Martin Luther King Jr. Edition
50¿
The Portland Observer is proud to present this special Martin Luther King Jr edition. See how kids
at King Si hool in northeast / ortland live with King s vision everyday. Experience King s visit to
Portland in 1961 through the eyes o f a man who met the African American leader at the Vancouver
Avenue Baptist Church, and get an inside look at how King worked with three American presidents
to bring change to a country torn apart by racism. These and many more stories are inside this special
edition as we honor America s civil rights leader on the occasion o f the Martin Luther King Jr.
national holiday, observed this year on Monday. Jan. 2D. — See Section B, inside
15^nrtíanh
‘City of Roses
Established In 1970
Volume XXXIII • Number 3
www. port landobserver. com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • January 15. 2003
King
Events
Stray dogs follow
noses Into jobs
Faced with a rapid rise in the
ntomber o f stra y d o g s in
Bangkok, Thai police have de
cidcd to put the canines to work
sniffing out illicit drugs. Justice
Minister Purachai Piumsombun
says the first batch o f 100 aban
doned hounds with wet noses
good health and no skin prob­
lems have begun training in nar­
cotics sniffing and will eventu
ally be deployed at train stations
and airports.
Annual events
honor the legacy
of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.
City bans smelly
people from buses
You better hit the shower before
you board the bus in Bend. Pro­
posed new city rules would ban
spitting, smoking, skateboard­
ing, and stinking on city buses.
The regulations ban anyone who
“emanates a grossly repulsive
odor that is unavoidable by other
Bend Extended Area Transit cus­
tomers” from being in the bus
station or on a bus.
D ... .
..
,
PHOTO BV M ark W asiiington /T he P ortland O bserver
Ron W eber a n sw ers q u e s tio n s from s tu d e n ts a t S abin S ch o o l in n o rth e a st Portland during a p resen ta tio n on African
American history.
Man Tries to sell his
family on eBay
_ Writer Steve Young has been
able to peddle his prose all o f his
life so he decided to give selling
his family a try. After consulting
with wife Diana, and their two
children, Kelly, 9, and Casey, 8,
Young decided to put his family
on the auction block. Young said
he posted the ad Thursday on
eBay and received more than
10,000hits within minutes. Young
said the auction winner would
receivealifetimeofplatonic com­
panionship, including invita­
tions to family outings and holi­
day gatherings as well as tips on
writing, gardening and cooking.
Theminimum bid was $5 million.
Sufferers drop pants,
pray for relief
Hemorrhoid sufferers are flock­
ing to a church in central Portu­
gal in the belief exposing their I
afflicted behinds to the statue o f
a local saint will cure them. The |
suffering faithful in Murtosa, 250 J
kilometers north o f Lisbon, at­
tribute St. Goncalo with the power I
to cure the condition. The 13th-
century priest also has a reputa­
tion for curing acne and helping
women find husbands.
Storks' deliveries
upset villagers
A Thai village is in a flap over I
thousands o f m igrating storks [
and the stench from their drop­
pings, w hich has forced villag­
ers to w ear face masks and
block doors and w indow s to
keep out the suffocating smell.
O fficials in Ban Tan. a village I
about 60 kilom eters north o f |
3
M an spreads w ord o f
M artin Luther K ing Jr.
and other A frican
A m erican heroes
by M ichael L eighton
T he P ortland O bserver
Ron W eber’s heart is tugging.
H e’s draw n aw ake by the dram a o f
A m erican heroes who survived the hor­
rors o f slavery and lived to make this
country a better place for all. It w o n ’t be
long before he records his thoughts and
shares them with others.
W eber i$ a retired electrician with the
state prison system w ho now spends
much o f his tim e w riting and telling sto­
ries about A frican A m erican history.
Past lives that m ove him m ost are o f
African American women o fth e 1800s —
people like H arriett Tubm an who helped
slaves escape from the South and So­
jo urner Truth who beat the odds and
overcam e slavery herself.
W eber becam e im m ersed in black his­
tory several years ago when he set his
eyes on a picture o f Tubm an. He began to
read about her I i fe and soon was stirred to
action by A m erica’s past.
“ I started to have dream s,” W eber re­
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
adoption followed rocky road
T he P ortland O bserver
As an activist, the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. walked for miles, was spat upon,
pelted with rocks, thrown into prison cells
and ultimately murdered in pursuit o f civil
'its.
Í
called. “ I w as a black slave running in the
swamp. Tubman was yelling at me to keep
running, keep running. I could hear dogs,
horses and scream ing men tracking m e.”
His interest in the lives o f these early
A merican freedom fighters grew to u pas­
sion.
"I ju st started telling these stories,”
W eber said. “ E veryw here I went, on the
bus, the grocery store and in the coffee
process o f retribution for the terrible things
we did to A frican A m ericans."
W eber finds it appalling that so little
history o f A frican Am ericans is shared in
our schools today.
The descendants o f M other A frica
“built this country with their sw eat, blood
and their own lives," he said. “They were
dragged to a foreign land and enslaved for
centuries. W hat bothers me is we tried to
hide it. African Americans
suffered and died for h u n ­
dreds o f years, so we could
have it so g ood.”
W eber is inspired from
th e h is to rie s o f b la c k
A m ericans during the 20,h
Century as well - p e o p le
like Martin Luther King Jr.
and Rosa Parks - w hose
b a ttle s fo r fre e d o m
b ro u g h t g a in s in c iv il
rights, em ployment oppor­
tunities and voting rights.
They lived lives that bought prosperity
to all, he said, giving people o f all races
the ability to "live freely in a dem ocratic
county where you can go w here you want,
do w hat you w ant, marry w ho you want
and life the good life.”
W eber d escribes K ing as “a great
/ do all this writing and
speaking fo r free. It's my small
part in the process o f
retribution
fo r the terrible
I
things we did to African
Americans.
sh o p ."
This Portland native and graduate o f
Jesuit High School and Portland State
U niversity is now an authority in black
history. He is a frequent guest w riter on
the subject for the Portland O bserver and
speaks regularly in schools, museums,
history centers and diversity workshops.
“ 1 do all this w riting and speaking for
free," he said. “ It’s my sm all part in the
continued
on page A3
Civil Rights Holiday Did Not Come Without Turmoil
by L ee P erlman
Bangkok, say they have no idea
how to protect the village from
the birds, w hich have built
nests on rooftops and in trees
a fte r fly in g so u th fo r the
winter.
5
EMOTIONAL JOEBNEY
Several events around town will pay
hom age to Dr. M artin Luther King Jr.
and his dream o f a society based upon
equality apd hum an rights.
The W orld Arts Foundation will host
the 18th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. C elebration at U niversity o f
Portland’s Chiles C enter on M onday,
Jan. 20.
The event is recognized locally and
nationally as one of the finest com m u­
nity-based King celebrations in the
country.
The program will begin at noon with
a national bell ringing cerem ony, color
guard and national anthem s.
In v ited a rtists and sp e ak e rs in ­
clude Portland M ayor Vera K atz, civic
an d re lig io u s le a d e rs, e d u c a to rs ,
school board m em b ers, g ospel ch o irs
from acro ss the P acific N o rth w est,
c o n c ert bands, Ja p an e se d ru m m ers,
A fric an d an c ers, L atin m u sician s,
an d o th e r ch ild an d ad u lt p e rfo r­
m ance groups.
The entire event will be sim ulcast on
K BO O R ad io 90.7 FM, Portland Public
School Channel 28 and Portland Cable
A ccess T elevision Channel I I.
T h e A m e ric a n R ed C ro ss w ill
h o n o r the h o lid ay w ith the annual
“ M artin L u th er K ing Jr. B lood and
B one M arrow D riv e.”
T he 17th an n u al M artin L u th er
K ing P ray er B reak fast at the O reg o n
C o n v en tio n C e n te r w ill also be held
on M onday, Jan. 2 0 ,at 9 a.m . C o st is
$15.
The A lbina M inisterial A lliance will
h o ld its an n u a l c ity -w id e M artin
L u th er K ing Jr. W o rsh ip S erv ice at 6
p.m . on S u n d ay , Jan. 19. T he c e l­
eb ra tio n w ill be held at 4222 N .E.
12th Ave.
The world-renow ned evangelist Luis
Palau will be one o fth e m ajor speakers.
A host o f city, county, state and civic
leaders and local church choirs will
participate in the w orship service. For
further inform ation call Dr. LcR oy
Haynes Jr. at Allen Tem pleC M E Church
503-287-0261.
erhaps it is fitting, then, that the honors
accorded him did not come quickly or
y.
ip. JohnConyersofM ichigan proposed
ng King’s birthday in January a na-
I holiday four days after King was shot
ath in Memphis in 1968. For years,
ver, the idea languished. Some oppo-
simply did not like King or his ideals,
critics said that the country already
ne holidays, and that each cost the
i y and local jurisdictions millions o f
dollars in paid vaca­
and entertainer Harry
tions.
B elafonte doggedly
At that time, the only
pushed for the holiday,
A m eric an
p erso n
collecting six million
whose birthday was a
signatures o f support.
holiday nationally and
Finally, on Aug. 2nd
in each sta te w as
1983, the U.S. H ouseof
G eorge W ashington.
Representati ves voted
P eo p le q u e s tio n e d
338 to 90 to enact the
whether King carried
holiday.
the same stature as the
The U.S. Senate fol­
nation’s first president
lowed suit on Oct. 19,
and if he should be
voiing 78 to 22 for the
honored to the exclu­
measure. First, how­
sion o f other worthy
ever, Sen. Jesse Helms
people such early femi­
ofNorth Carolina made
nist Susan B. Anthony?
a speech denouncing
Some publ ic service M artin Luther King Jr.
King, whom he ac­
un ions were not wi II ing
cused o f adultery and
to have the holiday at the expense o f others aiding Communist causes. Senators Daniel
they already enjoyed.
M oynahan o f New York and Edward
Supporters of the holiday such as Conyers Kennedy of Massachusetts in turn took
Helms to task, Moynahan throwing a copy
o f Helms’ speech to the senate floor.
On the day President Ronald Reagan
signed the bill into law, Kennedy said, “With
this holiday. Dr. King takes his place as the
father o f the second American revolution,
the revolution for civil rights.”
By then, 24 states had already adopted
the day as a holiday. O regon’s turn came in
1985 - by a very bumpy road. First, the House
passed a bill by Rep. Margaret Carter, 52 to
4 on May 3. Then, by a 29 to 2 vote, the
Senate passed a similar version by the late
Sen. Bill McCoy.
Both proposals needed negotiations to
reconcile which public officials would get
what holidays and how they would be paid.
Issues remained on the table long after Gov.
Victor Atiyeh signed the measure on July 11.
The Portland City Council passed a similar
continued y f on page A3
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