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Alice Smith
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Cesar Chavez for
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See Arts and Entertainment, inside
See story, page A3
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Volume XXXVII. Number 29
TI Week ¡n
The Review
I
im n
.1
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • August I. 2007
Diagnosed with Cancer
ABC
"G o o d
M orning A m eri­
ca" anchor Robin
Roberts, 46, has
been d ia g n o se d
with breast cancer
and will be under­
going surgery Friday. Roberts
exam ined herself and found a lump
on her breast the same day she
had done a report on form er
"GM A" m ovie critic Joel Siegel,
w ho died o f colon cancer last
month. See s to ry , p age B5
photo c o t rtesy oe O regon
Dawson Park
changes with
historic
neighborhood
A federal bankruptcy judge M on­
day aw arded the rights o f O.J.
Sim pson's canceled "If I Did It"
book to the family of the late Ronald
G oldm an to satisfy a $38 m illion
w rongful death judgm ent against
the form er foo tb all star. T he
ju d g e ’s decision pushed aside
com plaints from the fam ily o f
Sim pson's ex-w ife, Nicole Brown
S im p so n w h o se la w y e rs had
sought a greater share o f possible
profits from the book. See sto ry ,
page A 2.
by R aymond R endi . eman
T he P ortland O bserver
Teen Found Strangled
to police the cause o f death was
strangulation. C ountrym an was
visiting her sister and set to return
to T exas ju st hours later. A neigh­
bor told police that she saw two
men carry ing a body around 5 a.m.
Saturday morning.
Recruits Offered $20,000
photo by R aymond R f . ndi . eman /T he P ortland O bserver
Lee Roberts hangs out under the gazebo in Dawson Park in north Portland. Before 1978, the
gazebo's roof topped a building in the heart o f an African American business community that has
long since been displaced. Roberts says he has witnessed many neighborhood transformations
since he regularly walked through the park as a teenager.
Rapper Dropped from Tour
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continued
on page A6
An Officer and a Beauty
Portland native
supplements army
career with
pageantry
S arah B lount
T he P ortland O bserv er
«
Events this sum m er show that
Dawson Park rem ains an im portant
site for the A frican-A m erican-com ­
munity despite its connection to
devastating urban-renew al projects
and the dispersal o f its adjacent
population by gentrification.
City officials unveiled an im ­
provem ent plan for the north Port­
land park last week during a kick-off
event that attracted a perform ance
by local R&B singer Liv W arfield.
In addition, the A frican-A m erican
Health Coalition will hold its fifth-
annual “W ellness W ithin Reach"
w alk at the park on Saturday, Aug.
18.
P ortland's black com m unity has
mostly moved aw ay from the blocks
near the park, bounded by W illiams
and V ancouver A venues and just
tw o blocks from Russell Street in
what was once a M ain Street for the
local population.
However, many vestiges o f the
black co m m u n ity ’s self-support
system s remain nearby. Along with
the health coalition. Dawson Park
is shouting distance from the U r­
ban League o f Portland, an organi­
zation w hose history includes a
relentless fight against P ortland's
past housing-segregation policies.
The park, nam ed in honor o f
Episcopal m inister John Dawson,
who was an advocate o f child w el­
fare and civic im provem ent in the
1920s, once was held a cow pas­
ture, a baseball field used by the
Immaculate H eartChurch and a fre­
quent stopping place for small cir­
cuses and m edicine shows.
By the late 1940s, it becam e an
unofficial town square for the A fri­
ca n -A m erican co m m unity, and
grew' even larger when hundreds of
black w orkers were dislocated by
the flooding o f V anport, a W orld
W ar II housing project w ith 40,(XX)
people.
As a flash point for race riots in
the 1960s, the area lost any favor
with city officials, who allowed
M emorial Coliseum and Interstate
5 to bulldoze the south and west
sides o f the neighborhood.
Today, city park planners are
trying to rem ain sensitive to the
area's roots, like the p ark 's gazebo,
an architectural feature that came
to the site in 1978 when a nearby
building that once held it was de­
m olished for a proposed expansion
o f Emanuel Hospital that did not
take place once Congress failed to
provide the funding.
In addition to Portland D evelop­
ment Com m ission funds for gazebo
restoration, the city is planning to
sp e n d o v e r$ l.l million to add more
historical m arkers and reinstate a
fountain play area that was removed
follow ing safety concerns.
"It is a fully developed park al­
ready. but this is just the next step
B H a B B M H B B B M B H B f lB B B B H B B B B H n B B B B H B H B M M M B n B M M W *
by
u
H istorical S ociety
The dome that now tops Dawson Park's gazebo used to adorn
the building at the corner of North Williams Avenue and Russell
Street, as shown in this 1962 photo. The neighborhood was a
main street for several African-American-owned businesses
before the buildings were demolished to make way for Interstate
5 and the expansion o f Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
Goldman’s get Book Rights
Rapper Twista has
been dropped from
a concert tour orga­
nized by M cD on­
ald's due to the fast
food giant's objec­
tion to his controversial lyrics. The
Chicago horn, Twista, also known
as Carl Terrell Mitchell, was sur­
prised to leant that he is no longer
included in the concert line up.
1
www.portlandobserver.com
A Source
of Pride
Nike Race Suit Settled
Nike reached a $7.6 m illion settle­
ment in a race discrim ination law ­
suit filed by 400 black em ployees
at the Chicago N iketow n store.
The lawsuit, filed in 2003,claim ed
m anagers used racial slurs and
w ithheld prom otions to black
em ployees. N ike denied the alle­
gations.
T he U.S. A rm y has hit a new high
or low by offering $20,(XX) their
biggest bonus ever for people
willing to enlist and shipout within
the next month. The service re­
quirem ent for the bonus is a two
year enlistm ent. The A rm y was
the only m ilitary branch unable to
reach its June recruiting quota.
1
Established In 1970
Joelle Rankins G oodw in has spent
m ost o f her career as a m ilitary intelli­
gence officer in the United States Army,
but none o f that prepared her for her
first experience parading in front of 2(X)
people w hile w earing a swimsuit.
From soldier to assistant professor
at the U niversity o f O regon to beauty
queen, this M ajor focused her sights on
w inning the title Mrs. Oregon 2008 - a
sta te w id e co m p etitio n for m arried
w om en taking place this O ctober in
Clackamas.
G oodw in, 43. a form er Rose Festival
princess from Lincoln High Sch(x>l,
currently holds the title o f Mrs. Eugene
A m erica 2007. She says it took guts to
join the pageant life.
“Entering into a pageant is kind of
like being an athlete and training your­
self," she said. “ I think it takes a lot o f
courage ju st to get up on the stage. It
takes confidence, and th a t's not som e­
thing I'm lacking."
W hile it may seem unusual for a
M ajor to com pete as a beauty queen,
G oodw in says m ilitary affiliations are
not uncom m on in the pageantry world.
“I'm surprised with how many people
are associated with the m ilitary," she
said. "Y ou find a lot o f respect for m ili­
tary m em bers."
G oodw in has been m arried three
years to her husband Bob Between the
pair they have three children: Ian. 12,
D aniela, 10 and Sam, 17.
Z think it takes a lot
o f courage just to get
up on the stage. It
takes confidence, and
that's not something
I'm lacking.
-Jo elle Rankins Goodwin
Last year, G oodw in cam e very close
to winning the litleo f Mrs. Oregon 2(X)7,
until she reached the obligatory onstage
interview portion. T h at’s the part o f the
pageant w here contestants must think
quickly on their feet to answ er an open-
ended question.
"If you could be president for a day,”
the interview er asked, “what would you
d o ?"
G oodw in said that being president
d id n 't mean w aving a magic wand to
make w ar and sickness go away.
“ I'd take my day to enjoy the W hite
House and take it all in,” she answered.
But in the end. her response w as no
match for the following contestant, who
G oodw in said gave an answ er that was
spot-on.
Contestant Kimberly Taklasaid she'd
wave the so-called wand anyway, m agi­
cally making sickness and war go away.
S ick n e ss d id n o , go aw ay that
evening, hut T akla did becom e Mrs.
Oregon 2(X)7. G oodw in finished as first
runner-up.
H av in g been b ested by m ag ic,
continued
on page A6
Portland native Joelle Rankins Goodwin will vie for
the title of Mrs. Oregon, a statewide pageant for
married women, held this October in Clackamas.