®‘!* ^ortlanb (Observer Page 2 — August 28, 2013 4L. exercise free will TRY SOMETHING NEW AT THE BEACH IN LINCOLN CITY BLOW HASS CULINARY CLASS HAVE A GAS! photo by D onovan M. S mith /T he P ortland O bserver Portland police escort marchers as they head toward Waterfront Park, downtown. The demonstration last Saturday marked the 50th anniversary o f Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s ‘March on Washington’ and his ‘I Have a Dream ” speech. ri A Legacyof Activism Urban League o f Portland execu tive Michael Alexander, City Com Community organizers and city missioner Nick Fish, County Com For more new things to try, visit our website: officials like Rev. Dr. LeRoy missioner Loretta Smith, State Rep. ^ < x ^ c o « t 800-452-2151 www.oregoncoast.org Haynes Jr., Rev. T. Allen Bethel, Lew Frederick, and U.S. Sen. Jeff M erkley, were among those in attendance. S p e a k e rs a d d re ss e d issu e s such as fair wages, gender equal ity, sexual equality, affordable healthcare, police brutality, and the ever-present racial bias in the justice system and biases among the general population. Six people that were at the origi nal M arch on W ashington in 1963 also addressed the crowd. M ost could only recall bits o f the march now 50 years later, but still ac know ledged the significance of honoring the historical protest w h ic h b ro u g h t an e stim a te d 250,000 people from across the country to the nation’s capitol o f W ashington D.C. As with the original m archers, the current group also pressed for the younger generations to battle the oppression faced by m inority citizens. ublisher and Longtime community activist Renee Mitchell, and the 8-year-old ditor in hief of daughter of Aaron Campbell who was shot and killed by Portland Po the ortland lice, led the crowd at the Waterfront in a back and forth rendition of the bserver tune ‘Freedom Fighter’. Janet Rogers, one of the many faces in the crowd, said she was proud to join her ‘spiritual m other’ and grandchildren to witness the commemoration. Rogers recalled how as a child she was one of the first students to be bused from northeast Port land to unintegrated schools in southwest Portland. c o n t i n u e d f r o m fron t CltWF His Legacy Will Live On Charles H, Washington P E - -C P O Dec. 18 1951 Dec. 8 2012 At the tim e, she said, the expe rience of not have other black stu dents to bond with in the classroom m ade her ‘afraid o f being taught.” “Looking at this march,” she said, “I have brought my grandchildren down here to let them know that they can do all things. Anything they want to do, they can do it. And just by me standing in the legacy of Martin Luther King, being a bus driver, and going to Memphis, Ten nessee to sit on Rosa Parks’ bus. That really took a toll on me. I had to weep, because I am a bus driver, and I’m not sitting in the back of the bus, whoa.” Other highlights include a stirring recount of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, and a riveting speech by Pastor Tony Funchess, 36, entitled ‘Wake Up’. Funchess, with conviction as serted, “Our question today, is to question the oppressive system that has re-enslaved the black com m unity, and it’s called the Am eri can crim inal justice system. “Our challenge today is to dis mantle discriminatory laws and prac tices that have allowed it to be open- season on young children of color, where they are denied education, locked out of opportunities to em ployment, victimized and murdered in the streets of America,” he said. Funchess closed the speech by proclaiming “We can no longer dream of a better tomorrow. We must awaken our consciousness, aw aken o u r c o n v ic tio n s, and awaken our commitment to creating a better today. The time for dream ing is over. This nightmare we’ve been living is over. Our tomorrow begins today. Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”