50/
Daddy Day Care
Restoration
Portland man shares similarities
with Eddie Murphy movie
Students restore
neighborhood murals
See M etro section, inside
(J ) h s tvr t t c r
‘City of Roses
Volume X X X III •
See M etro section, inside
Established in 1970
Number 20
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • May 14, 2003
TlWeekm Doubt Cast on Police Inquiry
TheReview Many predict officer won’t be
Saudi blasts kill 7
Americans
At least seven Americans and
scores o f other foreigners and
Saudis have died in Riyadah,
Saudia Arabia terrorist bomb­
ings that demonstrated the con­
tinuing potent presence o f Is­
lamic extremists in this country
that is the birthplace o f terrorist
leader Osam abin Laden. Terror­
ists drove cars filled with explo­
sives into four sites in north­
eastern Riyadh late Monday.
Three w ere residential com ­
pounds housing many foreign­
ers and well-to-do Saudis. The
fourth target was the site o f a
Saudi-American joint venture
company, U.S. embassy officials
said
North Korea nullifies
no-nuke agreement
North Korea said Monday a 1992
agreement with South Korea to
keep the Korean Peninsula free o f
nuclear weapons was nullified,
citing a “sinister” U.S. agenda.
The accord was the last remaining
legal obligation under which
North Korea was banned from
developing atomic arms.
Adding color to $20 bills
American greenbacks are getting
a bit more colorful. A touch o f
< peach, blue and yellow along with
the traditional green and black are
featured on the new $20 bill, the
first to be colorized in a project to
thwart counterfeiters. The Trea­
sury Department’s Bureau o f En-
T graving and Printing, which makes
the nation’s paper currency, took
the wrappers off the redesigned
$20Tuesday. Thenewbillswon’t
appear in cash registers or ATM
machines until late this year.
Seattle terrorist^ drill
Smashed cars, Ijtfses and other
debris littered an industrial lot
Monday in Seattle to represent
the aftermath o f a radioactive
“dirty bomb” explosion for the
rrtost extensive terrorism drill in
the nation’s history. The five-
day drill, combining the Seattle
disaster with the fake threat o f a
biological agent in Chicago, is
aimed at testing the ability o f lo­
cal, state and federal authorities
to handle terrorist attacks. Itisthe
first large-scale counterterrorism
exercise since the Sept. 11,2001,
terrorist attacks.
Rainy-day fund defeated
Another effort to establish a
rainy-day fund to see Oregon
through tough times was de­
feated in the Legislature on Fri­
day. The proposal would have
asked voters to approve a stabil­
ity fund o f up to $2.5 billion and
suspend a refund to voters o f tax
collections that exceed state rev­
enue forecasts.
charged in shooting death
BY JAVMEE R. C lT I
T he P ortland O bserver
Community leaders gathering at rallies and vigils since
last week’s shooting death o f 2 1 -year-old Kendra James say
they have little faith in a system that has repeatedly letdown
African-Americans.
A grand jury began hearing testimony this week about
the shot that ki lied James, fired by 27-year-old police officer
Scott McCollister, when he answered a call to backup a
traffic stop. Police Chief Mark Kroeker announced that the
department will conduct a thorough criminal and internal
affairs investigation.
Robert Larry, president o f the Portland branch o f the
N AACP, said he has contacted the organization’s national
legal team, and is currently conducting an independent
investigation.
She Loved
Life and
Music
Í
k
a
photo by
R on W ashincton /T he P ortland O bserv ER
Family, friends
remember young
Kendra James
BY WYNDEDYER
T he P ortland O bserver
Kendra James was a bright and unique
young woman who loved life, according to
her fami ly and friends. The 21 -year-old died
May 5 o f a single gunshot fired by police
during a traffic stop on North Skidmore
Street.
As a girl, she roller-skated around town
with her mother, sang while her fatherplayed
bass in local bands, loved it when her beau­
tician-stepmother did her hair, was insepa­
rable from her younger sister and hoped to
someday finish school and provide a good
life for her two children.
“She was so full o f life," said Shirley
lsadore o f her first-born child. “She loved
life.”
Kendra was bom on Christmas Eve in
1981. lsadore and Kenneth James still re­
member the night she came into their lives.
They’d planned her birth. Kenneth didn’t
want to have a child until he was 21. They
wanted to be able to provide her with the
best childhood they could offer.
lsadore remembers her water broke as
soon as she walked into the hospital. Al­
most immediately, she was in the delivery
room staring upat a mirror on the ceiling. The
minute she saw K endra’s head, she knew
what a special child she had.
“She was a beautiful little baby,” lsadore
said.
As she grew older, K endra’s uniqueness
continued to blossom. Her family remem-
photo by
R on W ashincton /T he P ortland O bserv er
LaPryce C haney is in te a rs a s s h e s to p s to p a y tribute to her friend Kendra J a m e s a t a m em orial th a t m a rks th e North
S kid m o re 1-5 o ve rp a ss w here s h e w as killed. “I m is s h e r ,’ C haney said.
She was so full o f
life. She loved life.
—Shirley Isadora, Kendra James’ mother
bers she began walking at age one and
started to show a sharpness o f mind.
lsadore said during trips to her grandpar­
ents’ house, she would rearrange the trin-
...
5| |
kets on the coffee table if they
were out o f order after a routine
dusting.
“If any o f those nick-knacks
were in different places she’d
put ’em back where they be-
longed,” lsadore said.
Kendra had a sense o f be­
longing wherever she went, the
family said. She was popular in her north and
northeast Portland neighborhoods, at King
and Claredon Elementary schools, Ockley
Green Middle School and Roosevelt High.
lsadore taught her daughter to ride bikes,
took her and other neighborhood kids to the
ice-skating rinkand/ypefrised them during
summer afternoon roller-skating sessions.
Kendra had lots o f friends, but no one she
was closer to than her younger sister Karisa.
They were inseparable, lsadore said.
“They laughed together and cried to ­
gether,” she said. “They fought, played,
took baths, w ent to school together -
they did everything together. They loved
continued
on page A3
MMNMMMWMKCMP
Flood of Memories at Vanport Memorabilia Fair
Lost city earns its
page in history
yard city situated between Port­
land and Vancouver.
But the artifacts faded into the
background as attendees to the
by J ay mee R. C uti
Vanport Memorabilia Fair listened
T he P ortland O bserver
to survivors share their memories
The salvaged bottles, photo­ about the Memorial Day in 1948
graphs, identification cards and that their families lost their homes,
newspaper attempted to preserve their possessions and their sense
the history o f a once-thriving ship­ o f stability.
S
■S —' =
f
ä
on page A3
M t
g
¿ 5 c¿
□ I o
continued
R o b ert Larry (left), Portland NAACP p resid en t and
R eggie Hendrix k e e p th e fo c u s on ju s tic e in the
p olice sh o o tin g d ea th o f 21-year-old Kendra Ja m es.
P hoto by J yy mf . e R .C i t i /T he P ortland O bserver
The history o f Vanport, th e p redom inately African Am erican city
flooded by th e Columbia River in 1 9 4 8 , is brought to life by
Kathy Treves who is helping m a k e a d o cu m e n ta ry video a b o u t
the once-thriving shipyard city.
According to O.B. Hill, opera­
tions manager for Reflections Book­
store, Vanport is largely respon­
sible for Portland’s African Ameri­
can population.
“V anport created Portland's
black co m m u n ity ,” said Hill.
“There were less than 2,000 black
people in the w hole state in 1940.
People came here, prim arily from
the South, to take advantage o f
labor opportunities and found
themselves stranded in a predomi­
nantly w hite state that had a his­
tory o f exclusionary practices and
no option o f returning to the
South because o f the oppression
there.”
. Hill was six years old when the
flood destroyed his family’s home
and possessions.
A group o f Portland-area stu ­
dents are w orking to create a
docum entary about V an p o rt’s
history, scheduled for release at
the Hollywood Theatre late in the
summer. For the last nine months,
the Portland School D istrict’s
Portland Area Career Training
C enter and Sabin Com m unity
D evelopm ent Corp, have o ver­
seen students analyze records.
conduct interview s, film and edit
Approxim ately 6,000 African-
the story o f V anport.
A m ericans lived and worked in
Many Portlanders know very the grow ing town in 1944, as the
little about the day 55 years ago location becam e a hub for w ar­
when 9,942 poorly-constructed tim e jo b s in the K aiser Shipyards
during W orld W ar II. The city
housed more than 42,000 people
by 1948, when the city was d e­
stroyed.
According to Craig Fondren,
who oversees the education pro­
gram for the SCDC, Vanport tells
the story of"how a di verse city was
built.”
"There was a sense o f character
and power o f inclusiveness that
cam eoutofV anport. Therearestill
survivors telling that story that arc
living and thriving around us,"
Fondren said.
As a tribute to the thousands
o f V anport survivors and the 15
people who lost their lives in the
flood, the Interstate M A X 's Long
Bridge will be renam ed Vanport
Bridge.
The 4,000-foot bridge
-0.B . Hill
connecting K enton to Portland
International R acew ay will be
housing units floated away like dedicated with a plaque unveil­
matchboxes when a dike broke and ing cerem ony on Friday, M ay 30,
the Columbia R i ver flooded the city the 55 th anniversary o f the disas­
o f Vanport into extinction.
ter.
Vanport created
Portland's black
community.