M artin L uther K ing J r .
Page 22
January 11, 2017
2017 special edition
Dynamic Leader for Justice Emerges
c onTinued froM P age 12
about… Through that, I met all of
these amazing activists, and kind
of became one myself.”
McKelvey’s activism bloomed,
he says, as a result of Bernie Sand-
ers’ run for the Democratic presi-
dential nomination and a rally the
candidate held at Pioneer Court-
house Square.
“I had the opportunity to meet
with him and talk with him about
Black Lives Matter,” McKelvey
says.
It was also the first time he was
called on to give a big speech be-
fore the thousands of Sanders sup-
porters who gathered for the rally.
“Ever since then, people have
been having me speak every-
where,” McKelvey explains, stat-
ing that he has since been asked to
speak alongside the likes of Green
Party presidential nominees Dr.
Jill Stein and Ralph Nader. McK-
elvey was formerly an outspoken
leader of the group Don’t Shoot
PDX, which advocates against
police brutality through actions of
mass civil disobedience, until he
left the group to form Portland’s
Resistance.
“I just met with the mayor to-
day,” McKelvey tells the Portland
Observer, in an example of the
power that can come from pro-
testing. “If I didn’t have the power
to put people in the streets, these
people would never have to meet
with me.”
McKelvey’s immediate plans
for Portland’s Resistance are a se-
ries of targeted protests and civil
actions aimed at influencing local
and state-level policies.
“We’re really focusing on the
housing crisis here,” he says, add-
ing that forcing regional action on
climate change is another priority
of the group’s opposition to the fu-
ture Trump administration.
McKelvey laughs off the sur-
prisingly prevalent internet-based
conspiracy theories that he and
Portland’s Resistance are funded
by the likes of George Soros.
“Being an activist is not fun.
Most of us have jobs or school,
most of us are broke, and then
we work tons of hours each day
for free,” McKelvey says, “We’re
not the lazy Americans. The lazy
Americans are the bankers and
politicians.”
While he views his volunteer
work as necessary for making
progress for civil rights and racial
justice on a local scale, McKelvey
has paid personal costs due to his
organizing efforts.
“I’ve lost relationships because
of activism,” including a former
fiancee, he explains. In addition,
he says, his work opportunities are
now strictly limited to positions in
which a highly public persona and
lots of political savvy are valued.
“A lot of people think that I
love the limelight,” McKelvey
says, “But the people that work
with me know that I don’t like it at
all. I don’t enjoy being the one to
get the death threats.”
Despite the day-to-day chal-
lenges that he and other local ac-
tivists face, McKelvey says that
they will continue their crusades,
no matter what, “It’s what we feel
that we have to do to push for
change.”
While McKelvy is optimistic
about the future of his movement,
he understands the very real dan-
ger that he faces.
“I will die for this. I think that
Martin Luther King was willing to
die for what he did, and he knew
that he probably would,” McKel-
vey says. “I think that it would be
a miracle for me to live my entire
life fighting the way that I’m fight-
ing now, and not have something
happen.”
Everybody
can be great ...
because anybody
can serve. You
don’t have to
have a college degree to
serve. You don’t have to
make your subject and verb
agree to serve. You only
need a heart full of grace. A
soul generated by love.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.