Portland Challenger_1952-08-22

Teacher· Sees Frontier 1n Alaskan Territory • BY HERB WILLIAMS After living up in Nome, A.ias– ka for the past year and teachir:g in the elementary school, I find i'. has been a ,real adventurt> br me and a very successful o.r~e. Nome is located on the west– ern coast of Alaska bordered oy the Bering Sea, about 150 mile~ south of the Artie Circle ar.u some 250 miles east from the continent of Asia which is Rus- A June, 1951, gl'laduate of Lew· h: and Clark college, Herb Wil– liams, has returned for a. year's teaching venture in Nome, Alas– ka. It was his first teaching as– signment and he has a.llready signed his 1952-53 contract. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bel– vin Williams, /2~03 N. E. 7th avenue. 1 eached by air the year around, but from October to May the water is frozen and the boat::; are only able to come to Nome from June to September. Ther~ are no main roads from any of the other larger cities, so the lo– cal population depends upoa Pan American, Alaskan and Wie:1 Bethel Minister To Remain Here Bishop D. Armond Walker ot the Fifth Episcopal district has returned Reverend Jesse L. Boyd to Bethel AME church for at least another year. This action took place at the recent AME conference in Spokane, Washing– ton. The Churches reported $5,- 402.24 for general church use and local expansion. rirlines and the Alaskan Steam– ship Company .for their neerls. The population of Nome at the present is 1700, living on the site of the once famous boom mining town at the turn of the century which at the highlights HERB WILLIAMS Prices high in Alaska were 45 pupils in the high school. I was assigned the 7th and 8th grades which had a combined at– tendance of 37 student of ·which 24 were girls. We covered the same assignments and subjects as the pupils here in the states, but you have to go into more de– tail explaining many things that the children ·up there know little about. Spelling is the subject the students like the best and you find some very good spell~rs ;n 'he school. There were thirteen teachers in the school, nine in the elementary and four in the high school. No Greenery You mention living in Alaska ' when talking to people here anti the first thing they wonder :tbout is the cold weather. In Nome you won't see any trees or green grass the year around. The ciay I left there early in Augus!; it was 47 degrees and arriving here m Portland it was 101 degrees, t,uite a difference when you are used to the cool weather. If the mercury reaches up into the high uf the gold rush numbered 30,- ::.ixties during the summer the citizens think it is a heat wave. elementary school I Last winter the 'coldest day I students and then~ J kept record of was 37 degrees be- 000 people. The Nome had only 250 low zero. The climate is a dry cold and it doesn't take long to get used to the change of weath– E:r or climate. The averag'= tem · perature during the wiJlter was 10-15 degrees below. One thing unusual a persrm finds in living in the far north is the beautiful Northern Lights that flash across the sky at night, they are really a sight to see. On the shortest day of the year, the sun shines from 10:15 it• the morning and sets at 2:15 in the afternoon. In the summer there is quite a change b~cause of the 24 hours of daylight. The sun rises on the longest day of the year about 1:45 in the morning and sets at 10:15 that evening. With 24 hours of continuou~ day– light for a few weeks, it was a little hard to adjust to going to bed at the right time and when to get up. Prices High A few household items for the women might be the food prob– lem, you would have to ±igure that everything you bought here will cost twice as much LIP in Nome. For a few exampues: tt"ead 55c a loaf, fresh milk flown in 75c a quart, T-bone steak $1.47 a pound, weiners $1.10 a pound, a ran of tomatoes 49c or canned corn 35c, ice cream 90c a quart. As for businesses then~ was one local theater, a barber shop that charges $2.00 for haircuts, a beauty parlor, eight churchei", two grocery stores, a few bars, thr~e hotels, small ones of COJH'se, drug store, federal building tha~ is used for the post office and mail, fire station and we have a paper which is published three ~imes weekly, 15c a copy. As for civic organizations, there are the Chamber of CQmmerce, Rotary and Toastmasters. There are a number of women's :::ncial clubs. I became a member of Toastmasters when they organ– ized a chapter early in Febru– ary. Negro Population Small Last count, there were :;even Negroes in town this summer and there were several more sta– tioned at the army air base. There is also one other colored teacher who taught last year at Kotzebue about 150 miles north of Nome. There is lots of skiing in the winter and a little ice skating, the natives work on fur pieces and ivory carvings during the winter. After the ice is gone, there is plenty of fishing and the natives hunt walrus and sr::al. Incidentally there are no igloos in or around Nome. There are hardly any outdoor games for the children to play like they have down here. Basketball is the main sport in school, the girls like to play indoor softbail 1 and kickball. Choosing to return to Norne for a second year of teaching is bas– ed upon liking the far northland. The people have made me feel right at home and have he:ped me in every way they could. I find Alaska the new fronti<c'r fer B thPl will host next year';.. conference here in Portland. The confe!'ence also held a special Douglas hospital rally which net– ted $600.00. Douglas hospital is the only Negro hospital in Kan– sas City, Kansas, and is support– ed enhrely by this district. Volume 1, Number 9 PORTLAND, OREGON, AUGUST 22, 1952 PRICE 10 CENTS I me. This year's program at Bethel mcludes, among other things to be announced later, expansion of their youth program. Mother Visiting Son Mrs. Elizabeth Whitfield is ~·urrently visiting with her son, John Ellis of Ellis cleaners. She is here from her home in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is her first jaunt to the Pacific Northwest and her £it·st visit with her son since 1944. Smiles Depict College Days Ahead All smiles in the summer sunshine of her back yard is Marlene Hardy, ex-Grant prepper. Anticipating her first year in college, she plans to attend Portland State. She is the teenage daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hardy, 3933 N. E. 12th avenue. St. Philip's Vicar Murk Smith Receives FEP c?h~!~~,E~,~eo~?. 1 !ono Posiiion With Labor Board rector of St. Philip's Episcopal church, has been elected to serve c.s a delegate from the diocese of Oregon to the 57th general con– ·vention of the Protestant Epio– copal church and will leave for Boston on August 24. The general convention, an ec– clesiastical synod in structure somewhat resembling the Amer· ican congress, meets every three years. It is made up of the House of Bishops with a membership of 168 and the House of Depu– ties with its 648 members equal– ly divided between priests :md lay deputies. The Oregon diocese is sending its full delegate quota of four priests and four layrren. The Rev. Stone is the only Negn priest in the United States to Le elected to this year's convenhon. St. Andrew's church in Lex-– ington, Kentucky, where Father Stone will visit members of his family, has extended an invita– tion to the Portland vicar to preach on August 31. He will al– so be guest minister at St. Au– gustine's church in Cambridge, Mass., and at St. Andrews church in Cleveland, Ohio, af– ter the convention is over. 'rhe Reverend Russell White will be in charge of regular ser– vices at St. Philip's during Fath– er Stone's absence. Guest pr1est on Sunday, September 21, will be the Rev. H. Randolph Moore of St. Philip's church in Los An– geles. I wish to express heartfelt appreciation for the sincere prccyers, kind messages and flowers from all the people that helped us to return to normal life. Mrs. Bennett E. Grimmett Mark A. Smith, president of the Vancouver, Washington branch of the NAACP and vice president of the Urban League of Portland, has received appointment as Deputy Commis– sioner of the Oregon State Bureau of Labor, Employment Practices Division. Presently employed as tenant relations adviser for the Vancou- come the associate of Deputy Commissioner William Van Me- ver Housing Authority, a positkn he has held since 1947, Smith will assume his new post on Sep– tember 15, after attending the rational Urban annual confer– ence at Cleveland, Ohio, and vis– iting his mother in New York. To Enforce FEPC As assistant to State Labor Commissioner W. E. Kimsey, MARK SMITH Gets Oregon labor post Smith will have responsibility Ior enforcement of Oregon's law against racial and religious dis– crimination in employment. Se– iected by Kimsey to .fill the post vacated last May, Smith will be- ter, to form Oregon's first in– terracial team of FEPC officers. Born in Houston, Texas, Mark Smith is a graduate of Morgan college in Baltimore and ha.; done graduate study at Howard and Columbia universities. He is a veteran of World War II, hav– ing served as radarman with the 99th Pursuit Squadron. His new duties will include the investigation of complaints ef bias in hiring and upgrading and the promotion of a public education program in fair em– ployment practices. Youth Counce] or Back From Camp Back from Camp Westwind near Ocean Lake where she was a "Y" youth councelor is Aletha Emanuel. Miss Emanuel spent four weeks at the camp counsel– ing a 10-1~-year-old age group. Her duties consisted of direct– ing activities in swimming, boat– ing, archery and crafts. A graduate of Portland State college, Miss Emanuel plans to return to Willamette university this fall where she will be a sen– ior majoring in psychology and education. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Emanuel, 5312 S. E. 96th avenue. \