(Elje Jlortlanò QDbseruer celebrates Black History Month
Page A6
The
Black
Press
continu ed
fr o m page .43
plagued with money problems very
early on. Sporadic issues popped up
whenever there was enough money
to do so. Sometimes weeks would go
by without a paper
After secretly savinga little money
by the age o f 12 and buying a copy
of"T he Columbian Orator, "young
Frederick Douglass began to learn
that knowledge is power and words
can be used as weapons.
The “Orator,” a collection o f es
says on freedom, democracy and
courage, helped Douglass develop
an interest in writing his own feel
ings on the cruelty o f slavery. Bom
a slave, he would experience the
horrors o f racism as a small child,
never knowing his white father and
being sent away from his mother as
a slave at the age o f seven.
Raised by a white couple who
denied him access to newspapers
and books, young Douglass would
find ways to sneak reading material
into his room. He would also peek at
books and newspapers when the
family was out. Slowly he began
learning more about slavery, racism
and the many forms o f discrimina
tion practiced in American. Hevowed
to help change all that.
On Dec. 3, 1847 Douglass com
pleted a long and difficult journey
from runaway slave to newspaper
editor. Founding the AoriA Star with
M . R. Delaney, he w as quick to make
their point:
“It has long been our anxious
wish to see. in this stave-holding,
slave-trading, and Negro-hating
land, a printing press and paper,
p erm a n en tly established under
complete control and direction o f
the immediate victims o f slavers-and
oppression."
Treated cruelly for years as a slave,
Douglass was not about to sit back
and be passive. He continued his
verbal and written assault on this
prejudiced nation, using his paper to
lobby for black empowerment and
political empowerment for his race.
By the early 1850s, he had become
February os. 2001
oneofthe most influential black lead
ers in the nation and had changed
the p u b lic a tio n 's nam e to the
Frederick D ouglass's Paper. Sepa
rating himself from some earlier edi
tors who may not have had the clear
and distinct direction that Douglass
did, his message was short and too
the point:
"In respect to the Church and
the government, we especially wish
to make ourselves ful ly and clearly
understood. With the religion o f
the one, and the pol itic o f the other,
our soul shall have no communion.
These we regard as central pi liars in
the horrid tem ple o f slavery. They
are both pro-slavery; and on that
score, our controversy with them is
based.”
Devoting his life to the abolition
o f slavery and the fight for equality
regardless o f race, Douglass became
a reformer, author, and orator. Driv
ing home a strong argument regard
ing job discrimination he wrote:
“Every hour sees the black man
elbowed out o f employment by some
newly arrived immigrant whose hun
ger and whose color are thought to
give him a better title to the place."
Ron Weber continues his look at
the history o f the Black Press in next
week's edition
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photos by D avid P lechl /T he
P ortland O bservers
Lou “ Toby" Tobin, longtime owner o f H&B Jewelry & Loan Co.,
looks over tfe guitars in hock at the back o f his downtown
store. Tobin has opened a new store on Northeast Martin Luther
King Jr. Boulevard.
The Dealmaker
continued
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)( dhs
Louis.
“ He was a good g olfer,” Tobin
said. “ N aturally the cham p had to
win.”
Tobin served his country in
W orld W ar II.
He was am ong the first ranks
o f soldiers to storm the beach at
N orm andy. It w as a bloody battle
that left scores o f A m ericans
dead.
“ Som ehow I w as am ong those
that w alked ashore,” T obin said.
“A lot o f them d id n ’t m ake it.”
Tobin also has w arm m em ories
from his w ar years.
Oregon Tobacco Prevention & Education Program
' Oregon Department
of Human Services
fr o m F ront
www.healthoregon.org/tobacco
1-877-2N0-FUME (Spanish) TTY: 1-877-777-6534
O n leave in the south o f En
gland, he ju s t happened to run
into g o lf great Bobby Jones with
tw o generals from the arm y.
T o b in let the trio p la y , and
a fte r Jo n e s teed off, h e cam e
o v e r to th an k him fo r b e in g so
polite.
“T h at’s o n e o fth e things I have
never forgotten” Tobin said.
T h e new s to re on M a rtin
L uther K ing has far exceeded
an y o n e’s expectations.
“W e have a lot o f custom ers
out o f north and northeast, Port
land so w e figured it w as tim e to
take our business to them ," Tobin
said.
W ild S a lm o n
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