®‘!* ^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!”