lije JJortlanh (Observer
Page A8
April 23. 2003
‘F a lle n W a r r io r s ’ H o n o r e d
continued
from A3
m ined to up ho lding their good im
age and acting as good role models
fo r younger boxers.
Seattle fight. Johnson hadjust won
a s ilv e r medal and could hardly
dying him self.
move. The pain turned out to be
bone cancer.
person w ho m o tiva te d others,”
“ He was always a good natured
" I to ld him to go to the doctor
"There was a real u n ity,” he said
“ Nobody wanted to do anything to
embarrass the team.”
m onths,” Rahsaan said. “ He was
o n ly 22 o r 23.”
But after the team disbanded,
the image the boxers fought so hard
Pete Vastine W h ite played in
local bands, did a lo t o f fishing and
to maintain liquidated along w ith it.
Rahsaan said o f the 12 deceased
boxers, o n ly three died o f natural
causes.
w orked construction before pass
ing away in his sleep at the age 45
and he was dead in six to nine
Rahsaan said. “ He was always ta lk
ing about what he was going to do
and how m uch he was going to
There was John H oward,
w ho w on the nationals at age
accom plish.”
standing B o x e r- even though
the m in im u m age to compete
O ther boxers had their lives cut
short by gun violence. Police shot
Joe H o p kin s in the 1980s and
M arcellus A lle n was shot by his
girlfriend. Joel ‘ J D ’ Stroud was shot
in the back o fh is head and Herb Le
in 1988.
Joe Banks died a couple years
team m em bers’ deaths were
p re cip ita te d by the use o f
drugs and alcohol.
Suer, w ho Rahsaan remembers as
14 and was voted M ost O u t
was 16. Rahsaan said even a
m ediocre southpaw can g ive a
g o o d rig h t-h a n d e d b o x e r
trouble, but H ow ard was more
than mediocre.
"H e was super and he knew
he was good,” Rahsaan said.
“ But he got wrapped up in the
chem ical abuse life style and
die d som etim e in the late
1980s.”
The same story applies to
PeteGonzales, a featherweight
w h o turned professional and
PHOTO BY W YNDE D \ ER
H a lim R a h s a a n h o ld s a n e w s p a p e r c lip p in g o f b o x e r J o h n n y H ow ard.
went on to become No. 8 in the
w o rld fo r his w eight class.
“ T ryin g to hit him was like k illin g
flie s ," Rahsaan said. “ A n d he a l
ways had a lo t o f heart.”
Joe West became a poet, got into
drugs and died sometime in the
80s. Rahsaan kept in touch w ith
him fo r a w h ile and describes
the poetry he wrote and pre
sented around Portland as revo
lutionary.
Rahsaan has no idea what
became o f C lyde W i 11 iams, but
said the death that m ost per
sonal ly touched him was that o f
his sp a rrin g p a rtn e r, T o n y
Tony Jacobs, k n o w n by te a m m a te s as 'The Toy C h am p ion , ’ is in th e rin g in a h is to ric a l K n o tt
Jacobs.
S tre e t B o xin g p h o to . Ja co b s w as fo u n d d e a d b e h in d a d u m p s te r ju s t five w e eks ago.
He considers it iro n ic that
Jacobs, w ho Coach L in c o ln
First there was Sam Johnson,
w ho represented the U nited States
in 1967. Rahsaan rem e m be rs
Johnson com plaining about pain in
his Hip on the trip home fro m a
ago in a tragic fish in g accident.
Rahsaan said a boat flip pe d over
an older boxer that the kids always
looked up to, died in his 30s when
and no one was w earing lifejackets.
he was shot by an acquaintance
du rin g an altercation.
Banks saved another fisherm an
w ho c o u ld n ’t sw im and ended up
M ore often than not, K nott Street
said. “ W e called him 'T h e T o y
b o xin g he alw ays found it m ore
C h am p ion’ because he was like a
im portant to w o rry about the fig h t
ers he’ s never heard of, rather than
the ones w ith the collectio n o f tro
little d o ll you w o u ld w in d up and
turn loose.”
Jacobs was found dead from
phies and titles.
“ I f you fig h t somebody w ith
He was the first one in
to train and the last one
to leave. We called him
‘The Toy Champion ’
because he was like a
little doll you would
wind up and turn loose.
w o u ld measure the other b o x
ers against during physical fitness
tests, w o uld turn to drugs.
“ He was the firs t one in to train
and the last one to leave,” Rahsaan
-H a lim Rahsaan
a name and you loose, it ’s no big
deal," he said. “ But i f you fight
a nobody and you loose, that
nobody becomes a somebody.”
A lthough all o f the 12 de
ceased Knott Street Boxers have
both titles and trophies to their
credit, Rahsaan worries that i f
their stories are not told and
b
their legacies not remembered
they w ould loose their place in
Portland athletic history.
He hopes the com m em ora
tion dinner w ill keep that from
happening.
weather exposure behind a north
Portland dum pster ju s t fiv e weeks
ago. •
Jenkins at 5 0 3-8 23-3 631 o r H a lim
Rahsaan said in the w o rld o f
Rahnaanat503-281-2804ext. 115.
For more inform ation contact Lee
C h e m ie n ' P eel
Commendable Restraint
Injustice propels
Frederick
Douglass to
national
consciousness
as an orator and w rite r. Several years
later he w o u ld fin d h im s e lf in R och
ester, N e w Y o rk w o rk in g as an e d i
tor. Between 1847 and 1874, some o f
his papers in clu d e d the N o rth Star,
F r e d e r ic k
D o u g la s s
Douglass M o n th ly and the N ew Era.
Douglass had m any opportunities
to take revenge on whites but refused
Douglass gravitated from slavery to
pursuit o f peaceful justice w ould have
made M ahatm a G andhi and M artin
Luther K in g Jr. proud.
H is dram atic portrayals o f life as a
slave greatly impressed m ostly w hite
audiences throughout N e w Y o rk and
cans.
other northern states. H is listeners
Douglass was bo m to a slave
w o u ld rise to th e ir feet in loud ap
wom an named Harriet B ailey and an
unknow n father. He was raised by
free black grandparents. A t eight years
old, Frederick Bailey, as he was named
plause after hearing his stories o f tor
tuous treatment and how he broke
free to m arry the wom an he loved.
W ith his w ife , w ho also was a form er
then, was sent to live in B os
ton where his mast
slave, and the ir children in the
audience, the crowds wept
w ife w o uld teach hii
and cheered w h ile lis
to read and w rite , o f
tening to his harrow
ing tales. Through
ten using the bible.
A fte r her husband
forbade the edu
out
h is
li f e
D o u g la s s spo ke
and w rote on the
cating ofblacks in
his home, young
treatment o f black
slaves, insisting on
F r e d e r ic k w as
fo rc e d to teach
II you're not ready for a
equality fo r all per
sons in Am erica and
him self. A t the age
12, he saved
cosmetir, procedure, you’re
the perfect candidate lor
across the w orld. His
m oney to buy his first
book, “ The C olom bian
NEW OLAY REGENERIST
message was the same
in Europe where he was
Orator. ” W hen the mas
ter began to notice that
re g e n e riS T
to match b ig o try w ith violence. His
to educate racist A m erica on the cru
elties o f its treatment o f A frican A m e ri
of
C ollagen Treed m e rit
P a p e r,
D riven by anger at the injustice
against A frica n Americans, Frederick
center stage in our national con
sciousness. He rejected revenge on
whites in fa vo r o f the pen and p u lp it
L a s e r R e s u r f;?.c:nc'
so m ove d he began his o w n career
Of course, it's.not a doctor's
procedure it provides different
extrem ely w e ll received.
Frederick D ouglass
Frederick was somewhat
insolent and seemed more in te llige nt
than the other slaves in the house
hold, he sent h im to a cruel slave
breaker. It was here that Frederick
decided he could no longer bear the
lash.
" I am fast in m y chains... I w i 11 run
away. ” his narratives report.
Frederick d id ju s t that. A t the age
o f 23 he ran north to N ew Y o rk and
changed his last name to Johnson.
S h o rtly a fte r, he changed it to
D u rin g his later years,
D ouglass held several
results But it isn’t just skin care,
go ve rn m e n t posts, such as U nited
States M a rs h a ll fo r the D is tric t o f
C o lu m b ia and m in is te r to H a iti. T o-
either It’s revolutionary cell care.
w ards the end o f his life Douglass
a ls o jo in e d Ida B. W e lls in h e ra n ti-
ly n c h in g cam paign and began a r
Complex lo beautifully regenerate
skin s appearance Renewing skin s
outer layer tri reveal newer skin
One r.ell at a time
flow. Olay uses an Amino Peptide
g u in g fo r the rig h ts o f wom en o f all
colors.
Diainalically improved skin rieerl
not require drastic measures
O n Feb. 20, 1895. D ouglass a t
tended a N a tio n a l W o m e n ’ s C oun
c il m eeting. A fte r the session, the
Douglass, a name found in W alter
7 7 -y e a r-o ld D ouglass w ent home
and died. He le ft b e hind a legacy o f '
Scott's “ Lady o f the Lake. "He found
em ploym ent on the docks and raised
bra very, en cou raging people o f a ll
co lo rs and n a tio n a litie s to fig h t fo r
a fa m ily in N ew Bedford. Douglass
e q u a lity , no m atter w h at the cost.
then began attending anti-slavery ra l
Ron Weber is a retired electrician
and frequent writer and speaker on
African American history. He is a
regular contributor to the Portland
Observer.
lies.
In 1838, his life w o u ld d ra s tic a lly
change w hen he heard W illia m
L lo y d G arrison speak. Douglass was
)
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j
OLAY
In v n th n s k in y r t t i’r n in
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