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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2000)
Page 8 March l, 2000-----------.----------------- Black H M Focus ►--------------------ffib e e ru e r T h is W e e k in B la c k H i s t o r y B y J anus A dams M arc h 2. 1942 On Sunday, March 2,1942, at 5:45 pm., the predictably unthinkable happened: city police killed a soldier in cold blood. Patrolman A.J. Hay did not like hearing a b lack se rg e a n t q u e stio n M ilita ry Police about a private k n ow n to be in custody. Interfering with the MPs and the sergeant, Hay knocked the black man to the ground with his stick, then riddled his body with five shots. As is usual in such situations, nothing is done until something happens to “the wrong person.” In this case, that person was Sergeant Thomas P. Foster, a respected, well-liked man. As the same police force that murdered him went through the motions o f “its investigation,” a d is tr a u g h t black soldier wept openly, threw his neatly pressed army cap to the ground, and stomped it to death. “Why should we go over there and fight?” he grieved. “These are the sons o f bitches we should be fighting!” As the crowd slowly dispersed, the man stood alone, in so many ways, still stomping his cap, until a fellow soldier gently led him to the bus for Camp Robinson. Although barely moved by the incident, local businessmen were upset by the coverage the story received from veteran journalist Daisy Bates in the Arkansas State Press - the newspaper she ran with her husband, L.C. Bates. Within five days, every downtown store cancelled its ads. But the community so a p p re c ia te d the p a p e r ’s courageous ongoing crusade that circulation doubled within months. After that, the ads returned as well. The buying power o f so many black consumers was too good for even other businesses to lose out on. Daisy Bates Tenth Annual Cascade Festival of African Films In celebration of Black History Month P o rtla n d C o m m u n ity College Cascade Cam pus T errell H a ll, R oom 122 7 0 5 N . K illin g sw o rth Free p a rk in g in campus lots February 4 - March 4 Daisy Bates was a longtime co-editor (with her husband) o f the Arkansas State Press. She used that newspaper to fight segregation, police brutality, and other injustices; and as president o f the Arkansas NAACP, she organized the Little Rock Nine and engineered the desegregation o f Little Rock's Central High School. B a tes’s leadership in that agonizingly violent struggle was indomitable, even when her home was bombed and her newspaper became the target o f economic reprisals. Alabama from 1 Josephine Baker, Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Langstoi Hughes and Margaret Sanger. Blues fo r an Alabama Sky, along with F lyin ' West and Bourboi at the Border, form an acclaimed trilogy in which Pearl Cleagi has deftly dramatized a specific trajectory in African- Americai social history. She is also theauthorofabest-selling novel, Who Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, which enjoyed th> highly-coveted privilege o f being selected for O prah's Boot Club. Thursdays a t noon Fridays and Saturdays a t 7 :3 0 p .m . Opening Night—Friday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. i H e r ita g e A fric a w ith D ir e c to r K w a w P. A nsah fro m G hana M usic by O bo A d d y and O k ro p o n g a t Jefferson H ig h School A u d ito r iu m F o r m o re in fo rm a tio n , call 5 0 3 -2 4 4 -6 1 I I , e x t. 3 6 3 0 This Portland Community College event is made possible through the generous support of the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the O regon Council for the Humanities, the O regon Arts Commission and McMenamins Kennedy School. Portland Community College