National Black History in Focus
PRSDRT STD
USPOSTAGE
PAID
T his is the 75’h year that our nation has officially h o n o red the achievem ents and accom plishm ents o f A frican A m ericans during Black History M onth. O ur
continuing series on th e subject started during the first w eek in February' on P o rtlan d 's ow n B lack H istory, later covering the Black Pioneers o f the O ld W est
and O reg o n ’s B lack T railblazers. F or ou r conclusion this w eek, w e put the spotlight on fam ous A frican A m erican firsts. See our Focus section, inside.
PORTLAND OR
PERMIT NO. 1610
Knight Library
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i 29 9 L n iv ersity o f 7 eë
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a OR 97403-1205
Eugene OK
(Elu'
Volume XXXI
Number 09
Wednesday
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Established in ,970
wwyv.portlandobserver.com
February 28, 2001
50e
Peninsula Little League Struggles to Survive
P ortland O bserver
Peninsula Little L eague, a non-profit
organization that is chartered under Little
League Inc., is struggling to survive after
45 years.
Low enrollm ents and falling financial
support have put a big strain on the 2001
season.
M any o f the players in this inner city
league com e from single-parent hom es
w ith low to m iddle incom es w ho c a n ’t
m anage the $30 and $40 registration fees.
“O ne parent ca n ’t afford it and som e­
tim es it’s easier to tell a kid, no. It w ould be
a tragedy to lose our charter,” league rep­
resentatives said.
A m ajor effort to reverse this trend and
w in back more players w ill take place dur­
ing recruitm ent drives Saturday from 10
a m. to 2 p.m. at the P eninsula Com m unity
C enter in Peninsula Park and at S elf E n­
hancem ent, Inc., 3920N . Kerby.
The Peninsula district is bounded by
N ortheast 15u’ A venue, w est to N orth
Albina, north to Dekum and south to Glisan.
All ofth e league’s officials and coaches
are volunteers who give tirelessly to m ake
sure the children and their fam ilies have a
quality program. The league is also am ong
the m ost successful on the playing field,
w inning their district cham pionship last
year. The bottom line is the kids need your
support. "W e are alw ays looking to busi­
ness in the com m unity to be apart o f our
program by sponsoring a team or pure has­
ing an ad in our roster books,” said league
P resident Sharon M itchell H endricks.
B ut this support has grow n less w ith
m any businesses changing in the sur­
rounding area by m oving aw ay from the
neighborhood and b ecause new b u si­
nesses have a tendency not to support the
American Leaders Pay
Tribute in Kuwait
K U W A IT — On the IOth anniversary o f
K uw ait’s liberation from Iraqi occupation,
American leaders paid tribute to the U.S.
soldiers w ho died in the conflict. At the U.S.
Embassy, Secretary o f State Colin Powell,
former President Bush and retired Gen.
Norm an Schw arzkopf laid a wreath at a me­
morial for Americans killed in the war. O f more
than 540,000 Americans deployed at the
peak ofthe fighting, 148 were killed and 467
wounded.
Powell to Suggest Easing of
Export Restrictions
DAMASCUS, S y n a— SecretaryofState
Colin Powell will recommend to President
Bush an easing o f curbs on export ofcivilian
goods to Iraq to make sanctions more palat­
able in the Arab world, a seniorU .S. official
said. Even some goods that conceivably
could be useful to the Iraqi military — such
as water pumps and refrigerators that are
now controlled— may be exempted from the
sanctions, which have been a bedrock o f a
toughU .S. policy toward Iraq for m ore than
PeninsulcMJttle League President Sharon M axwell Hendricks ^ e ftH s trying Io keep the league afloat as
Athena" Curry, 10, at Peninsula Park. The league is struggling to Survive in the fa c e o f declining enrollm
league because o f start-up costs.
“W e need help from the com munity. Our
league has gone w ithout new equipm ent
over the last 10 years,” H endricks said.
N ew volunteers, um pires, board m em ­
bers, coaches, m anagers and scorekeepers
are also urgently needed.
The league is planning an alum ni soft-
ball game April 7^ at 10 a.m. to help generate
support. A nyone w ho played in the Irving,
Sportsm an, and Peninsula leagues from
1956 to 1998 are invited and encouraged to
a decade.
sign-up for the event by calling 503-599-
9929 and leaving a voice mail m essage.
Boys and girls looking to sign up for the
2001 -baseball/softball season can also call
the num ber above as league officials will be
sure to call you back.
11-Year Old Rescued From Forced Prostitution
(A P) - Three Portland area residents are
being held in a C anada ja il on charges they
ab d u c te d an 11-y e a r-o ld P o rtlan d girl,
drugged her and forced her to w ork the streets
as a prostitute.
T he girl, w hose nam e w as not released,
was returned to her foster parents in Portland
over the weekend.
She told C anadian authorities that she met
her captors in a Portland shopping m all a few
w eeks ago and that they prom ised she would
m ake m oney by going w ith them to Canada.
T he group crossed the border together on
Feb. 21.
Police say the girl w as then dum ped onto
the streets ofV ancouver, British Colom bia, to
‘I Have a Dream’
sell h erself and was loaded w ith acid, speed,
caffeine and Ecstasy.
O n Saturday, a V ancouver police officer
spotted the girl on a street know n for prosti­
tution - “the kiddie stroll” - and stopped to
check on her.
T he girl quickly told her story - including
the fact that she w as only 11.
Police arrested hercaptors soon after when
they show ed up to reclaim her.
Jabari M cCrory, 26, D avid M artin W alker,
25, and M elinda M ae C arter, 24, face charges
including assault and abduction o f a m inor
under the age o f 14, and possession o f con-
S tory C ontinued on P age A2
Portland Area Students Honor
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Crews Search Through
Rubble Left by Storm
PONTOTOC, Miss. — Trees snapped
like matchsticks and those left standing were
littered with clothes, furniture and insulation
from hundreds o f homes damaged by a tor­
nado that left at least five people dead in
Mississippi. Tw o more fatalities were re­
ported in Arkansas and Kansas. The violent
weather was part o f a vast storm system that
swept across the eastern h alf o f the nation
this weekend and dumped more than 20
inches o f snow on northern Minnesota.
Source: U.S. Attorney
Investigating Commutations
NEW Y O RK — The U.S. attomey’soffice
is investigating whether former President
Clinton com muted the sentences o f four
convicted swindlers in exchange for votes
for his w ife’s Senate campaign from their
community. The Hasidic community voted
overwhelmingly for Hillary Rodham Clinton
in November.
Florida Firefighters Hope
for Rain
POLK CITY, H a — Firefighters trying to
c o n ta in a central Florida brush fire are hoping
for heavy rain, saying that without it, the
11,000-acre blaze could bum for days. Florida
is coming o ff its driest year in over a century,
according to National Oceanic and Atmo­
spheric Administration records, and con­
tinuing drought conditions across much o f
the state have been blamed for the spread o f
wildfires. Since Jan. 1, more than83,000acres
have burned.
Former Luftwaffe pilot
challenges Yeager’s record
BERLIN - - A former Luftwaffe pilot is
challenging Chuck Y eager's record for hav­
ing b roke the sound barrier first. The
G erman’sclaim, however,cannot be verified,
at least not yet. Flying alone over Austria on
A p ril9 ,1945, attheendofW orldW arll. Hans
G uido Mutke pushed his Messerschmitt 262
to foil throttle in hopes o f reaching a friend
who had bailed out under U.S. attack.
Mormon Church Releases
Post-Civil War Database
school librarian Nancy Sullivan. The two students were winners o f a Washington Mutual essay contest
entitled "I have a Dream: A Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. "
T hree students from north and north­
east Portland have earned free books for
their school libraries by w riting essays in
honor o f Dr. M artin L uther King Jr.
H am so n Dark, a seventh grader at Holy
»
Redeem er, and Rhys Pinkley and Louie
R eckford, both fourth graders at Irvington
E lem entary School, are w inners o f W ash­
ington M utual's I H aveaD ream : A Tribute
to M artin L uther K ing Jr. essay contest.
A
school librarian Tracy Eslinger Dark selected $200 in books for his
library as the winner in the seventh- to ninth-grade category o f a essay
contest honoring the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr..
They each received a $200 coupon to
spend on books for their school library, and
selected titles through Book for K ids, a
nonprofit organization that offers books at
discounted prices.
The aw ards were m ade for Black H is­
tory Month.
“The legacy o f Dr. M artin Luther King
Jr. lives on, and W ashington M utual is
S tory C ontinues on P agf . A6
I
W ASHINGTON— The Monnon Church
published records from the post-Civil War
Freedm an’s Bank for newly freed slaves,
making ancestral records available for as
m any as 12 million black Americans. The
records have been available for years through
the National Archives but not in organized
form. The result is a searchable database on
com pact disk which includes information
such as family names, birth locations and
nam es o f former slave owners.