December 9, 2020
Page 2
Relics of Past Coming Down
The
Week in Review
Grant murals seen as
promoting racist culture
Historic mural art from Grant High School’s audito-
rium that many students saw as relics of a racist culture
narrative are coming down.
The Portland School Board has approved Superinten-
dent Guadalupe Guerrero’s recommendation to remove
the two larger than life works depicting Native Ameri-
cans and white settlers on each side of the school’s au-
ditorium stage.
The decision at the Nov. 17 school board meeting
came more than a year after the student-led Indige-
nous Peoples Student Union made a request to remove
the 90-year-old murals. Both students and communi-
ty members have called the murals hurtful to Native
90-year-old murals depicting Native Americans and
Americans and other students for portraying stereotypes
white settlers will be removed from Grant High School’s
deemed historically inaccurate.
auditorium after the school district determined they were
problematic for not rising to standards for promoting racial
C ontinued on P age 10
equality and social justice.
Tolbert to Lead Vancouver NAACP
Jasmine Tolbert, a Vancouver native and
long time champion of social justice issues,
has been elected the new president of the Van-
couver NAACP.
On Nov. 21, the local chapter held an
election for officers. Members overwhelm-
ingly elected Tolbert who previously served
as branch vice president. In other positions,
Joseph Hernandez was elected the chapter’s
new vice president; Ruby N. Lewis as secre-
tary and Bryant Enge as treasurer.
Jasmine Tolbert
Tolbert is a graduate of both Clark College
and Washington State University-Vancou-
ver and serves on the Board for the YWCA
of Clark County. She is also a member of
WSU Vancouver’s Equity Diversity Advisory
Board.
In her statement for election as Vancouver
NAACP pesident, she pledged her commit-
ment to racial equity.
C ontinued on P age 10
Red House Eviction Enforced
At least seven people gathered to support a local Black
and Indigenous family on North Mississippi Avenue fight-
ing a foreclosure of their historic home over claims of
fraud and deceit were arrested for trespassing early Tues-
day when law enforcement officers worked to “re-secure”
the “Red House” and adjacent property where protesters
have camped for months.
Remedies for Police Violations
One week after U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez
found the city of Portland in contempt of his restrictions
on police use of less-lethal impact munitions during pro-
tests, the judge has set a Jan. 8 hearing to determine what
“practical remedies as opposed to punitive” ones to im-
pose. The judge’s order came in response to a suit filed
by Don’t Shoot Portland, a Black-led nonprofit that advo-
cates for social and racial justice in the city.
Call for Justice in Vancouver
About 200 demonstrators gathered
Sunday in Hazel Dell, northeast of
Vancouver, to protest the death of Kev-
in Peterson, a 21-year-old Black man
who was fatally shot by Clark County
sheriff’s deputies during a drug sting
operation on Oct. 29. Organizers made
speeches calling for justice for Peter-
son, and his father, Kevin Peterson Sr. thanked the crowd
for their support, including donations that have created a
fund for his daughter.