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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2015)
Page 2 Week in Review The August 12, 2015 Police have made no arrests but believe all three victims know each other and are working with family members to identity ev- eryone involved. Candidate Ousted By Protesters Suicide from downtown Democratic candidate Bernie Portland building Sanders was rushed on stage at a speech in Seat- tle on Saturday. Black Lives Mat- ter activists said they were calling on the senator to take action on saving black lives and called on him to release his plans to reform policing. Sanders did not address the crowd and left without speak- ing. He appeared later the same day at the University of Wash- ington and on Sunday drew more than 28,000 to hear him speak in Portland despite local protestors marching outside the venue. Mara Jacqueline Willaford, (pictured left), holds her fist overhead as Democratic presidential candi- date Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stands nearby at a rally Saturday (Credit Elaine Thompson/AP). Authorities have identified a woman who fell to her death last Monday night from the top of Portland’s Standard Insurance Center building. 46-year-old Jua- na Elena Valdez was confronted by a security guard who tried to prevent her from jumping but he was unable to stop her and she dropped to the pavement below, according to a police report re- leased Thursday. Little is known about the Hillsboro victim, ex- cept that records indicate she had a history of financial problems. Shooting Victims Identified Missouri authorities declared a state of emergency Monday after police arrested dozens of activists, include civil rights leader Cornel West, outside the St. Lois federal courthouse Monday, following another weekend of unrest in Fer- guson, the city where unarmed black teen Mike Brown was shot and killed just over a year ago by a white police officer. Inset Pic- ture: People come to the aid of a distraught woman after gunshots were fired near a protest in Fer- guson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 9, 2015 (Credit Jeff Roberson/AP). Gresham police have released the name of the three people in- volved in a Saturday afternoon shooting that resulted in one fa- tality. 27-year-old Kevin Dwayne Vearnado of Portland was found dead outside an apartment com- plex around Northeast 162nd Av- enue and Halsey Street. Nearby, Malcom Xavier Jesse, 21, was found with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. A third victim, 29-year-old Collett Renee Harris, took herself an area hospital for a non-lethal gunshot wound as well. Ferguson Protests Escalate Established 1970 P ublisher : Mark Washington, Sr. E ditor : Michael Leighton E xecutive D irector : Rakeem Washington A dvertising M anager : Leonard Latin Office Manager/Classifieds: Lucinda Baldwin C reative D irector : Paul Neufeldt R eporter /P hotographer : Olivia Olivia Our Roots Run Deep C ontinued from F ront that dated back over a century, Hanks said he was able to build several profiles from some of the earliest black pioneers with names and original home ad- dresses in what is now called the downtown and Old Town areas. Being a history lover and wanting to share what he had learned, Hanks started leading groups on public walking tours of some of the locations, last fall. “The early pioneers of color who lived downtown and in the Pearl District are from a forgot- ten chapter in Portland’s histo- ry,” Hanks explained. “They were just ordinary people like most of us today. They came to Portland in search of freedom, community, and economic inde- pendence.” Hanks found that many of the early black Portlanders were former slaves, with names such a Julius Caesar Taylor and the Crawford family. Several of them were also business owners. During the 1860s, Hanks says he discovered that one black pioneer founded a Portland real estate company, while another owned a saloon and almost got killed one night. Another early black resident, he says, was instrumental in the integration of Portland public schools in 1870s. One runaway slave even ended up owning a lo- cal home. Hanks suspects that some of the earliest black people arriving in Portland had once been part of the Underground Railroad, a famous escape route for runaway slaves predominantly fleeing the South. The first black newspaper had an office two blocks away from what’s now Pioneer Courthouse Square, work that would eventu- ally lead to the opening of other black-owned newspapers like The Portland Observer. “There are many more histori- cal facts on the tour, such as the first Ku Klux Klan part of Port- land, and the first black lawyer here,” says Hanks. “I also try to include a tribute to the Native Americans who were taken to Or- egon reservations from here.” Hanks has also written a book that’s steeped in years of his own African American ancestry re- search. Akee Tree: A Descendant’s Quest for His Slave Ancestors on the Eskridge Plantation is his account of two families, his own during slavery and that of the fam- ily that held his ancestors in bond- age. Hanks has also helped celebri- ties discover their pasts. He was a contributor to the 2006 PBS spe- cial “African American Lives – Oprah’s Roots,” which examined the genealogy of Oprah Winfrey. Hanks hopes to continue to write and research local black history while enriching Portland with his walking tours. He invites the community and visitors alike to take some time out of their day and walk through the past with him. Hanks currently offers two his- torical tours that focus on Portland pioneers of color, all of which take place on Saturdays. The downtown tour begins at 9:30 a.m. and lasts approximately two hours, focusing on Portland from 1850 through 1899, begin- ning at Southwest First Street and Ankeny next to the Portland Sat- urday Market. His Pearl District tour, which lasts one hour, begins at 12:30 p.m. at Northwest Broadway and Everett Street, and focuses on Portland black history from 1865 through 1920. Tickets are available for two upcoming sessions on Aug. 22 and Sept. 12. Admission is $10 for adults, $2 for children under 17 and free for children under 10. Tickets can purchased on location or reserved by emailing portland- pioneersofcolortours@yahoo. com. For more information, you can follow Portland Pioneers of Color Walking Tours on Face- book. ---------------------- USPS 959 680 ------------------ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 The Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property of the newspaper and cannot be used in other publications or personal usage without the written consent of the general manager, unless the client has purchased the composition of such ad. © 2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS PROHIBITED. 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