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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2018)
Page 4 February 7, 2018 Civil Rights: Then and Now Social justice activists will lead the discussion A free open-to-the-public panel discussion about the history of the Civil Rights Movement and what can be accomplished going for- ward will draw several Portland activists, past and present Civil Rights: Then and Now is the topic for the Oregon Historical Society’s Second Sunday Lecture Series, this Sunday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. Presented by Rev. Dr. Le- Roy Haynes, Eric Richardson, In- tisar Abioto, Percy Hampton, and between the Civil Rights Move- ment of the 1960s and1970s and the social justice movements that are currently occurring. The pan- elists will discuss how things have changed, how they have stayed the same, and what audience members can do to get involved. Haynes serves as the senior pas- tor of Allen Temple CME Church in northeast Portland. He was a youth organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Southeast Texas, a field orga- nizer for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, and a A protest for fair housing in Portland from a collection of historical co-organizer of the Black Panther prints from the Oregon Historical Society. Party. Richardson is president of the JoAnn Hardesty, the event will be cilitate the discussion held at the society’s downtown Event attendees will be able Eugene and Springfield NAACP. museum. Stephen Green will fa- to learn about the connections His family lived by and practiced The Greatest Honor C ontinueD from f ront Collier to make lasting friendships moving around so much, but be- fore long he finally settled down at 14 in Las Vegas, Nev., where his dad retired. He paid his way through school by working at a dairy farm by day and attending classes, part time, at night at Uni- versity of Nevada Las Vegas. He graduated in the late 80s with an accounting degree. “[It was] right at the time that the savings and loan crisis erupted, primarily in Texas. And the bureau was hungry for accountants. And basically, the recruiter tackled me when he saw me,” Collier said. Collier enlisted at age 27 and soon began the first part of his law enforcement career in San Francisco. Collier’s first criminal case was on the bank robbery squad. The robber was so nervous, Col- lier explained between laughs, that he had left his wallet, from which he pulled out the written note that instructed the teller it was a robbery, on the counter be- fore making a get-away. “That was the first and easiest case I ever worked,” Collier said. Collier went on to work more challenging cases, working with SWAT and chasing fugitives, in- cluding Ted Kacynski, the Un- abomber. A domestic terrorist, Kaczynski made hand crafted wooden pipe bomb explosives sent through the post office that killed 3 people between 1978 and 1995. He sent bombs to universities, airliners, the idea of holding African cul- tural with value and dignity, and currently works to facilitate con- versations on identity and cultural inclusion. Abioto is an adventurer, danc- er, photographer, and writer. She created The Black Portlanders se- ries, an ongoing photo essay and exploratory blog imaging people of African descent in the city. Hampton was preparing to be- gin studies at Portland State Uni- versity when a confrontation with police brought him to the attention of Kent Ford and the city’s new Black Panther Party chapter. He worked with the Panthers to es- tablish the Fred Hampton Memo- rial People’s Free Clinic and free breakfasts for children. and private homes. After being on the FBI’s watch list since the 70s, Kaczynski was still at large in the 90s when Collier was assigned his case. “He blew up somebody in Sac- ramento. And he placed a bomb in a post office in San Francisco, an- other one had exploded,” Collier said. “We got court order surveil- lance on a lot of the post offices in San Francisco, just trying to catch this guy. We never got him as a re- sult of that.”