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