‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • November 21, 2018
Volume XLVII • Number 44
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Are
“Our Eyes
Wide Open”
Anniversary of killing
draws parallels to today
D Anny p eterson
t he p ortlAnD o bserver
Small permanent memorials were placed atop
street signs in a southeast Portland neighborhood to
honor Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw on the
30th anniversary of his death when white suprema-
cists attacked and killed him with a baseball bat be-
cause he was black.
Dozens of supporters and civil rights activists at-
tended the Nov. 14 installation and dedication cere-
mony led by Urban League of Portland President and
Chief Executive Officer Nkenge Harmon Johnson.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation and the com-
munity non-profit Southeast Portland Uplift were
co-sponsors of the event.
Members of Seraw’s family and the city’s Ethio-
pian community also attended. Mulugeta Seraw had
moved to Portland to attend college when he was
killed.
Johnson referred to the horrific attack in her re-
marks. She also took aim at a new modern white
supremacist movement which signals that the fight
against racism is not over.
“Our eyes are wide open,” Johnson said. “We
know that the Patriot Prayer boys, the Proud Boys,
the white nationalists, and those other hoodlums
who seek to make us unsafe, want to bring us back
to 30 years ago when Mulugeta was beaten on these
streets by those thugs. Now there are folks who want
to bring us back to that. But look at all of you here
today.”
The unveiling of 16 street sign toppers between
Burnside and Stark streets brings a permanent place
of honor with Seraw’s name before the public in En-
glish and Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language, and
the listing his years of birth and death.
In Seraw’s death, three skinheads admitted to kill-
ing him because of his race, part of a group called
East Side White Pride. They pleaded guilty to the
1988 slaying and were sent to prison.
The criminal prosecution later became the basis
by
c ontinueD on p Age 6
photo courtesy A ntonio
h Arris p hotogrAphy
Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Portland,
leads a dedication ceremony in southeast Portland where one of 16 street sign toppers were
installed last week to commemorate the life of Ethiopian immigrant Mulugeta Seraw on the anniver-
sary of his murder by racist skinheads 30 years ago.