Del Fuigo and a member of the music club; she also sang soprano with the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church Choir, Albina Corporation Formed by George Christian cess of $200,000 as capital A corporation is born. The from which to invest. The American l 'nity Enterprises, corporation is duly authorized Inc., is a reality. It was to do business and will have established by a devoted few its srnckholders' meeting in in the Albina area with vis - July, where the members will ion, recognizing the fact that elect permanent officers to the government is spending nm the corporation. Hines millions of dollars in the stated that all races should community of Urban Renewal and Model Cities programs; also recognizing that the ac. tual work will be done by contractors. Adults Want Center join together to insure the success of this venture. This Common Investment will form an identity with ownership that some of our people have never had and will make them feel that they really belong. l\ever before in the history of this community will so many Negroes invest their (Continued on Page 5) by George Christian Emmet J. Basket, chairman of the Model Cities Planning Board, presided over the reg– ular board meeting held July 2 at Woodlawn School. There were many proposals pre– sented from the various work– ing committees. One such proposal was presented by Larry Lasey, Chairman of the Employment and Economic Development Committee. The proposal was listed and prepared by a sub-committee headed by Harvey Rice; the idea was to have a Commu– nity Development Corporation for the Model Cities area. This committee felt that some of the basic needs of the com– munity were increased num– ber of well-managed and fi– nancially strong businesses and industries in or near the area to provide jobs for resi– dents; also, the expanding of light industry and small busi– nesses to be owned and man– aged by residents. The goals of this proposal would be to create a larger resident business community and greater numbers of mid– dle and higher income resi– dents for support of commu– nity improvemenis programs. The approaches would be similar to those used by a non-profit corporation in Detroit, Michigan, called the "Inner-City Business Im– provement Forum." The De– troit corporation organized a bank, the 1st Independence National Bank, which was to be the first of several economic developments an– nounced by the Inner-City Business Improvement Fo– rum. The Portland organi– zation would, according to the proposal, set up a Board of Directors that would give top priority to minority groups. They recommended financing to come from grants ob– tained from public andprivate sources; they would also se~ staff and operating expenses from the Model Cities office. They al so recommended that the Small Business As– sociation furnish the part– time loan counselor and one full-time management coun– seling personnel, plus one full-time person from the Portland Development Com– mission to help in industrial land development problems. The Working Committee on Health Social and Legal Serv– ices presented a brief pro– posal on help to the aging, also a proposal on a tool and equipment bank where there would be stored cer– tain key or essential camp– ing gear and/or equipment; also tools for lawn care, gar– dening, carpentry, etc. The camping gear, they stated, could be borrowed by organ– ized groups of campers such as churches, schools, Boy Scouts and other such or– ganized groups. The tools would be for lawn care and maintenance of homes in the area; also they could be used for on-the-job training. Then Paul Schultz gave a staff report and stated that more money was forthcom– ing to the Model Cities area and could be as much as two and one-half million dol– lars and would be available for the 1969 Action Planning Program. The Planning Board voted to accept the report of the Director. They voted to en– courage the Committee on Employment and Economic Development to continue their research work and their plan for a Development Corpora– tion. They also voted to return the Social and Legal Committee's report back to their committee for further work, study and planning. At this point, Larry Lahey expressed concern over the amount of time left to make proposals and formulate plans. He challenged the board not to be rushed into mistakes by the Federal Government. A newly formed non-p1·ofit organization, the Sons of Al– bina, is desperately in need of financial help for the build– ing of a young adult center to provide recreational and social entertainment for young adults in Albina. Also needed are human, financial and ma– terial resources. The group is pleading to the public and large and small businesses, department stores and other interested parties. Help is gravely needed. In a talk with the group, Jim Hines, who is acting president, stated. "We have people in this Albina commu– nity with the technology and know how to de this work and train othe r!> , but they haven't the capital to get the machinery to do these jobs. Hines said that without unity and planning we couldn't take a contract wrecking old build– ings, because this requires heavy equipment such as bull– dozers, loaders, tmcks and graders to do the jobs to specification. Author Traces African Heritage This project is designed to counteract the frustration and lack of recreational facilities in the Albina community. As stated earlier, many young adults have an excess amount of idle time and we can help them by ~ming this idle time to constructive use. By our helping them they can help themselves. "We don't want to intellec– tualize with high officials and wait for another Watts of '65 or Detroit of '67. With every– one's help and support, we can prevent any such outbreak or unrest. We, the young leaders of the Sons of Al– bina, have a very stable pro– gram which is designed to be confronted with this prob– lem. ''The Albina community has a few programs of which none cater to the needs of young adults between the ages of 18 and 23. Something can and is being done but we can't do it alone," a spokesman for the group said. "We, the community, have to get together and show the rest of the city and the state that we are trying to help ourselves, then we can turn to them and form a link be– tween the two. ln a sense this will close this life-long separation gap which has been built within us for many years. ''To everyone, your support and resource material, human and monetary, is necessary," it was stated. For further information, write The Sons of Albina, 2506 N. E. Union , or call 288-3977, Bob Lawrence, Ken Warren. or Butch Nickerson. Through a corporation such as American l "nity Enter– prises. Hines stated that we could raise the capital by selling subscriptions to stock at $10.00 per share. I asked Hines if people were for such an undertaking. He stated that they most certainly were and had an impressive list of those who had shown an interest in the project. Hines also stated that we must keep some of the profits in this community and not let it go to some outfit doing business out of New York. Hines stated that the primary goal of American Unity En– terprises is going to be to lay a cornerstone of capital from which to work. Also, Hines has put up his Desert Motel, valued in ex- by Dick Bogle KATU-TV newsman Dick Bogle attended a recent con– ference at the University of Washington on the news media and the race story. One of the speakers there was Alex Haley, co-author of the autobiography of Malcolm X. Bog le interviewed him for the Oregon Advance/TIMES. slave, he had the opportunity to remain near his daughter until she became a teen– ager. During this time, they were able to converse and he told her his real name was not Toby as the master called him, but that it was Kenti. Along with this, he also taught her how to pro– nounce some of the names The author of the auto- of rivers and other things biography of Malcolm X, Alex near his original African Haley, is fast putting the home. The things she learned finishing touches on a new she in turn passed on to her book that will touch the heart descendants. Finally, when strings of every black per- Haley was a youngster in a son who has ever wondered small town in Tennessee, where his ancestral roots these things were told to him really lie. by his grandmother. He never Titled "Kebarro," which in forgot. the African dialect of Man- After his success in writ– dingo means ''newsworthy ing provided some financial event," Haley recalls in it security, Haley set out on the story often told him by his quest to find out from his maternal grandmother what part of Africa this Kenti about an African. had come and what kind of This African was the first life he and his people lived known ancestor on her side during the 1700's before his of the family. Fortunately, capture and eventual arrival after he was brought to the as an unwilling immigrant to shores of America as a the Colonies. This he did but not without spending literally years in libraries, historical societies and archives digging into everything possible. His trav– el expenses alone totaled $31,000 and during one 10- day period, he made three round trips between the con– tinent and the United States. The result is fascinating, for not only did Haley find out from where he sprang but he went there, to a small village in Gambia. His reception there, as he describes it, was the most dramatic event in his life. He said, ''It was joyous, prayerful and total." The Africans danced and sang and took him to their Mosque for prayer. Haley says the significance of his book lies in the fact that every racial problem of today has its beginning in slavery. He says that as horrible as the physical as– pects of slavery were, the real damage was psychologi– (Continued on Page 10)