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
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