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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2012)
Page 6___________________________ tt « Portland O bserver B lack H ¡Story Month _____________ Smithsonian Channel Uncovers The PORTLAND WATER BUREAU News Film from King Murder CELEBRATES f Black History Month In 1926, African American REV. M ARTIN LUTHER KING historian Carter G. Woodson single-handedly pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", for the second week in February, to coincide with the V birthdays of Abraham Lincoln PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA and Frederick Douglass. The week was later extended to the full month of February and renamed Black History Month. SPIKE LEE OPRAH WINFREY 1120 SW Fifth Avenue, Room 600 Portland, Oregon 97204 503-823-7404 www.portlandoregon.gov/water Randy Leonard, Commissioner David G. Shaff, Administrator AFRICAN 1ERICAN READ IN African American Literature is for everyone! Come hear local celebrities and community leaders read from works by their favorite African-American w riters at the 16th Annual African-American Read In. For children and adults. Sunday, February 12, 2012 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Hagen Campus Center | Concordia University 2811 NE Holman Street Portland Oregon 97211 C o n c o r d ia I V E R S IT Y OAESE O rvvo n N b n o r of Stock School M u cM o n library I IV I A 1» I 1 POR TLAN D • 0 R E 6 0 N • H îlâ ilild J ik ililü I Concordia University's Art & Culture Program presents Celebrating African American Artists Exhibition Afro/Danceworks Workshop at Concordia University Artist s Reception: Feb 24 I 6 pm -8pm Exhibit: Feb 13 - March 9 Bobby Fouther. wilt offer a workshop of movement and choreography with technique based in the tradition of the African Diaspora. Free, open to the public Feb. 22 I 12 pm S'” - and Feb. 24 I 5 pm Free, open to the public For more information please visit: www.cu-portland.edu/calendar Februaiy 1.2012 Some forward-looking college documentary with a vivid, "you- professors enabled television's are-there" feel and the uncovering Smithsonian Channel to offer a look of some fascinating moments. Royle said he was drawn, for at the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. from the time in which it instance, to coverage of King's occurred. famed "mountaintop" speech at the The network said will air a docu Mason Temple the night before the mentary in February culled prima assassination. Cameras followed rily from local news footage in Mem King after the speech to where he phis, Tenn., where the civil rights slumped in achair, and viewers could leader was murdered on April 4, sense the man's fragility. 1968. Most of the footage hasn’t The producer said he recognized been seen on television since it origi- how the existence of such film was unusual when he researched an older documentary on Sam Ervin, the North Carolina senator who chaired the Watergate investigative committee in the 1970s. Royle said he traveled across North Carolina and could find only a minute and a half of tape of Ervin in his home state. Another stroke of luck for Tom Jennings, who produced "MLK: The Assassination Tapes," was finding Vince Hughes, who was a 20-year-old Memphis police dis patcher on his second day of work Martin Luther King Jr. when King was killed. Hughes kept nally aired. audiotapes of police calls on that Many such moments are lost day and crime scene photos from since local television stations usu where King was shot, and the mate ally taped over old broadcasts or rial was made available for the film. threw away film reels, said David Jennings also went to radio sta Royle, executive producer at the tion WDIA to collect interviews from Smithsonian Channel. But some black Memphis residents at the time. University of Memphis professors The white-owned and operated TV sensed in March 1968 that civil rights stations at the time had little such history was happening with a strike material, Royle said. of local sanitation workers, the event "This (docum entary) plunges that drew King to Memphis, and you into the immediacy of the pe they collected footage of the events riod and allows you to absorb it the through King's murder and its after- way people at the time absorbed it," math. Royle said. "There's something "What they were doing was ab that's electric about that. It gets you solutely visionary - and very un to sit up and pay attention." usual," Royle said. Smithsonian plans to air the spe It enabled the production of a cial on Feb. 12. First Families Preview First Thursday’s Museum after Hours at the Clark County Histori cal Museum kicks off its new sea son on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. with a celebration of the First Fami lies Project book preview, featuring Bertha Baugh, and Jane Elder Wulff, project writer. Four years ago, V ancouver’s NAACP Branch #1139 agreed to sponsor a history, “First Families of V ancouver’s African American Community: From World War Two to the 20th Century,” and at its an nual meeting in December, plans were finalized to release the book early this year. A fter fam ilies who cam e to V ancouver to work at the Kaiser shipyard and other wartim e in dustries were identified, w riter Jane Elder W ulff interviewed fam ily members and wove their voices to g e th e r in to the sto ry o f V ancouver’s African American Community. Sponsors of the project also in clude Humanities Washington, the Clark County Historical Promotion Program, and Black United Fund of Oregon. “We hope this book will en courage others, especially young people, to preserve their cultural heritage for the benefit of future generations,” said Com etta Smith, First Fam ilies Project Director. The Clark County Historical Museum is located at 1511 Main St. in Vancouver. For more informa tion, call 360-993-5679 or visit cchmuseum.org.
