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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2000)
Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition Œlje J^ortlanò (DbeerUer January 19, 2000 ■ "A c A 1 1 T 0 C ll A C T IO N " APRIL FREEDOM DAYS MOMENTS IN CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY » B r J a m s A dams = = ■ When CORE launched the Free dom R ides in the 1960s, m any thought it a new idea. It w asn’t. The first Ride, called “The Journey o f Reconciliation,” took place in 1947, lasted two weeks, and traveled to fifteen cities in V irginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. thers sought to rout. Who was getting the news and e d itin g th e p a p e r? T h e B lack Panther’s “ M inister o f Information underground” - a provocative allu sion to the parole status o f Eldridge Cleaver. W riting for the established Ramparts m agazine was one thing; editing the Black Panther was an other. C leaver knew that his work would target him for retaliation. His ies promised as volume one, num ber one, o f the Black Panther new s paper went on sale on April 25, 1967. Six m onths after founding the party, the Black Panthers launched their first cooperative business - the publication and distribution o f the newspaper. Two legal-size sheets o f paper, typed and printed on both sides, the Black Panther began with a first printing o f ten thousand cop- 1 é ê A m azingly enough, as the group w ound its w ay through Durham, North Carolina, on a Greyhound bus on April 11,1947, w hile they were threatened with arrest, none w as ac tually made. It was a first. ies and grew to a circulation o f fifty thousand copies within weeks. But the look o f the newspaper only added to its credibility - here was a voice of, by, and for the people. That was its mission - as was made clear in a 'H ® would target him for retaliation. His fear was later borne out in the parole revocations o f several ex-offenders who had become the paper’s street vendors. The violation; “failure to maintain gainful em ploym ent.” It T he n ext t im e YO UR PO W ER G O ES □ U T, R E M E M B E R , 77ie Black Panther launched their first cooperative business - the publication and distribution of a newspaper on April 25. 1967. Their tabloid size edition was a voice of. by. and for the people. The Academy Awards ceremony is a ritual almost everyone is famil iar - the glamour, the tension, the career-making voice that says “And the O scar goes to ...” On April 13, 1964, Sidney Poitier was on the hot seat with a Best A ctor nomination for his perform ance as a handy-man upholding a reluctant vow to needy nuns in Lilies o f the Field. He won - the first African American male ac tor in the forty-five-year history o f the Oscars. W hat is it like to be there and to w in? He answered elo quently in his autobiography, This Life. Why was Denzil Dowell killed? the handwritten headline demanded. It was ju st one o f the ongoing inquir- later, more sophisticated, tabloid- size edition o f the paper with a m ast head proclaim ing “Pow er to the people.” A major success, the Black Panther becam e increasingly im portant to the organization and the com m unity as its profile heightened around the innovative night patrols that tailed police as witness and de terrent to the brutality that killed Denzil Dowell and inspired the first o f many high-risk headlines and in quiries. “ Denzil Dowell was un arm ed” when shot by a Contra Costa County s h e riffs officer, and the angle o f the bullets suggests that his hands were raised, the paper re ported. “So how can six bullet holes and shotgun blasts be considered ju stifiable hom icide?” Justifiable hom icide had been the frequent and official response that licensed po lice to kill blacks with impunity. was a sign o f the times. \P R II 2« Asked to com ment in the press on his 1 -A draft status. World Heavy w e ig h t B o x in g C h a m p io n Muhammad Ali tossed o ff the rhyme that would turn his fame into in famy: “ Keep asking me, no matter how long - On the w ar in Vietnam. I sing this song - 1 ain ’t got no quarrel with the Viet C ong.” A year later, having lost his bout for conscien tious objector status on religious grounds, at 8 :30 a m. on Friday, Apri I 28, 1967, he stood before H ouston’s Local Draft Board No. 61 for induc tion into the Army. Refusing induc tion could mean five years in prison. This is an excerpt from the hook. "Freedom Days. " Perm ission fo r reprint is given by John Wiley and Sons. Inc. LJ T H IS L IG H T IS ALW AYS O N . H igh-efficiency natural gas appliances not only save yo u money and energy every m onth, they also w ork when the pow er goes out. Not that this happens all the time. But w hen it does, y o u ’ll be com forted to know you can still cook on y o u r gas range, show er using y o u r gas w ater heater, and w arm y o u rself by y o u r gas fireplace. Your neighbors just might be com forted to know this, too. Northwest Natural Gas J