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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.