Celebrating
‘City
of
Roses’
BLACK
HISTORY
MONTH
Volume XLVIII • Number 6
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • February 6, 2019
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
A Heroine for
Transit Rights
Rosa Parks’ civil
rights activism
started early
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
An often overlooked aspect of the story
of Rosa Parks, the civil rights icon whose
refusal to move from her seat for a white
passenger during the segregated south
in the mid-1950s and subsequent arrest
helped spark the
modern civil rights
movement, is that
Parks’ choice that
day was part of a
planned, intentional
act of demonstration
against the racist
Jim Crow laws of
Montgomery, Ala.,
her hometown at the
time.
A pervasive nar- Rosa Parks
rative not entirely
accurate is that the seamstress, tired from
working on her feet all day and well worn
to the maladies of the racist societal norms
that had affected her entire life up to that
point, decided spontaneously in that mo-
ment of the confrontation to take a stand
by remaining seated.
The fuller truth is the late Parks, whose
birthday was on Monday, Feb. 4 had been
a dedicated civil rights activist her entire
life.
More than 10 years before her famous
refusal to move on that bus in Alabama in
1955 when the white section filled and the
first row of the black section was to make
way for more white passengers, Parks was
thrown off another bus by the same bus
driver, James Blake, for using the white
entrance--at the front of the bus--while she
was the secretary of a city chapter of the
NAACP, in 1943. During that time she also
witnessed her brother, a veteran of the Sec-
ond World War, face discrimination after
returning home.
Several months before the Dec 1, 1955
arrest, Parks attended a two week long
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photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Community leaders with Bus Riders Unite and OPAL Environmental Justice train volunteers in de-escalation techniques
Saturday in southeast Portland to get them ready to become unofficial transit rider advocates on TriMet buses and trains.
Pictured (from left) are first-time volunteer Arius King, de-escalation training facilitator Tristan Isaac, OPAL volunteer Keith
Scholz and OPAL staff member Janaira Ramirez.
Transit Riders Organize
Ad hoc ‘rider
advocates’ push
TriMet to act
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
A grassroots effort to bring back civil-
ian volunteers on public transit to help
de-escalate conflicts and provide infor-
mation and support to riders is currently
in an unofficial prototype phase, thanks to
OPAL—a civil rights and environmental
justice organization which stands for “Or-
ganizing People, Activating Leaders”—
and a bus riders union called Bus Riders
Unite.
The grassroots idea is modeled after the
“Rider Advocate” program, a similar ini-
tiative that was funded by TriMet for 15
years, but ended in 2009. OPAL, which
does much of its organizing by speaking
with people on buses, often with clip-
boards, etc., said it’s currently testing out
the idea by dispatching some trained vol-
unteers.
“We’re always going to be on the buses
organizing, building community, and this
is just one more extension of how we do
that, that also happens to be sort of a proof
of concept of the model of the rider advo-
cate program,” OPAL spokesman Shawn
Fleek told the Portland Observer.
The initiative, which has been incubat-
ing in the development phase for the past
year, is in response to what organizers said
is a recent increase in police and security
presence on TriMet trains and buses. They
hope the revived pilot version of rider ad-
vocates will inspire TriMet to fully fund
the program again.
As many as 25 volunteers have received
de-escalation training through OPAL that
readies them to eventually don yellow
vests, help resolve conflicts, and show rid-
ers how to safely navigate the public trans-
portation system. Some have even ridden
on transit already, in this capacity.
Though this revived program has not
been officially sanctioned by TriMet, each
volunteer is provided a transit pass by
their sponsoring groups so they can board
transit’s public spaces to look out for oth-
ers and speak with them.
TriMet spokesperson Roberta Altstadt
told the Portland Observer that TriMet ap-
preciates the support of community groups
that value transit and understand the desire
to help others, but the agency would prefer
to rely on their own employees for pub-
lic safety outreach. TriMet currently has
paid customer service staff performing the
same type of functions as rider advocates,
Altstadt said.
“We believe that that role would be bet-
ter with trained employees and security
personnel. We believe that would then in-
crease the safety of our riders and for our
employees,” she said.
Fleek told the Portland Observer their
volunteer program is meant to bolster the
accessibility and safety of riders from some
of the most marginalized groups, like low
income people and people of color.
“[Public transportation is] one of the
last places in society that are multicultural,
multiclass, multigenerational. All on the
same bus you’ll have youth, seniors, peo-
C ontinueD on p age 4