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N ovem ber 4, 2 0 0 9
L aw & J ustice
MLK’s Daughter to Lead SCLC
Civil rights
group co­
founded by
her father
(A P )-T h e Rev. Bernice King
was named Friday as the first
w om an to head the civil rights
organization co-founded by her
father, the Rev. M artin Luther
King Jr.
Southern C hristian L eader­
ship Conference Interim Presi­
dent Byron Clay called King and
said she accepted the position.
"She is excited," C lay told
reporters. "1 am excited. The
nation will be excited."
Bernice King
T h e o th e r c a n d id a te w as
Judge Wendell Griffen o f Little
Rock, Ark. He was the first black
nation in 1968. His eldest son,
M artin L uther K ing III, w as
president from 1998 to 2003.
B e rn ic e K in g in h e rits an
SCLC much changed from the
days o f her father's leadership.
And she will have to w ork to
re b u ild the o rg a n iz a tio n —
which has stum bled in recent
years — w hile she heals deep
rifts within her own family.
Internal bickering has over­
shadowed signs o f progress for
SCLC that included paying off
m illions in debt and opening a
$3 million headquarters in At­
lanta. A form er state director in
F lo rid a accu sed sev eral n a­
tional leaders o f financial m is­
m anagem ent and the president
o f the Los A ngeles chapter last
fall clashed with leadership over
his support for gay m arriage in
California.
The Rev. Eric Lee, the Los
A ngeles chapter president, said
in a statem ent Friday that he
hopes King will follow her par­
ents' exam ple w ith respect to
the rights of lesbians, gays and
transgender people.
In 2004, she marched against
gay m arriage in Atlanta.
"We know that her mother,
C oretta Scott King, was sup­
portive o f LG BT equality, and
we believe that Dr. King would
have been as w ell,” Lee said.
"M y hope is that her election is
a sign that SCLC is returning to
its sp irit o f e q u a lity fo r all
people."
Local Leaders Make Call to Action
Video
Captures
Robbery
The Portland Police Bureau,
in cooperation with Crime Stop­
pers, is asking for your help in
identifying a robbery suspect
caught on surveillance video.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, at about
3:23 a.m „ the Shell Gas Station
at 7433 N. Interstate Ave. was
robbed by a lone m ale who en­
tered the store, w alked behind
th e c o u n te r a n d d e m a n d e d
money from the clerk.
T he suspect, d escrib ed as
H ispanic m an in his 20s and
about 5 foot -8 inches tall and
180 p o u n d s, fle d d riv in g a
C hevrolet Suburban and was
la st se e n h e a d in g e a s t on
L om bard. He w as w earing a
dark green stocking cap, blue
jacket, tom blue jeans and tan
attorney to w ork for a m ajor
A rkansas law firm and is an o r­
dained m inister and pastor of
New Millennium Church.
Chairm an Raleigh Trammell
o f D ayton, Ohio, called King a
"dynam ite person with a great
personality and a great heart.”
"The national organization
has done itself well to elect the
daughter o f Dr. King to lead the
organization during this time,"
Tram m ell said. "She seem s to
have renewed her com m itm ent
to the ideas and legacy o f her
f a th e r... There was a tim e that
she was hot as interested in the
movement, but she talked to us
about going back and reading
her father's books and study­
ing her father's message."
Martin Luther King Jr. was
the SCLC's first president, serv­
ing from 1957 until his assassi­
Addressing
State of Black
Oregon
A surveillance camera
shows a man who robbed
the Shell Gas Station at
North Insterstate Avenue
and Lombard Street.
boots.
Crim e Stoppers is offering a
cash rew ard o f up to $ 1,000 for
information, reported to Crime
Stoppers, that leads to an ar­
rest in this case, or any un­
solved felony, and you remain
anonym ous.
Contact Crim e Stoppers at
503-823-HELP (4357), or online
at crimestoppersoforegon.com
or text 823 plus your tip and
send it to CRIMES (274697).
A symposium on the ‘‘State of
Black Oregon: A Call to Action”
will be held 5:30 p.m. on Thurs­
day, Nov. 5, at the Oregon State
University Memorial Union ball­
room at 26th Street and Jefferson
Way in Corvallis.
T h e U rb a n L ea g u e o f
Portland's State of Black Oregon
report was published in July. The
study show ed that social and
econom ic disparities and sys­
temic disadvantage still exist for
A frican A m ericans and other
people o f co lo r in
Oregon.
T he rep o rt co n ­
tains a stark inven­
tory of statistics that
show s a persistent
gap in living stan­
dards between black
and w h ite O re g o ­
Marcus C.
nians - a gap that is
growing wider as a result of the
current economic downturn.
The featured speakers at the
OSU event include M arcus C.
Mundy, president o f the Urban
League o f Portland, Robert T h ­
om pson, assistant professor in
O S U ’s D epartm ent o f Ethnic
Studies, H enry Luvert, presi­
dent o f the Eugene chapter of
Device for Library Thefts
Stealing from the M ultnom ah County L i­
brary system used to be a sim ple m atter of
selecting a book and walking out with it.
Officials said the downtown Central Library
th e N A A C P , an d
Carla Gary, assistant
professor in the O f­
fice o f Institutional
Equity and Diversity
at the U niversity of
Oregon.
M u n d y w ill also
a d d re s s th e re p o rt
Mundy
during an appearance
before the City Club of Portland
during its regularly scheduled
Friday forum, a public event at
11:45 a.m. at the G overnor Ho­
tel in Portland.
“During the last eight years,
the poverty gap in America and
in this state has continued to
grow,” said Mundy. “If there’s
a poverty gap for A m ericans
has had no security system since the build­
ing was renovated 13 years ago. None of
the 16 branches has working security sys­
tems either. That's meant hundreds of thou­
sands of dollars in lost materials each year;
nearly $300,000 in the past six months.
generally, the African-American
poverty gap widens to chasm
proportions. T his flies in the
face o f the ideals our country
stands for, and simply should
not be acceptable here in O r­
egon or anyw here else.”
In Corvallis, the speakers will
ad d ress the issues and other
c h a lle n g e s fa c in g A fric a n
A m ericans living in O regon.
Problems, as well as solutions,
will be discussed in depth.
M u n d y w ill jo in a n o th e r
group of African American lead­
ers from Portland to address the
report in a third presentation
before the M ultnomah County
Com m issioners, scheduled for
Thursday, Nov. 12 at 9 a.m.
For the past month, library workers
have been affixing tamper resistant elec­
tronic tags to books and CDs. Central
L ib ra ry C o lle c tio n s A d m in is tra to r
Deanna Cecotti is confident in the higher
security system decreasing thefts.
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