M a r t in L u t h e r K ing J r .
J a n u a ry 10, 2 0 0 7
2007 special echi ion
Page B ?
All Faiths to Honor King
\ \ k OF IIIF
'Drum Major' service at local church
The first “Drum M ajor” ecu
menical service honoring the late
Dr. M artin Luther King Jr., Mrs.
C oretta Scott King and Mrs.
Rosa Parks will be held Sunday,
Jan. 21 at 4:30p.m . at Vancouver
Avenue First Baptist Church,
where Dr. King preached dur
ing the Civil Rights M ovem ent.
F o r th e p a s t 38 y e a rs ,
churches o f all faiths have held
a service in Dr. K ing’s honor on
the third M onday in January at
the Ebenezer Baptist C hurch in
Atlanta, Ga. V ancouver Avenue
will bring a sim ilar service as a
first for the Portland com m unity
to pay tribute and rem em ber the
legacy o f Dr. King, Mrs. King
and Mrs. Parks.
The program w ill feature
LIBERTY AND
JUSTICE FOR ALL
dignitaries. Three people who
made important contributions in
the spirit o f the Civil Rights
M ovem ent will be honored as
"Drum M ajors.”
“As a person who was hon
ored to be close to Mrs. King
and her family for many years,
I had the privilege o f attending
the ecum enical service with
them in Atlanta, Ga. It has al
ways been a vision o f mine to
duplicate that service here lo
c a lly ,” s a id J.W .
M att
Hennessee, senior pastor.
V a n c o u v e r A v en u e First
Sen. Margaret Carter
Baptist Church is located at 3138
words o f expression from key N. V ancouver Ave. For more
note speaker, O regon State Sen. inform ation, call 503-282-9496
and President-Pro-Tem porare o r
v is it
M argaret C arter and other local vancouveravechurch.org.
Bringing It All Back Home
continued
from BI
ing their heads above water made
it difficult to enrich the commu
nity and give back.”
Boston looks to herself and
her peers for leadership.
“W e’ve been brought up dif
ferently and shaped by different
principals,” she said. “ In the
1960s it was basic human rights,
now our issues are civil liberties
on a very personal level. It doesn't
stop at race, class and gender.”
Boston admits these are touchy
subjects that speak to the dynam
ics of authority.
“There is an assumption to be
careful because you are speaking
about authority,” she said, “but 1
don’t have anything to lose.”
It’s that type of courage and
attitude that led her to a job at her
political party’s headquarters.
Housed in a nondescript south
east Portland building, Boston’s
responsibility at the Democratic
Party of Oregon is to familiarize
the community with the electoral
process in order to increase
votership.
Her position came about after
she complained to the DPO about
their laissez-faire practices.
“After settling back in Port
land I decided to call the state
office to see what was going on.”
In the 1960s, it was basic
human rights, now our issues
are civil liberties on a very
personal level. It doesn Y stop
at race, class and gender.
- Cyreena Boston, one of Portland's young black leaders
“I asked ‘why should I be a
Democrat?” ’
They connected her with the
volunteer coordinator, who was
armed with a canned response.
“1 saw straight through his
spiel,” she said. “We met for
lunch, and I described to him
how you couldn't treat all com
munities the same.”
The party soon offered Bos
ton her first political job.
Rejoining Portland's rapidly
growing population, she is sur
rounded by political activism rec
ognized nationally more for
groundbreaking leadership in sus
tainable development than civil
rights.
“There are lots of idealists in
Oregon, but Portland people are
ad am an t ab o u t having no
changes,” she said. "There is a
lot o f ‘I don’t want outsiders
coming in’”.
"The problem is Oregonians
are about being liberal and pro
gressive, but only about the things
that matter to them. They say
‘we keep it clean and our city and
state are organized, so how dare
you accuse us of other social
ills?”’
But Boston courageously rec
ognizes the strength of her own
voice and m inority status to
achieve her goals.
For example, after attending
an Envision Oregon summit last
year in Portland (a statewide town
hall visioning plan for future gen
erations in Oregon), she noticed
participants did little to include race
in a discussion about livable com
munities and strong economies.
“It was so interesting sitting in
on that,” Boston said. "I was only
one ofthree black people in a room
of 600. I brought up gentrification
and they looked at me like I was
crazy.”
I
BANK OF THE WEST IS PROUD
TO HONOR THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
BANK thk WEST
Meinoer FDIC
PEO PLE
MARCHED
RODE
THE
W ENT
TO
BUS
J A IL
FOR
FOR
FOR
IT .
IT .
IT .
Your vote is yo u r voice.
Use it!
" Behind a “Berlin Wall" imposed by Alabama authorities, marchers sing freedom songs in a
round-the-clock vigil.
I
God is not merely interested in
the freedom o f brown men, yellow
men, red men, and black men. He
is interested in the freedom o f the
whole human race.
UNITED’
— Rev. Or. Martin Luther King Jr.
F
*
¡MR