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Northwest Chicago’s finest weekly newspaperNEWS/JOURNALPublished every Thursdaymorning at 5959 S. Harlem Ave, 60638. Mail subscription rate is $6.90 per year insidecity circulation area Secondclass postage paid at Chtca go, IllinoisVOL. 41, NO. 17Serving • AUSTIN • NOtTH PULASKI • HUMBOLDT PARK • CRAGIN • KElVYN PARKGAIEWOOD • BRICKYARD MALI • GRAND HARLEM • MERMOSA • LOGAN SQUARE • MONT CLARETHURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2. 1978Subscriptions $6 90per year within circulation area Phone 278-6100 for subscriptions or wantadsSingl*’ copy 25ranstwolawsuitsBy MATTHEW CALHOUNA citizens group representing Chicago Latinos has taken action which may lead to two suits concerned with alleged unfair employment practices on the part of the Chicago Post Of fice, and the city as a whole.The Westtown Concerned Citizens Coalition has filed a complaint in Washington D C with the treasury department, asking them to withhold 80 million dollars a year in revenue sharing from the city, in an attempt to bring up the number of Latins the city employs. Only 2.6 percent of tO.OOO city workers are Latino.The Reverend Jorge Morales, head of the Westtown Coalition, has said there are three possible courses the Treasury Department may take The claims may be investigated, ignored, or agreed with. In the latter case there would probably be a lengthy court battle, lasting an estimated two years.The city is the largest employer in Chicago including private industry, but it made no effort to bring the percentage of Latin people hired up tonumbers which reflect their percentage in the population, Rev Morales feels ‘‘Intentional discrimination” isthe phrase he uses to describe thecity's means of hiring, dismissing, and promoting He added that Latin communities are not provided with basic services, citing information dissemination, fire protection, and health care.Before the suit was filed by the WCCC the Mayor refused to meet with the group if he had, community organizer Peter Earle said, the law suit might have been averted The citizens group is also preparing for a suit against the Post Office, charging similar underrepresentation of Latinos in the work force. Morales said information of two sorts is being gathered in an attempt to prove that rampant discrimination exists People who have passed the Post Office’s standardized test but weren’t hired are being sought out, as well as those who failed the test, due. Morales says, to the cultural bias contained in the standardized tests.“People who are citizens but who have been educated in other sorts of education systems cannot pass these tests. There is a new kind of discrimi nation surfacing, in addition to race, creed, and national origin, language discrimination The United States went to these people, people in Puerto Rico, people in the Southwest, nearMexico. Now they cannot get jobs.” Before it files the suit, the WCCC wants to get the results of a postal exam held in June, which many of its members took The Post Office says results were delayed by a backup in Los Angeles, where they are scoredIn the past suits have been filed on behalf of minorities, but they have not benefited the Latino population, Earle said. Out of 120 minority fire men who were hired after such a suit, only nine were Latinos.The late independent South Side Congressman Ralph Metcalfe had initiated an investigation on hiring practices in the Civil Service and the Post Office, which is now in a congressional committee ‘‘If we get it. fine,” said Morales. We wouldn’t need our suit. But the death of Ralph Metcalfe was a great blow to that investiga tion. and to us. We are trying to institute the aid of Congressman Dan Ros-tenkowski, to be responsible for following it up“We are finally learning,” the Reverend concluded in Biblical fash ion, “that we must be wise as ser pents and gentle as doves, because we are among wolves.NAC and Real Estate Boardstill deadlocked over AustinBy SI /.ANNE ERFl'RTHwDisappointed by what it called a frigid’’ reception of its housing coun seling proposal by the Northwest Real Esatate Board, the North Austin Council says it still hasn't given up.“I frankly did not expect the recep tion we got,” said NAC secretary Alan Amato ‘‘We ll meet soon to discuss the next step to take. Hopefully,the NREB haven't closed their mindscompletely.”The counseling program is modelled on a housing referral service begun several years ago in Oak Park, and resembles programs adopted by several Chicago suburbs using the Oak Park model Real estate salesmen, under the proposed plan, would refer their buyers to a housing centerParade committeegetsrnew9headBy MARY PAPENFUSSRuben Cruz knew someone didn’t like him after his car blew up near Division and Wolcott.SomeONE?” asks Carlos Castro, president of the Puerto Rican United Front. We invite your newspaper to ask any 25 people in Humboldt Park what they think of the Cruz Clan and you won t find three who have anything good to say.”People here don’t like them,” says Claudio Flores, editor of El Puertor-riqueno ” They call them ‘the professionals.The professionals” are Ruben, Miriam, Rebecca and Emilio Cruz— people with business, government and media ties maneuvering for position in a Humboldt Park power struggle.The most recent, though not final, chapter of the struggle occurred Sunday when Claudio Flores was elected president of the 15 member Puerto Rican Parade Committee. Flores was the second president elected in a two month period.Miriam Cruz will tell you there is no second president. According to her, Nayda Cruz is the official leader of the Committee.Why all the problems about who plans a simple parade? Because the Puerto Rican parade is not so simple. The event has become an institution in the Puerto Rican community since it began in 1965 Those who plan this very significant event represent the entire community,“This is the only neighborhood organization capable of mass move ment, Flores points out The Pa rade Committee draws 100,000 people during Puerto Rican Week.”Emilio Cruz was president of the committee the summer of 1977, when the parade sparked the Humboldt Park riot resulting in the deaths oftwo Puerto Rican men.Hector Franco was in charge of planning the parade this summer For the first time in 13 years, Puerto Rican Week was peaceful,” says Franco. No injuries, no vandalism Hector Franco,” says Castro, took the time to listen to individuals and community groups. He made them feel like it was their parade.” Now, Claudio Flores is planning the 1979 Puerto Rican celebration of the greatest parade in history ”Nayda Cruz is doing the same thing.The confusion over leadership began Sept 24 Community Puerto Ricans met to elect a new Parade Com-mitte. According to Flores, the meeting was disrupted by “a group dominated by the Cruz Clan. Many, angered by the course of the meeting, walked out. Those who stayed elected Nayda Cruz president.The following Friday Ruben Cruz’s car was bombed.Four days later, eleven of the 15 parade board members from the pre vious year met to declare the Sept. 24 election void. Oct. 29 was set for the new election.Claudio Flores and new board members were elected by the more than 200 member election convention None of the Cruz Clan attended The Cruz people, says Carlos Castro, see themselves as the Moses of the Puerto Ricans. But all they’re after is political and financial pow er.Claudio Flores sees a power strug gle in the Puerto Rican community,” says Miriam Cruz, Assistant to May or Bilandic. I don’t. I try to help Hispanic groups who come to me Some work harder than others. Some get more funding than others.for counseling. If the buyer chose to use the service, he would be shown listings of houses for sale throughout the city and suburbs and encouraged to make a non-traditional move Blacks would be encouraged to move into all-white areas or barely integrated areas, and whites to all-black or thoroughly integrated areas The NREB has refused to endorse the program because it says the plan calls for racial steering, which is illegal under the Civil Rigjits Act of 1968Other suburbs faced with the same argument by real estate salesmen have offered to get statements approving their counseling programs from the Illinois Department of Reg istration The DRE licenses real estate brokers and regulates their activities. But Marty Spagat of the NREB’s legal department said an en dorsement from the DRE might not be enough.I’d have to see what the DRE came down with, Spagat said. A statement from the DRE wouldn't have the power of a court opinion We'd have to be convinced that it (the housing plan) isn't steering ”The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s name is also invoked by counseling centers faced with wary real estate salesmen, be cause HUD works with many of the counseling centers. According to Spa gat, neither the DRE nor HUD is a law making body, and therefore the NREB could still be sued for steer ing even if the DRE and HUD sup ported the counseling programIronically, the NAC says the pur pose of the couseling program would be to counteract the effects of earlier racial steering that helped turn south Austin from an all-white ighborhood to an all-black one. The aim of the counseling center is a stable, inte grated neighborhood, Amato saidRaplph Brunke, president of NREB, says he sympathizes with this aimFrom the meeting 1 had with them (the NAC), they’re afraid of block by clock resegregation, and 1 sympathize with them I understand the problem they've got, but what they want us to do is definitely steer ing My understanding is that they want a quota system like they have in Oak Park (Such counseling pro grams generally try to create a bal ance of white and black families on a given block.)Temporarily deserted by neighborhood children, this playground in Humboldt Park seemssuddenly desolate.fAccessno problem for kidsin School District Four, ThomassavsBy MARY PAPENFUSSArea students are experiencing par tial integration painlessly, accordingto reports at the latest meeting of theof the District 4 Education Advisory CouncilAnnette Thomas, president of the Council, said the Access to Excellence basic skills and performing arts operations are progressing extreme ly well. So far everyone seems pleased.” Both programs are designed to improve the racial balanceof the district's public schoolsThe basic skills center in the predominantly white Burbank school at 2035 N Mobile draws children from all area schools who need special help in reading or math Students spend full days at Burbank until they can perform at grade level. They then return to their original schools One hundred eleven students are currently participating in the pro gram, though thirty nine more haveapplied“Parents are enthused,” s«id Thorpas. I just finished talking to a mother whose daughter is in the cen ter and she's very satisfied with theprogress her child is making.While each school district in the city must have a basic skills center. District Four’s performing arts cen ter is unique Students at the predom inantly black Howe school at 720 N. Lorel have enjoyed the advantages of this center for three years. Beginning Nov 13, 125 students from Dever and Sayre schools will also have the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on music, dance or drama interests.Participating students will be bused from their schools to Howe for mom ing performing art projects and aca demic classes, and back to Dever and Sayre for the afternoon Travel lime will be thirty minutes each way.The operation will progress in three eight week cycles, with a different group of students involved in each cycle.Thomas is optimistic the Council'sgoal of 250 participants can be reached We keep our lines of com munication open to parents We’ve discovered that many, though not all, support what we're trying to do and are willine to give it a chance ’’According to Thomas, members of the Advisory Council believe specialcenters are the best way to achieve integration ’’ This magnet school approach relies not on forced busing but on mutual interests to bring students together If the pilot programscontinue as smoothly as they arenow, says Thomas, hopefully theycan be expanded ’’Bumper stickerbingo winnerEach week, we will publish the license number or address of the winner in this space. The winner then must call us to claim a $10 cash prize.(Jet your flashy NEWS JOUR NAL bumper sticker by calling 278 6100. Stick it on your car or in your window at home and w in This week's winning number isYUM
Newspaper Details
Chicago News Journal
Chicago, Illinois, US
Thu, Nov 02, 1978
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Alexia R.
USA 20 Feb 2023
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