M a rtin L u t h e r K ing J r ." u I R o s a P a r k s
2006
Page B4
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January II, 2 0 0 fa
Strides for Housing Equity
B ask of the w est
Activist follows King s dream to end homelessness
LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL
Sisters o f the Road Café Director Genny Nelson
(right) and Jimmy Brown, a longtime department
manager in the city o f Portland.
L ee P erlman
T he P ortland O bserver
LikeM artinL utherK ingJr.,
Genny Nelson hasadream : To
end homelessness. It is a dream
she feelscan be achieved.
N elson is a cham pion o f
people outside America’s com
fortable m ainstream - in her
case, the hom eless o f Portland.
As founder o f Sisters o f the
Road C afe and its director for
m ost o f its 29 years o f ex ist
ence, N elson is perhaps the
c ity ’s m ost experienced, re
spected and effective homeless
advocate.
She was an early recipient <if
by
BANK OF THE WEST IS PROUD
TO HONOR THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF
DR. MARTIN LUTHER
KING, JR.
• • . z» < ♦ • »■
w w w bankofthewest.com
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the M ayor’s Spirit o f Portland
A w ard, an annual recognition
o f work for com m unity better
m ent. A m onth ago she re
c e iv e d a N atio n al C arin g
A w ard from the National C ar
ing Institute in Washington, D.C.
Inspired by the exam ple of
M other T eresa, the aw ard is
given to people w ho are “a
visual m anifestation that one
person can make adifference.”
At a City Hall cerem ony to
m ark the occasion, Portland
m ayorT om Pottersaid Nelson
has been “ very effective" as an
advocate while remaining “the
kindest, most cari ng person I' ve
ever known.”
In
th e
case
of
h o m elessn ess. N elson said,
“ B uilding relationships w ith
people is p a ra m o u n t. Y ou
c a n 't ju st throw' m oney at the
problem. W e’ve institutional
ized the p ro b lem - it’s a c
cep ted . and th e re ’s no a t
tem pt to deal w ith the u n d e r
lying issues.”
She noted that in Portland,
“O ne of the largest barriers to
having a hom e is that rents here
have skyrocketed.” T o co m
bat this, s h e 'd like to see a
“perm anent housing subsidy”
to m ake m ore housing afford
able for the poorest people.
She said this should be coupled
with the work o f another agency
calledJO IN .
“They build a relationship
with individual landlords and
get them to take in hom eless
people. If the person screws up
and trashes the apartm ent, the
landlord know s that JOIN will
m ake good the dam ages.”
A nother issue, she said, is
that it’s no longer possible to
live independently on a m ini
m um wage job.
“ You could raise the m ini
m um w age to a livable level,
m aybe $ 13 an hour,” she said.
N elson said efforts to build
continued
on page B 7
Life Before and After the Boycott
Rosa Parks w as educated at
the M ontgom ery Industrial
School for G irls in the 1920s.
The school closed when Parks
was in eighth grade. She then
attended the Laboratory Schrxil
at A labam a State T eachers
C ollege for N egroes, ev en tu
ally dropping out tocare for her
ailing mother. She later received
her high school diplom a. In
1932, at 20 years old, she m ar
ried a barber. Raym ond Parks,
a charter m em ber o f the M ont
g o m e ry C h a p te r o f th e
N A A C P.
During W orld W ar II, Parks
worked at M axwell Field (now
M axwell A ir Force Base) in
M ontgom ery, Ala. At the time
of her arrest for re fusing to sit at
the back o f bus segregated by
race and the ensuing bus boy
cott, Parks was em ployed as a
seamstress at the M ontgomery
Fair departm ent store. Due to
Rosa Parks working as a seamstress in
Montgomery, Ala. in the mid 1950s.
her notoriety after the boycott,
she and her husband were un
able to find work. In 1957 they
moved to Detroit, Mich, where
she rem ained active in the civil
rights movement.
In 1965, Parks began w ork
ing for the campaign o f John
Conyers priortohisentry intothe
U.S House o f Representatives.
She continued to w ork for
Conyersuntilsheretinedin 1988.
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Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. presides over a meeting o f the Montgomery
Improvement Association in 1955, a Montgomery, Ala. group founded ju s t days
after Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to comply with the city's race segregation
laws. The group organized bus boycott strategies and kept efforts at a local
level to attract little opposition. Members also included Parks (center) and Rev.
Ralph Abernathy (seated left).
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