Black History Month: Dick Bogle of Portland, Oregon

 Nadene Gokldfoot                                               

I want my children to know about Dick Bogle, one of my long time friends going back to my high school years at Washington High School, which was way way back in history.  

He told me of his friends and himself who wanted to celebrate so tried to rent a boat on a lake and they wouldn't rent it to them with Dick (a Black) among the group.  The group then decided they didn't want that boat after all, and they did something else.  Dick felt very bad that it was he who spoiled their day;  and he still hadn't gotten over it.   

He was the Sports Editor of our high school newspaper, and he knew everybody.  His mother was one of the writers at the Oregonian and his father was a mailman.  Dick was 4 years older than myself.

We found ourselves walking home together.  We didn't cross Division, though;  Dick going to the left and me crossing till I got to Ladds Addition.  We had lots of time to talk to each other about our different lives;  me as a Jewish teen and he as a Black one. I remember our last year together as it was his graduation year.

 (Dick Bogle was a landmark reporter and politician. Born in Portland in 1930, his father descended from an early Oregon pioneer family and his mother was well known writer and activist Kathryn Hall Bogle. Dick attended OSU and Vanport College before taking a job as a music reporter at The Oregonian in 1952.)

The next thing I knew was that Dick was a Portland policeman.  We bumped into each other and talked.  He told me of an area to stay away from and not drive there as it would not be safe for me.  He continued to write jazz and sports articles for the Portland Reporter and worked as a police officer from 1959 to 1968. 

(After attending Oregon State and Portland State universities, Bogle began a career with the Portland Police Bureau, where he served for nine years, in the 1960s. News was a passion for Bogle, according to the public record of his life available across the Internet and from KATU-TV, where Bogle began work as a journalist after his time at the bureau.

According to KATU.com Bogle was the first black journalist in the Northwest when he was hired. The Willamette Week described him as the first black television news journalist and second black person elected to City Council-I'll try to get to that.)

Life went on for both of us.  I had moved to Israel and came back after 4 plus years, so I found out  that Dick was now on channel 2 News.  Dick Bogle was primarily a television news reporter and anchor for KATU Channel 2 in Portland, serving as the first Black on-air reporter in the city from 1968 to 1982.  I had just returned from Israel at the end of 1985 just as Thanksgiving was starting.  

Earlier, I had returned to Portland for a visit and was encouraged by my cousin, a singer, Lorraine Goldfoot nee Slifman,  to drop in at channel 2 on Dick at the radio station which I did.  I told him all about living in Israel and why it was important to the USA, etc. He said he had a friend in politics who had told him similar things, too.  

1982,  He was hired as City Commissioner Mildred Schwab's executive assistant. He had  been a policeman and then a detective, and for some reason found himself overseer of the Fire Department as its commissioner, as I remember.  I think it was Mildred that he commented to me as being a really hard overseer;  good for you, Mildred;  we have to teach men well...

In 1984, City Commissioner Charles Jordan, the first black commissioner (member of the city council) in Portland, announced his resignation, and Bogle entered the race to succeed him. He won 28% of the vote in the initial round, and defeated Herb Cawthorne with 55% in the runoff.

 This made Bogle the second African American elected to Portland's City Council. He was re-elected in 1988 but lost in 1992. His 1992 loss was attributed to several controversies, such as a $20,000 settlement on a sexual harassment claim and a $1,500 trip to Asia on the taxpayer's dime. On his final day as commissioner, he said, "I promised I would work to make Portland a city my grandchildren would be proud of. I have and it is.                                  

Somewhere along the line, Dick and I met again and I became his genealogist.  We were trying to find out the story behind his ancestor, Oceania.  I traced the family back to Jamaica, and remember a horrible hurricane hitting the island causing deaths, etc, and escaping to the mainland.  In my mind it was like a movie, and I'm sure the story should have become a movie, as they wound up as pioneers that were not allowed in Oregon.  They moved to Washington and lived there. Eventually something drew them to Oregon and here they were; change in government, no doubt.  I do believe I sent his tree to him and maybe also to his daughter.  We worked together on it.  

(Oregon officially allowed Black people to reside in the state after the repeal of exclusion laws in 1926, though the clauses were rendered moot earlier by the 14th Amendment in 1866. Oregon had strict exclusion laws starting in 1844, with the final ban on Black residents written into its 1857 constitution. 

Washington Territory, established in 1853, never adopted similar widespread racial exclusion laws.)

Dick Bogle, left, was Oregon's first black TV journalist. He died Thursday at the age of 79. In his retirement, the Vancouver man worked with the Portland Police Bureau to solve old murders dating back to the 1960s. Photo Gallery

After leaving politics, Bogle turned back to writing, publishing articles in DownBeat, Senior Lifestyles, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Skanner. He also took and published photos of jazz artists. 

Later in his career, he volunteered as a jazz DJ for the radio station KMHD (Mt. Hood Community College) and for the Portland Police Bureau's cold case unit, and had the station for a long time.  I listened. 

 Well, Dick, I found out that at one time we both were buying goodies at the same bakery, one I bought my Challah from in south Portland.  We came close to bumping into each other then.  

Dick Bogle --newsman, police officer and twice-elected Portland commissioner--died from congestive heart failure at a Vancouver hospital. He was survived by his wife, Nola, a son and four daughters.

I attended the gathering after his death of a time to remember Dick with my son.  It was packed with people who felt close to Dick. He should be remembered out here in Portland and elsewhere as a man who had a hard time as a teen but became a success story.  

I have been lucky;  I also had congestive heart failure, still do, but have a pacemaker now.  I'm 91 and almost a half.  It's just now that I'm interested in the Portland Blazers with with Deni from Israel as their lead player-though they dodged the bullet Friday night by not playing against the Hot Denver team who wins like 50 points more than their opponents; and those running the marathon; which my son, grandson and as I just found out, daughter in law has run, and my now best buddy, Kali Washington, a marathon runner from Denver !  You would be impressed and would be able to write something really important about this, I'm sure.  I guess it's never too late !

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Bogle#:~:text=In%20September%20of%20that%20year,Mildred%20Schwab's%20executive%20assistant.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/dick-bogle-cop-newsman-politician-dead-at-79/283-71734509

https://www.columbian.com/news/2010/feb/25/former-tv-reporter-portland-commissioner-dies/

 

Black History Of 2026 Making History With Muhoozi Kainerugaba of Uganda

 Nadene Goldfoot                                        

Muhoozi Kainerugaba (born April 24, 1974, age 52, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) is a Ugandan military general and the son of Ugandan Pres. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (1986– ). Kainerugaba is known for his military commands and for making controversial statements on the social media platform Twitter (now known as X).  In reading his bio, I see he has gathered many faults, but this one thing he will be doing in putting up a statue of Yoni Netanyahu is justifying why he will be remembered in Israel and the USA.  His life also reminds us of the problems Black people have had in Africa.  

Kainerugaba was born in Tanzania, the eldest of four children born to Janet and Yoweri Museveni. He was given the name Kainerugaba in honour of his mother’s brother, Henry Kainerugaba. 

                               Idi Amin Dada Oumee (30 May 1928 – 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until his overthrow in 1979.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s parents were Ugandans living in exile because of the political climate in their home country. While in Tanzania, his father was heavily involved in efforts to depose Uganda’s president at the time, the dictator Idi Amin. 

                Uganda in bright green.  

Idi Amin was the President of Uganda during the 1976 Entebbe hostage crisis and the subsequent Israeli rescue operation, known as Operation Thunderbolt or Operation Entebbe. As the third president of Uganda, Amin ruled as a dictator from 1971 to 1979 and openly supported the Palestinian hijackers. 

After Amin was removed in 1979, Kainerugaba, his mother, and his siblings moved to Uganda for only a couple of years before needing to leave in exile due to rising political tensions. They returned to Uganda after his father overthrew the government and installed himself as president in 1986. Because of the family’s journeys, Kainerugaba attended schools in multiple countries during his childhood. 

After he completed his secondary schooling in Uganda, he attended the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Kainerugaba was raised in the Christian faith. He married Charlotte Kutesa in 1999; they have three children.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, commander of the Ugandan army and son of the country’s president, announced Thursday on X that a statue of Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu will soon be erected at “the exact spot where he was killed at Entebbe Airport.” He said the gesture is intended to “strengthen blood relations with Israel.” He added, “Yoni is the big brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. God bless Uganda and Israel.”

 Yoni Netanyahu commanded the successful hostage rescue at Entebbe in 1976. The hostages on the hijacked Air France flight at Entebbe in 1976 were primarily Israeli citizens and Jewish passengers from various countries, including France, who were traveling from Tel Aviv to Paris. The hijackers separated the Jewish and Israeli hostages from the rest, releasing the non-Jewish/non-Israeli passengers, leaving over 100 people held.                  

              Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu (Hebrew: יוֹנָתָן "יוֹנִי" נְתַנְיָהוּ, March 13, 1946 – July 4, 1976) killed at age 30

Remember what happened in Entebbe, Uganda?  Lt. Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu was the commander of the elite Israeli Sayeret Matkal unit who was killed on July 4, 1976, while leading the daring "Operation Entebbe" (Operation Thunderbolt) to rescue hostages in Uganda. He was the sole Israeli soldier killed during the mission, and was the leader of the operation which successfully freed over 100 hostages. A monument in his honor was planned for the site.

Resource:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhoozi-Kainerugaba

Black History Month: Booker T. Washington and the Jews

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

                                                   Washington in 1905

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) is noted as a preeminent African American educator, orator, author, and influential leader who advocated for vocational education, economic self-reliance, and racial uplift. As the founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, he promoted a strategy of "accommodation" to Jim Crow segregation in exchange for funding education and economic opportunity.  

Based on the search results, there is no evidence of a specific legal rule or law that prohibited Black people from using the surnames of U.S. presidents.

In fact, after the Civil War and emancipation, many newly freed African Americans intentionally chose the surnames of U.S. presidents—such as Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln—to symbolize their new status, dignity, and, in some cases, to assert their identity as American citizens.  Note that Booker is  the 2nd known Washington used that I have found so far.  Usually, Black came to use the slave owner'surname and often there was a genetic reason for this. 

 George Washington Carver took his surname from the family that enslaved him in Missouri, while Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Virginia.                            

Booker T. Washington's collaboration with Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck) created a landmark partnership, establishing nearly 5,000 schools for Black children in the segregated South. This alliance, rooted in shared values of education and philanthropy, marked a significant early 20th-century connection between Black and Jewish communities.

• The Rosenwald Schools: Starting in 1912, Washington and Rosenwald partnered to fund over 4,977 schools, 217 teachers' homes, and 163 shops in 15 Southern states, addressing the severe lack of educational facilities for Black, rural children.
• A "Mutual Aid" Model: The program required local community fundraising and buy-in, encouraging collaboration between Black communities, white officials, and the Rosenwald Fund. By 1932, one-third of all Black children in Southern schools were in Rosenwald-built facilities.
• Philanthropic Support: Beyond schools, Rosenwald provided crucial funding to the NAACP, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and created fellowships for Black artists and intellectuals.
• Shared Values: Both men (Rosenwald and Washington)  believed in the power of education for advancement and were motivated by a desire to combat prejudice and institutionalized inequality. 

This partnership is recognized as one of the most productive and significant collaborations between Jewish and Black leaders in the early civil rights era.

                Booker T Washington Known Accomplishments

• 1. Founder of Tuskegee Institute: He built the institution into a major center for African American technical and vocational education.
• 2. The "Atlanta Compromise" (1895): He famously argued that Black people should focus on economic advancement and vocational skills rather than immediate political or social equality.
• 3.  "Accommodationist" Strategy: Known for advising patience in the face of Jim Crow, he focused on self-help, which gained him support from white financiers and, controversially, led to criticism from figures like W.E.B. Du Bois.
• 4.  Advisor to Presidents: He was a trusted advisor on racial issues to U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
• 5.  Hidden Activism: Despite his public accommodationist stance, he secretly funded legal challenges against segregation and disenfranchisement.
• 6.  Author: His autobiography, Up From Slavery (1901), was a bestseller.

A Black History Month Choice: Henry Ford and George Washington Carver

 Nadene Goldfoot                                              

                George Washington Carver (c. 1864 – January 5, 1943) 

George Washington Carver was a renowned 20th-century agricultural scientist and inventor famous for promoting sustainable farming, specifically through crop rotation with peanuts and soybeans to restore soil nitrogen. Known as "The Peanut Man," he developed over 300 products from peanuts, alongside hundreds from sweet potatoes and pecans, to help poor Southern farmers.

Son of Mary and Giles.  his enslaver, Moses Carver, descended from a family of immigrants of German or English descent, had purchased George's parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for $700 (~$18,609 in 2024).  Giles died before George was born and when he was a week old, he, his sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders from Arkansas. George's brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers. The kidnappers sold the trio in Kentucky.

Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them, but he found only the infant George.  Moses negotiated with the raiders to gain the boy's return and rewarded Bentley.

      George Washington Carver's childhood spent here in school 

 After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, raised George and his older brother, James, as their own children. They encouraged George to continue his intellectual pursuits, and "Aunt Susan" taught him the basics of reading and writing.

In researching George Washington  Carver, I see that he was friends with Henry Ford. What a shock!!! Henry Ford (1863–1947), the founder of Ford Motor Company and a pioneer of modern industrial manufacturing, was also one of the most prolific and influential antisemites in American history. During the 1920s, he used his wealth, influence, and personal newspaper to propagate vicious conspiracy theories about Jewish people, significantly impacting both American and European attitudes towards Jews.

On the other hand, George Washington Carver was a deeply spiritual, Christian agricultural scientist known for his humanitarian approach to life, prioritizing the improvement of humanity regardless of background or creed. While his primary connections were through agricultural research, his work brought him into contact with various figures and institutions across the United States.  

He was evidently strong in his opinions about people and was not sucked into Ford's anti-Semitism.  For That I give him a lot of credit.  He held his own.  

Further,George Washington Carver, (born 1861?, near Diamond Grove, Missouri, U.S.—died January 5, 1943, Tuskegee, Alabama), American agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter whose development of new products derived from peanuts (groundnuts), sweet potatoes, and soybeans helped revolutionize the agricultural economy of the South. Carver was born into slavery, the son of an enslaved woman named Mary, owned by Moses Carver. During the American Civil War, the Carver farm was raided, and infant George and his mother were kidnapped…

In antiquity around in the Middle East those ancient laws like the laws of Um-Namu and the Code of Hammurabi that are being praised as great achievements of humanity, and they are great for even having such a thing as a code of laws.  But even today in the countries around us now if you are an important person and you have an accident with your car and wound or kill a poor person you can get away with murder and just pay some small sum and walk away. We've seen a lot of this example lately in our own government.  

The Torah states in Torah portion of Judaism  that is read around the whole world: ““He who kidnaps a person (male of female) and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 21:16 NKJV). May be dear brothers and sisters if the world would believe and keep the Torah,  human-trafficking would not be so popular, sexual enslavement human beings might not be considered such attractive business. It seems that all religions want the same thing;  people to be good; to have good morals.  It does not happen by accident, however. children copy their parents or swear they will go the opposite way.   

1. George Washington Carver was the first African American to enroll at Iowa State University. He later received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from there.
2. After Carver received his master’s degree, Booker T. Washington offered him a job at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama to serve as the Director of the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School.
3. Carver was one of the most prominent African Americans of his time and was well-recognized for his work in plant research.
4. George Washington Carver advised Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi on matters of agriculture and nutrition.
5. George Washington Carver was the first African American to have a national park named after him. You can visit the park and his monument in Missouri.
6. In addition to being an excellent scientist and inventor, Carver was also an accomplished pianist and painter. His artwork was exhibited at the World’s Fair in 1893.
7. He helped Henry Ford make peanut rubber for cannons for World War II.
8. Susan taught George to read and write, since no local school would accept black students at the time.

Resource:

https://www.kehila.org/p/parashat-mishpatim-shabbat-shekalim?utm_source=news.kehila.org&utm_medium=redirect&utm_campaign=legacy

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/305549/jewish/Torah-Slavery-and-the-Jews.htm

An Open Window: Who Will Help Iran Besides Israel?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

The Shah of Iran with his third wife, Empress Farah Diba, mother of  Crown Prince Reza.  Getty Images  He was a friend of Israel.

Israel supported Iran during the Iran–Iraq War. Israel was one of the main suppliers of military equipment to Iran during the war. Israel also provided military instructors during the war, and in turn received Iranian intelligence that helped it carry out Operation Opera against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor.

Before Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran under the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was an ally and major buyer of Israeli weapons. However, after the revolution, the new government of Ayatollah Khomeini, froze relations with Israel and was openly hostile towards it.

Unable to get military equipment from the Carter administration (1977-1981), the Iranians reached out through back channels to the Israeli government and negotiated a preliminary covert arms deal between the two countries. In early 1980, the first military equipment sale by Israel to the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini occurred, when Israel sold to Iran a large number of tires for the F-4 Phantom fighter jet.  Israel kept Iranian planes flying in spite of a lack of spares, and Israeli instructors taught Iranian commanders how to handle troops. 

Oy!  the shame of it;  Iran taking Israel's help !  How dare they!  During and after the war, Iranian officials denied they had received help from Israel which they denounced as an "illegitimate state". Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran during the war, angrily denied that Israeli arms were sent to Iran. In a speech on August 24, 1981, he maintained that Iran's enemies were trying to undermine the Islamic Revolution by spreading false rumors of Israeli-Iranian cooperation. He alleged that while Israel had bombed and destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear facilities in 1981, this was because Saddam Hussein was actually an ally of Israel who "forced" Israel to destroy his own nuclear facilities.

 Despite Iranian leaders denouncing Israel at Friday prayers, Israel supplied instructors and non-armament help to Iran. Israeli military and civilian advisers arrived in Iran three days after the beginning of the war to assist Iran's military command. (Little did Israel know how bad the Ayatollah regime would turn out to be.  

In 1979, the Shah fled Iran, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, an exiled Shia cleric opposed to Western influence, took power. He declared Iran an Islamic Republic, ruling through a mix of theocracy and managed democracy based on his interpretation of Islamic law. He aligned Iran against the U.S. and Israel, calling for the destruction of the Jewish state and building a network of proxies across the region to spread his ideals of theocratic rule.

Iran has not always been Shia-majority or Islamist. For most of its post-Islamic conquest history, Iran was predominantly Sunni. The forced, nationwide conversion to Twelver Shia Islam was initiated by the Safavid dynasty in 1501 to create a distinct political identity from the neighboring Sunni Ottoman Empire. 

How did Ruhollah get away with it?  "Thousands of political prisoners were executed, and political opposition was harshly suppressed"

His successor.Khamenei also built up the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a military force parallel to Iran’s traditional military, tasked with “defending the revolution,” and the Basij, a paramilitary force primarily responsible for combating dissent within Iran.                                         

The Shah's son, Crown Prince Pahlavi,  is now leading  THE Revolution of Iranians from the USA.  He will soon join them in Iran.  The question of who will lead if and when the regime falls isn’t the most pressing concern for many at the moment, though. As the protests expanded Thursday evening, the regime severely intensified its crackdown.

 Internet access and phone service throughout the country were shut down, and security forces rained bullets on protesters. As of Wednesday, thousands of protesters were reported killed, with some estimates reaching as high as 20,000 killed, with many more wounded and thousands arrested. Those in hospitals were known to be murdered already.  Verifiable information is difficult to obtain because of the communications blackout, but the limited footage and testimony that have emerged are extremely concerning. Tousi.tv is a major one with its handler being Tousi in England with helpers in Iran whose father is still in Iran.  

Fatemeh Shams, an Iranian professor living in exile in America since 2009, told The New Yorker that these protests differ from previous ones because Iranians from all sectors and classes are involved. Shams publicly renounced compulsory Hejab in 2011, which immediately made her a target of a state-sponsored online smear campaign. Ever since, she has been an outspoken feminist activist against compulsory Hejab and anti-women laws in Iran.  Womanhood, Life in exile, migration, politics, war, human relationships, gender issues, and socio-political taboos are among the leading themes in her works.  She has been a well-known female dissident poet. Since 2009, as a result of the controversial presidential election, she has been forced to live in exile following the arrest of her immediate family members (her sister and ex-husband) by the Iranian authorities.

 “This is a riot of a starving population. This is a riot for survival… It’s a matter of how to survive and protect their families and put bread and food on the table when basic goods are impossible to buy or find.” It has hit everyone's pockets so that a wheel barrow of money can't buy a thing;  far worse than Germany had been in 1939.  They're running out of water.  How much worse can they get?  They are at that point.  The Prince said, " it was not a question of whether political change would come to Iran, but “how many Iranians would be sacrificed as democracies stand by and watch,” speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, 2/14/26.,

On June 22, 2025, the United States Air Force and Navy attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran as part of the Iran–Israel war, under the code name Operation Midnight Hammer. The Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center were targeted with fourteen GBU-57A/B MOP "bunker buster" bombs carried by B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and Tomahawk missiles fired from a submarine. According to Trump, US F-35 and F-22 fighters also entered Iran's airspace to draw its surface-to-air missiles, but no launches were detected.

Now: Trump tells Iranian protesters 'help is on its way’ | ABC NEWS.  They took him at his

 word. US President Donald Trump a month ago has encouraged Iranian protesters to overthrow the country’s Islamic regime, saying ‘help is on its way’ in a social media post.

Iranian authorities have told Reuters that around 2,000 people have been killed in widespread unrest since late December. As of 22/15/26, it could be 80,000. The US leader is set to meet with his national security advisors including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. ABC correspondent Ben Knight says cyber attacks, kinetic strikes and more sanctions are some of the available options for the White House.

Resource:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXHvdk-yXo8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Iran#:~:text=In%20the%2016th%20century%2C%20the,particularly%20during%20the%20Achaemenid%20era.