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Oregon's first black woman
senator won't seek reelection
PORTLAND, Ore. ( The Skanner/ NNPA) - Oregon's
first elected African-American female senator is leaving politics
for a career in higher education.
Sen. Avel Gordly, of Portland, announced late last week that
she will not seek reelection when her term ends in 2009.
Instead, the senator, whp has champi
Gordly
oned quality education tor all children,
will join her alma mater, Portland State
University, as an adjunct assistant pro
fessor in the Black Studies department.
She will "focus on understanding and
fostering the development of African
American servant leadership and public
service."
Gordly, who recently gifted nearly
30 years of her personal papers to the
PSU Library and the Department of
Black Studies, quotes Nelson Mandela
when talking about her move from poli
tics to higher education: "Education is the most powerful
weapon which you can use to change the world," she quotes.
"I look forward to taking on new challenges, to seizing the
opportunities that Portland State offers to expand the role of
African Americans and other people of color in the legislative
process and to develop a youth leadership institute to help
Oregon groom and retain potential leaders for our state," Gordly
said in a speech delivered on the Legislature's last day of the
2007 session.
A native of Portland, Gordly has served Oregonians in the
public sphere for nearly two decades. She was elected to the
Oregon State Senate in 19% after serving three terms in the
House of Representatives, and is serving her current term as the
only Independent in the Senate.
Angola receives 60 Cuban doctors
(GIN/ NNPA) - Cuba has sent about 60 doctors to Angola
to reinforce the African nation's crumbling health system and
strengthen ties between the two Cold War allies, Angola's
state-run news agency said.
The medical personnel include surgeons, pediatricians and
other specialists and are expected to begin work at public hos
pitals in and around the Angolan capital this week, Angop
reported.
Although it is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil pro
ducer and also rich in diamonds, Angola is struggling to
finance the reconstruction of hospitals and other infrastructure
devastated during a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.
It has one of Africa's worst infant mortality rates, with
about one-quarter of children dying before the age of 5.
Thousands of Cuban soldiers were stationed in Angola
after the African nation won independence in 1975, helping
the government in its civil war with rebels supported by the
United States and South Africa.
HUD's FHA celebrates 73 years
WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) celebrated the 73rd anniversary of
its Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) last week at HUD
Headquarters. HUD Deputy Secretary
Roy Bemardi joined Assistant Secretary
for Housing-FHA Commissioner Brian
Montgomery to discuss FHA
Modernization, the importance of pro
viding housing counseling programs to
prospective homebuyers, and the need
for Congress to pass legislation to let
FHA make the American Dream a real
ity for more families.
"FHA has given millions of families
the opportunity to pursue the dream of
homeownership," said Deputy Secretary Bernardi. "Our goal is
to continue our education and outreach efforts while also
retooling and refining FHA to insure safer mortgages that will
keep the dream alive for the next generation of homebuyers.
.Since ks inception in 1934, FHA has helped more than 34
million people become homeowners, making it the largest
insurer of mortgages in the world. The 109th Congress intro
duced the Expanding American Homeownership Act in June
2006. This legislation would enabli'FHA to be an option for
more underserved low- and moderate-income families so they
can achieve the American Dream of homeownership.
Descendants of slaves and
slave owners meet in family reunion
MACON, Ga. (AP) - It was a search that took Herman
"Skip" Mason 30 years.
TNvoSblack families traced (heir genealogy back to Middle
Georgia and found themselves finally meeting the descendants
of their ancestors' slave owners at the site of the old Mc Arthur
family plantation in Bibb County.
"The ancestors in heaven are crying," said Mason, who is
the great-great-great-grandson of Ellen Barton, a slave owned
by the McArthurs. "We have no control over the past, but we
have very much control over the future."
During Saturday's reunion of about 100 people, three fami
lies met whose paths can be traced to when Ellen Barton and
Hearty Thomas were slaves owned by the McArthurs. The fam
ilies now mostly live in the Atlanta area.
The families joined, prayed and sang hymns. They placed
flowers on the graves of John and Harriet Pace McArthur, the
only significant remnant of the plantation.
"It's a great historic occasion," said Amma Cram, 69, of
Jackson, the great-great-granddaughter of John and Harriet
McCarthur.
Billy Crum, also of Jackson, said he felt a natural bond with
the other families."We all believe in God, right? Well, we're all
brothers."
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Bond predicts 'grander victories'
BY HAZEL TRICE EDNEY
NNPA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
WASHINGTON
NAACP Chairman Julian
Bond, while pointing to the
ills of America that he says
have been exacerbated by the
administration of President
George Bush, told the
NAACP annual convention
this week that the organiza
tion must now prioritize its
own refueling and growth for
"grander victories" over
injustices.
"There is nothing more
important for us to be doing
right now than ending felony
disenfranchisement elsewhere
and registering voters. If you
don't believe one vote counts,
look at the Supreme Court!"
Bond told the audience of
thousands in prepared
remarks at the 98th Annual
NAACP Convention, themed
"Power Beyond Measure", in
Detroit.
"But there are other things
we must do too. We must
make strengthening our
Branches and State
Conferences a first priority,
building membership where it
is low and insisting on
activism where Branches are
moribund. We must expand
our outreach to and collabora
tion with our coalition part
ners - the time has long
passed when we were the only
soldiers in this fight. We can
not and should not go it
alone."
The Detroit convention
hosted by the nation's largest
NAACP branch, comes on the
heels of a national appeal
UPI Photo by Roper L Wollcnber;
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, General Council Dennis Courtland Hayes and former
President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon at news conference in 2006.
from Bond for the public to
"show some love" to the
NAACP by giving
money.
$10 million in reserves over
the past three years to cover
shortfalls. Gordon
cited disagree
Interim CEO
Dennis Hayes, who
stepped into leader
ship after former
Verizop executive
Bruce Gordon
stepped down
abruptly, has
announced that the
organization had to
cut its Baltimore
Conyers
merits with the
organization's 64
member board as a
reason for his res
ignation.
Despite finan
cial woes. Bond,
who kicked off the
convention with
his speech on
Monday, said the
headquarters staff from 1 1 9 to
70 people. He said the organ
ization had used more than
civil rights battles ahead
underscore the continued
need for the NAACP.
"As we find ourselves re
fighting battles we thought
we had already won, we are
reminded that the NAACP is
as needed now as ever," he
said, citing surveys that show
increasing belief in the work
of the NAACP.
"A 1993 leadership study
by Brakeley, John Price
Jones, Inc., showed 75 per
cent of Blacks believed the
NAACP the leader among
groups with civil rights, social
justice and race relations
agendas. An October 1995 US
News and World Report poll
See NAACP on A5
MLK- style campaign seeks to lift LA. 's poor
BY GENE C. JOHNSON JR.
THE WAVE
SOUTH LOS ANGE
LES (NNPA) - Clergy,
activists and union leaders
have announced that they
have kicked off a 21st cen
tury version of the Poor
People's Campaign, a move
ment begun 40 years ago by
Martin Luther
King Jr.
good-paying jobs for our
young people and our sen
iors. That has been the prob
lem; not creating enough
opportunities. Living wages
is the only way to go. We
stand behind that."
Some of their programs
include a SCLC-L.A. pre
apprenticeship program, a
pre-employment prep class
at the National
Black Business
prepare people for minimum
wage jobs," Dawson said.
"You cannot live on a mini
mum wage job."
The campaign will also
seek to hold L.A.'s mayor,
city council, school board
and other elected officials
more directly accountable
for their anti-poverty strate
gies, said SCLC-L.A. presi
dent/CEO Eric Lee.
"The Poor People's
Campaign will not rest until
we hold everyone in this
city accountable for the
issues of poverty that are
providing a poor quality of
life to people who deserve
better," Lee said. "We will
See LA. on A5
The new effort
is an association
of elected offi
cials, grassroots
organizations and
clergy members
geared to ? in a
similar movement
initiated by
Martin Luther
King Jr. prior to
his death in 1968
Council and a peti
tion drive, spear
headed by the
Community
Coalition, for the
creation of a
Construction
Technology
Academy at
Dorsey High
School.
The petition
? ending poverty in Los
Angeles County.
On Dec. 4, 1967, King
announced his plans for a
Poor People's Campaign,
which he considered a sec:
ond phase of the civil rights
movement. Before his assas
sination six months later,
King and the organization
he led, the Southern
Christian Leadership
Conference, set lofty goals,
planning to lead thousands
of protesters into
Washington D.C. to demand
congressional implementa
tion of an "economic bill of
rights." A key provision
being a $30 billion anti
poverty package that would
have included a guaranteed
annual income for the poor
nationwide.
Tyrone Freeman, the
SEIU-United Long Term
Care Workers Union leader
and SCLC-L.A. board chair
man who is organizing the
?campaign, said the newly
begun effort would work to
provide job training and
education and spur height
ened civic participation. He
said the movement is about
lifting all people out of
poverty, "no matter what
creed or ethnicity, out of the
mist of poverty and into the
sunlight of prosperity."
Some of those organiza
tions participating in the
campaign include the
National Black Business
Council, Mothers In Action,
Bethel AME Church,
Community Coalition, the
NAACP and The
Organization US.
Inglewood Mayor
Roosevelt Dorn said his city
will take part in the cam
paign by passing a living
wage ordinance and then
establishing an employment
office in the city within the
next month.
"We recognize the great
est deterrent to crime in our
streets Is education and
good-paying jobs," Dorn
said. "We must provide
drive began about 18
months ago, said Marqueece
Harris-Dawson, executive
director. t>f the Community
Coalition. The idea behind
that aspect of the move
ment: Providing local high
school graduates the dual
options of going directly
into a trade apprenticeship
program, or applying to col
lege.
"We are sick and tired of
vocational programs that
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