Oregon Advance Times_1968-03-28

The Oregon Advance/fIMES Publishing Company, Inc., non-profit corporation, Publisher Chairman of the Board • • • • •••••••••••••••••••••••••.••• Rozell Gilmore Vice-Chairman • • • • • • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Hazel G. Hays Secretary • • • • ••••••••••••••••••••• " • • • • • . • • , • • • • • • Amelia Stiggers Treasurer • • • • ••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••.•••••• Samuel Johnson Editor ~ • • • • • • ••••••••••••••••••••••.••••••••••••••• Dan Hayes Advertising Manager • • • • •••.•••••••••••••••••.••••••• George Christian · Office Ca-ordinator ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Averill Geus Offices at 714-1/2 N. E. Alberta, Portland. Phone •••••••.••.• , • 288-6409 Mailing Address •••••••••••••• Post Office Box 11274, Portland, Oregon 97211 Subscriptions: By mail, $4.50 per year in advance. By carrier, 40¢ per month (voluntary) STATEMENT The Oregon Advance/TIMES goes to press weelcly to serve residents of the North-North– east Central area of Portland With news about the life of our community; information 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. 1, No. 9 March 28, 1968 Black Powel', Meaning The words Black Power are c o n t r o v e r s i a 1. Even black people cannot agree on their meaning. Some black people will say they do not believe in Black Power. This is a black man who has been convinced by the white man that black is evil. He knows that the white man will not allow the word black to mean anything else. So, in his pitiful eagerness for accept– ance, he castigates those who would dare to use the words Black Power. He is convinced that if he quietly goes about his business in a manner not of– fensive nor intrusive to the white man, he will be accepted. He has not yet learned that he is too visible to ever be ac– cepted by just conforming. Today, more than 100 years after emancipation, the black man is still struggling for first class citizenship. American black men with a startlingly unanimous voice and desperate push to finish the unfinished business of obtaining their full and unqualified rights as Ameri– can citizens; This is Black Power. Martin Luther King's suc– cessful engineering of the Mont– gomery bus boycott; A group of black students at the agricultural and technical colfege for Negroes in Greens– boro, N. 'C,, shocking the na– tion out of its lethargy by stag– ing a sustained sit-in demon– stration against racial segre– gation at a lunch counter; And the student sij;-in move– ment modeled after the Martin Luther King technique of non– violent direct reaction, set up a chain reaction of freedom rides and other demonstrations against various forms of racial discrimination and segrega– tion. This was Black Power in its truest sense. The unforgettable march on Washington when 100,000 people united to call attention to the injustices of the black man in America was Black Power. And those black people who could not 301n them, re-dedicated themselves to the long, weary, tiresome task of continuing the fight to emancipate all black men in America - B 1ac k Power. The black man no longer be- lieves the white man's statistics nor his sociological evaluations and summations. He knows what has been done to him and he knows who did it and why. You can no longer shame the black man by showing the high rate of illegitimacy among black people. He can laugh in the white man's face and tell him he invented the word and fathered a great number of the children. The white man can no longer tell him his own people sold him into slavery. The black man knows, because the white man told him, that his own people were savages, but he was also told that he was sold to a Chris– tian nation, to a nation founded upon the basic principles of Christianity, but he found the suffering, indignation and crimes heaped upon him would disgrace a nation of savages. The black man will not buy the bill of goods that he cannot learn. He knows that he has not be-en given the opportunity to have an equal education. The biggest joke of all is when he is told he is lazy. This black man has been a real con– tributing factor in the Ameri– can economy. He earned his rights years ago by the sweat of his black brow. Today when he is the last to be hired, if indeed hired at all, and the first to be fired and usually from a job nobody else would have and at a salary that will allow him to live sub-standard at best, he is unified in his protest. Black Power is demanding self respect and self esteem for black people. It refuses to ac– cept segregation and discrimi– nation. It demands that every door opened to a human being be opened to black people. The national statistics pain– fully and clearly reveal in edu– cation and cultural achievement, in employment and income, and in health and housing, the great masses of the black population rank far below the national median. That a significant number of black people have risen above this depressed level affords eloquent testimony that the pre– carious plight of the black masses stems from no inher– ent racial inferiority. Be Patt ol the P,og,am An experiment in crime– fighting is being tried in New York. Young men with walkie– talkies roam the streets in pairs, hoping to keep Central Harlem cool. The patrolmen have no powers of arrest, they carry no weapons, they just do their best to cool it. And each is paid $90 a week. Many attempts in the past to work with youth groups in New York have proved successful due to the fact that these youth groups have highly developed hierarchies and structures al– lowing gang workers to reverse the trend from negative self– destructive energy, to energy used in a more creative way. They are quite highly com– pensated for their efforts. Certainly among youth groups and particularly black youth groups, money is highly es– teemed and valued. In Portland there appears to be a real gap between what might be described as the ''comfortable black community'' and those feeling the most abrasive aspects of life in our society. There needs to be a lot more interest and concern on the part of the "comfortable com– munities" who are willing to be a part of such programs - if not by direct action, then by dollars for those agencies at– tempting to work with these youngsters who are on the bot– tom rung of the social ladder. Those who are successfully competing in this society those who are doing well - should not forget how it was to be there and should help lift others so they can help them– selves. Citizen Pa,ticipation Citizens' Participation is the name of the game. It is long overdue and the lack of it is evidenced in numerous areas in Portland. The Park Bureau certainlyhas not played the game and it ap– pears it has no intention of ever doing so. Just recently the bu– reau named a director who will be in charge of the parks in the North-Northeast area. This was done in total disregard of the residents who live in this area. He is, like all other park directors in Portland, white. As yet, the Park Bureau has not hired a black man in a meaningful position. The de– termination of the Park Bureau to keep the Lily White status is enough to cause black people to demonstrate in some way to get the message across. The school system certainly has not played the game of Citi– zens' Participation. This is evidenced by the segregated schools in Portland as well as by the absence of black admin– istrators in the system. Had there been Citizens' Partici– p at.ion, the black children would not have been "underprivileged and culturally deprived''; there– fore, it would not have been necessary to have the Model Schoo 1 programs. But the school administration allows segregated schools to exist and they, with the help of others who would not be affected, fos– tered the Model School program. The Model Cities Program is now getting off the ground, and, unless we have true Citizens' Participation from the people involved in the Model Cities area, we again will find pro– grams being created by people outside the area and handed to the people within the Model Cities boundaries. Based on past experience, these programs will not be to help the people involved but only to pacify them. It is hoped that the residents of the Model Cities area will demand Citizens' Participation and whatever plans and pro– grams created will be of their choosing. Candidate,' View, In the ensuing weeks, you will find on the pages of this paper the names of various candidates who are asking for your sup– port. They will have received a questionnaire asking where they stand on certain issues such as civil rights, health and welfare, education, labor (in– cluding apprenticeship) and con– sumer fraud and taxes. These are all issues important to you. You are urged to study them well, because your vote may be the one to elect or defeat the candidate who stands, in your opinion, to be either the best or the poorest one for the office. Also, when you look on your ballot, you will find some blank lines. These are there for you to write in a name that may appeal to you as more qualified and more dedicated . than those who have filed for the office. This perogative should be used when you are dissatisfied with the list of printed names pre– sented to you. Of course, this information will be no use to you unless you have registered before April 27. It's so simple and is not time consuming. There will be places to do this opening soon near you. But that is not all. After you have registered, you must go to the polls and vote. That is where you stand up to be counted. Polling places are al– ways located in a convenient place. They are open from 8 a.m. to ' til 8 p.m. Please, do not be an '' intended to'' but be an ''I did.''