A u g u s t 6, 2014
Jîortlanh CBhseruer
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Thursday is our Public Square
Mayor Hales just wants Last Thursday to
follow the same requirements as every other
street festival in Portland. What's the big
deal? This is a lockdown on culture, a censor­
ship of grassroots art, and artists, and the
process of government and business will not
work this out by just making us consumers.
Last Thursday is our public square.
Fees, registration and placement become
barriers. They do not invite the public to
freely participate. It denies the child, restricts
creative movement for happenings and bars
those that cannot afford. It eliminates spon­
taneity and stifles interactions.
LT is and has been the only free stage for
artists for 17 years. This platform has fos­
tered the most creative, unusual, exciting
and unsterilized event in Portland, landing it
into travel guidebooks, international maga­
zine articles and exploding in popularity bring­
ing over 80,000 people to the Alberta District
during its 5 monthly evenings.
Now understanding its popularity and
what a special gem this event could be (al­
though currently a tad bit rough on the
edges) is the true trick. Why is the mayor
denying giving the event special designa­
tion for street vending such as permitted for
the Rose Festival? Why is he not supporting
the Alberta community to sustainably be the
rightful hosts and owners of LT? Why not
provide financial support rather than declar­
ing governance?
The former LT community group of volun­
teers asked for financial assistance. The fes­
tival had been allowed to reach such a peak
without ever needing to become a “legiti­
mate”' permitted event. They were stuck
holding a very large bag that had never
needed to follow the rules. The offer was for
a non-profit to run the event with their help
of $5,000 per event that would have been
enough support to bring about an arts-fo-
cused, cultural and tourism diamond.
Alberta is a true model of a downtrodden
neighborhood's success in bringing people
and commerce to the street. LT soon became
the economic engine for businesses before
becoming the iconic urban festival of Port­
land. What a story of grassroots urban pro­
cess and change. Support for this neighbor­
hood to preserve the true nature of LT would
have been a nice feather to put into the
mayor’s hat. At the very least the event
deserves a more respectful political associa­
tion.
Count the number or restaurants and bars
on Alberta and note that it was LT that
brought a lot of business to their doors.
Bartenders could reportedly make rent with
at least three of the summer LTs. This trend
has had a boomerang effect leaving Alberta
Street with over 50 liquor licenses in a 20
block strip. This of course, has added to the
alcohol related problems. Although when
you look at the statistics and ratios it hasn’t
been bad in the face of abundance. This ratio
is a question for the OLCC and how it does
business but instead has prompted Hales to
create the Late Night Tax.
LT is a public gathering. Business own­
ers started LT as an attempt to take back the
street and invited the public to share it with
them and this has continued for 17 years.
Last Thursday produced a public space that
has crossed cultural boundaries, back­
grounds, values and associations. From their
struggles came Alberta's artistic cultural iden­
tity. They used their creative resources to
build community and it is inclusive. This is
something honorable, inspiring and truly
grassroots in a neighborhood that has had to
do it themselves having survived discrimi­
nation by zoning and accustomed to being
forgotten, separated and disinvested. It is a
marginalized community using urban space
to redefine their economic and cultural well­
being.
No. Now is not the time to take the event
and govern it into the ground, making it
manageable enough to place under your
thumb. The lies have been spun and there
is no eating crow. 1 just want to remind our
readers why Friends o f Last Thursday
stepped down last year; they refused to
comply with closing the street only to 27th
Avenue, excluding four Alberta galleries.
Nor were they prepared to pay for the
newly required count of 80 toilets, a 200
percent increase of costs placed on the
organization a week before the event. They
were open to the third requirement to end
the event at 9:30 p.m., but would not “be
a party to reopening the streets with street
c le a n e rs c a rry in g p re ssu riz e d w ater
hoses.” I have seen photos of the amount
of city vehicles used that evening to clear
the streets. It was obviously due to your
fear of a riot, again proving your m is­
guided understanding and heavy hand of
this whole affair. Were those added re­
quirements in parallel with other street
fairs?
Last Thursday demands a novel approach
in order for the Alberta District to keep their
cultural identity. The challenge is to mediate
between those with and without power within
the context of a broader perspective for both
citizens and the city. This will take initiative
by the community, LT artists and govern­
ment leaders. It is placemaking at its finest.
Nourishing creative culture is the answer.
Maquette Reeverts, former president o f
Friends o f Last Thursday.
Mississippi Freedom Summer Pilgrimage
An atrocity we
must never forget
by M arian W right
and J ulia C ass
E df . i . man
The site along a back road near
Philadelphia, Miss, was the final
stop on our step-by-step journey
through the final tragic day of
Freedom Sum m er v o lu n te ers
James Chaney, Andrew Goodman,
and Michael Schwerner. Our guide
was Leroy Clemons, a longtime
local leader and activist whose
family was involved in the civil
rights movement who is prom i­
nently featured in the excellent
documentary “Neshoba: The Price
of Freedom.”
We both took this journey on
June 25 with a group of about 400
young people, including young
w om en p a rtic ip a tin g in the
Children’s Defense Fund’s sum­
mer leadership institute for young
black women. Our buses were
escorted by state troopers. For a
split second, that almost seemed
like an honor until we quickly
wondered why we needed a po­
lice escort. The site is just down
the road from the families of two
of the Ku Klux Kian meihbers in­
volved in the murders, and as the
buses stopped to see the murder
site, riders on some of them said
that pickup trucks rode by, back
and forth, in a presumed effort at three young men to that back road
The Freedom Summer veterans a fire under ourselves to combat
intimidation.
spot. They selected this place, on our pilgrimage used the cour­ with all our might the continuing
In a flash it brought back the Clemons said, because Edgar Ray age of the three young men and
discrim ination, dehum anization,
absolute reign of terror faced by “Preacher” Killen, the ordained the other young men and women
and lack of public support and
black people in M ississippi in Baptist minister and local Ku Klux and local black citizens who par­
concern for children and youths
those days. W e’re certain all of us Kian leader who was eventually ticipated in Freedom Summer to
o f color and poor children in
gathered at the murder site— we accused of directing the murders, urge today’s young people to pick
America.
went in small groups—couldn’t lived on this road and wanted to up and carry on the movement in
The need for the Children’s De­
even begin to imagine the terror see the place they were killed this era of racial profiling, stop
fense Fund was first evident in
the three young men felt that night whenever he came and went.
and frisk, chokeholds, and mass Mississippi when the state turned
as Clemons, from his study of his­
About 20 Klansmen, drunk and in carceratio n . A lthough much down Head Start money in the
tories, articles, court records, and full of “blood lust,” chained James progress has been made, great
new anti-poverty program after
his own interviews with still-liv­ Chaney to a tree and beat him with danger lurks for so many in our the summer of 1964 because they
ing Kian members, told us what chains. When they unchained him, community and the prospects for
were trying to push poor black
happened.
he fell to the ground, and then poor children of color in Missis­ people out of the state and make
C haney,
G oodm an,
and they castrated him as Goodman sippi and across our nation are
sure poor children would not get
Schwerner were stopped and ar­ and Schw erner w atched. Then diminishing.
the skills they need to survive in
rested by K ian m em ber and they shot him. Schwerner came up
It is time for another transform­ the economy and to become in­
deputy sheriff Cecil Price as they and cradled Chaney in his arms. A ing movement to honor the sacri­ formed citizens.
drove away after speaking with Klansman asked, “Are you that fices of those who went on before
We do not want to go back to
members of a black church that nigger lover?” and he said, “Sir, I us. We must all finish the job Dr. those days again. We do not want
had been torched a few days ear­ understand your concern.” And M artin L u th er K ing, Jr. and to return to the old days when
lier. Price and the Kian knew that they shot him in the heart. An­ Septima Clark and Medgar Evers powerful segregationist members
civil rights workers had been at drew Goodman ran and they shot and so many other civil rights of Congress could eviscerate food
the church several times to talk him too.
warriors struggled and sacrificed programs for poor sharecroppers
about having a Freedom School
They then took the bodies to a for.
who attempted to vote, and when
th e re — e sp e c ia lly
M ichael dam a little further down the road
We must make sure that our child hunger to the point of star­
Schwerner, who had been work­ (private property so we couldn’t children and all of us know our vation was evident in Mississippi
ing in the area for some time, and go there) where a tractor had al­ history and that the atrocities that in 1965 and 1966 and 1967.
they were looking for him.
ready been deployed to dig the wiped out the lives of Chaney,
We must move forwards and
C haney, the d riv e r, was graves. Evidence suggests An­ G oodm an, and Schw erner and not backwards to the not so good
charged with “speeding” while drew Goodman was buried alive. countless others who died for old days during that extraordi­
Goodm an and Schw erner were The bullet hadn’t quite killed him freedom and justice during the nary summer of sacrifice that trans­
booked for investigation, and all because an autopsy showed red Civil Rights Movement— includ­ formed America in positive and
three were taken to the former clay dirt in his lungs and also ing eight other black men whose fundamental ways. It is time for a
jail— a squat non-descript build­ grasped in his fists from trying to bodies were only found as the FBI new transform ing movement to
ing which was our second stop. dig his way out. The next day, dredged M ississippi rivers and end child and family poverty, hun­
After the Kian had time to gather, Edgar Ray Killen took all the weap­ swamps searching for these three ger, homelessness and illiteracy
C haney,
G oodm an,
and ons and bullet casings to the young men—do not ever happen in America.
Schwerner were released around M eridian P o lice D ep artm en t, again. We must all do our part to
Julia Cass is a Pulitizer Prize­
10 p.m. and told to drive back to which destroyed them. The de­ create a safe and hopeful nation winning journalist on assignment
Meridian, Miss, where they were partment was made up of Kian for every child.
for the Children’s Defense Fund.
staying.
members.
It is way past time for all adults Marian Wright Edelman is Presi­
As they were driving Deputy
We listened in horrified silence. to step up to the plate and make dent o f the Children's Defense
Price stopped them, the Kian mem­ Being there made the brutality viv­ sure that the backwards slide for Fund
bers drove up, and they took the idly real and present.
poor children is stopped and light