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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.”