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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2012)
Februaiy I, 2012___________________ Portland Observer B lack H ¡Story Month __________________ Page9 O pinion Etta James: Matriarch of the Blues A life lesson in never giving up by M arc H. M orial The legendary M a triarch o f the Blues, Etta James, died Jan. 20 at the age of 73 in her hometown of Riv erside, Calif. In a life filled with struggle, heartache and illness, Etta James was able to carve out one of the most eclectic careers in record ing history and earn a place of royalty in the annals of Ameri can music. Many young people today may only know Etta James through Beyonce’s acclaimed portrayal of her in the 2008 movie, Cadillac Records. Bom Jamesetta Hawkins in 1938, she began singing in church at the age of 5. She released her first recording, Roll with Me Henry, at the age of 15. In 1960, she signed with Chess Records and had a long list of R & B, jazz, blues and pop hits, including “Som ething’s Got a Hold on Me,” “All I Could do was Cry,” and her 1961 soulful rendition o f “At Last,” which be came an iconic pop stan dard. President Obama and the First Lady appropriately chose “At Last” for their first dance at their inaugural ball in 2009. In her 1995 autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” w hich she co-authored with D avid Ritz, E tta Ja m e s d e s c r ib e d h er struggles as the daughter o f a 1 4 -y ear-o ld sin g le m o th er, grow ing up in poverty, facing both sexism and racism , and her bouts with drugs, jail and rehab that threatened several tim es to end her career. Speaking o f the rage she developed and that was com there. I had it when I was a little kid. I have it now. I ’ve been racing, raging through life as long as I can rem em ber.” Fortunately, Etta Jam es was able to channel that rage into her music. Her life is a lesson in overcom ing adversity and never giving up. Due her range o f styles and the diversity of her repertoire, she did not fit neatly into any m usical cat egory. She was a 1993 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, joined the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001. She toured with the likes of Jackie Wilson, the Rolling Stones, and jazz flut Etta James in 1965. ist, Herbie Mann. And her six mon to many A frican A m eri G ram m y’s include one for Best cans of her generation, she Jazz Performance, and one for w rote, “Rage. You can hear it Best Blues album. R olling S tones M agazine in my music. It’s alw ays been ranks her 22 on its list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. She inspired generations of singers who came after her, including Bonnie Raitt, Brandy, Kelly C la rk so n and, o f c o u rse , Beyonce. In her later years, Ms. James developed several debilitating health problems, including de mentia, diabetes and leukemia, which was the cause of her death. She is survived by her husband of 42 years Artis Mills and two sons, Donto and Sametto Jam es. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, and we join all Americans in mourning the pass ing of a true musical genius, A m erica’s M atriarch o f the Blues, Ms. Etta James. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League. Tough Immigration Laws Tough on Children Alabama law rips apart families by M arian W right E delman A labam a has p assed the toughest immigration enforce ment law in the country. Now children bom in the U.S.A., American citizens, are living in fear. Some children are afraid to go to school. According to Bill Lawrence, principal of Foley Elementary in Foley, Ala., most of these kids are American citizens. He said a child in fear can’t learn, and the children in his school were terrified mom and dad would not be home when they got home from school. The new state law requires people to have proof of legal status for almost every interaction in their lives, and it’s already having dire consequences for many of Alabama’s children. As the *** (Observer Center for American Progress explains, “Alabama’s new ‘show me your pa pers’ immigration law is rip ping apart fam ilies in the state.” More than half of the esti mated 120,000undocumented immigrants who live in Ala bam a, 2.5 percent o f the state’s population, live in ‘mixed status’ families. But consider the children: 85 percent of the children of undocumented immigrants live in ‘mixed status’ families, often meaning the chil dren are citizens but one or more of the parents are not. The result is that thou sands of Alabama parents and children now live in constant fear o f separation. Among its many requirements, the Alabama law requires elementary and secondary schools to determine the im migration status o f incoming students and their parents, and authorizes the school to report them to federal authori Established 1970 USPS 959-680 ___________________________________ 47 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 Charles H. W ashington EDiroR.M ichael L e ig h to n D is t r ib u t io n M a n a g e r : M a rk W a s h in g to n C r e a t iv e D ir e c t o r : P a u l N e u fe ld t ties. As the head of the American Fed eration of Teachers Randi Weingarten, put it, “Educators should not be put in the position of being immigration law en forcers. Teachers should be safety nets, not snitches— guardians, not guards.” The state law requires police and some government officials to demand proof of legal status if they have “reasonable suspicion” a person may be in the coun try illegally, including during routine traf fic stops or arrests, and criminalizes unlawful presence. It also makes it a felony for an illegal immigrant to conduct a business transaction with any govern mental body in the state; nullifies any contract an undocumented person en ters into, including applying for a loan or signing a lease; and makes it a crime for unauthorized immigrants to apply for or solicit work. Advocates and community members reported that hundreds of Latinos did not report to work or attend school when the law first passed, and hundreds of fami lies fled the state. The Department of Justice, civil rights and church groups all filed legal chal lenges after the law went into effect last summer. So far, federal courts have temporarily blocked several provisions of the law, including the provision requir ing K-12 school officials to determine students’ immigration status and that of their parents, and the provision that makes it a crime for immigrants to fail to com plete or carry an alien registration card. But the state of Alabama has been allowed to go forward with many other sections of the law. Now, as law en forcement agencies are clarifying pro cedures on what parts of the law to enforce as the law is being further re viewed in federal court, many parents and workers are not taking chances. The Center for American Progress continued on page 10 The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. 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