M artin L uther K ing J r .
2021 special edition
January 13, 2021
Page 3
INSIDE L O C A L N E W S
M ETRO
page 12
photo by M ichael R ubenstein p hotogRaphy
Michelle J. DePass begins her third year as president and chief executive officer for the Meyer
Memorial Trust, one of the largest private funders of community advancement initiatives in the state.
“MLK was a beacon of life for me,” she told the Portland Observer, describing the impact the late civil
rights leader has on her life and as a community advocate for change.
Advancing Justice, Equality
The
Week in Review
C LASSIFIED /B IDS
page 16
pages 10
USPS 959 680
4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.,
Portland, OR 97211
PO QR code
P ubLisher :
Mark Washington, Sr.
a sst . P ubLisher :
Shawntell Washington
e ditor :
Michael Leighton
Office Mngr/Clasfds:
Lucinda Baldwin
C reative d ireCtor : Paul Neufeldt
Administrator Coordinator:
Quayuana Washington
Distribution Manager:
Mark Washington Jr.
CALL 503-288-0033 • FAX 503-288-0015• news@portlandobserver.com
ads@portlandobserver.com• subscription@portlandobserver.com
Postmaster: Send address changes to Portland Observer, PO Box 3137, Portland, OR 97208
Subscribe ! 503-288-0033
Attn: Subscriptions, PO Box 3137, Portland OR 97208
$45.00 for 3 months • $80.00 for 6 mo. • $125.00 for 1 year
Fill Out & Send To:
(please include check with
this subscription form)
Name:
Telephone:
Address:
or email subscriptions@portlandobserver.com
M ichael l eighton
p oRtland o bseRveR e ditoR
“Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere.”
The words of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., penned from his 1963
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
has been an lifelong inspiration to
Michelle J. DePass, an esteemed
Black executive overseeing the
Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the
largest private funders of commu-
nity advancement initiatives in
the state.
DePass helped the Trust put
down permanent roots in the his-
torically Black Albina communi-
ty of north and northeast Portland
this fall, by opening a new head-
quarters to advance a Board mis-
sion to create a transformative fu-
ture for people of color in Oregon,
one where there is more economic
opportunity and less hate and in-
justice.
DePass will begin her third
year as president and chief exec-
utive officer for the organization
in April.
“MLK was a beacon of life
for me,” she told the Portland
Observer, describing her life as a
community advocate for change
and the impact the late civil rights
leader had on her. DePass previ-
ously has served as civil rights
by
Established 1970
The Portland Observer welcomes freelance
submissions. Manuscripts and photographs
should be clearly labeled and will be re-
turned if accompanied by a self addressed
envelope. All created design display ads
become the sole property of the newspaper
and cannot be used in other publications or
personal usage without the written consent
of the general manager, unless the client has
purchased the composition of such ad. ©
2008 THE PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED, REPRODUCTION
IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PER-
MISSION IS PROHIBITED. The Portland
Observer--Oregon’s Oldest Multicultural
Publication--is a member of the National
Newspaper Association--Founded in 1885,
and The National Advertising Represen-
tative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc, New
York, NY, and The West Coast Black Pub-
lishers Association
Meyer Memorial
Trust leader
on MLK, new
headquarters
lawyer, environmental justice ad-
vocate, community organizer and
former assistant administrator for
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency under former President
Obama.
As a young Black woman, she
was inspired by Dr. King’s advo-
cacy for the economic empow-
erment of Black Americans and
other people who struggle to sur-
vive and prosper. Now advancing
equality is work she and her staff
of 40 employees conduct through
the Meyer Memorial Trust.
“We cannot be free until we
have opportunity,” she said, echo-
ing the words of the late civil
right s leader and reflecting on his
legacy as Portland and the nation
approach the Martin Luther King
Jr. National Holiday on Jan. 18.
The Meyer Memorial Trust is
now firmly allied with powerful
allies in private and governmen-
tal affairs who acknowledge that
injustice in Oregon is founded on
historical anti-Black and anti-In-
digenous bigotry.
This summer, for example, the
Trust embarked on a new “Justice
Oregon” plan to advance racial
justice and equity in Oregon by
allocating$1.3 million to local
Black-led and Black-serving or-
ganizations, part of a five year,
$25 million commitment to fight
injustice by making strategic in-
vestments in the lives of Black
Oregonians.
The funding initiative came in
the wake of two months of nation-
wide demonstrations in response
to the death of George Floyd, a
Black man who died after a white
Minneapolis police office knelt on
his neck for nearly 8 minutes.
The Meyer Memorial Trust was
established in 1982 from the es-
tate of Fred G. Meyer, the founder
of the one-stop Fred Meyer stores
of Portland lore. Over the course
of its history, the Trust has award-
ed over $800 million to more than
3,470 community organizations.
The new Meyer Memorial
headquarters, located at 2045 N.
Vancouver Ave., is both a testa-
ment to advancing economic and
environmental justice and the sto-
ry of the late Fred Meyer himself,
who founded his grocery empire
as a German immigrant and lived
and worked in the same Albina
neighborhood while leaving a leg-
acy of promoting the community.
The new building was devel-
oped and constructed under rigor-
ous goals for minority and wom-
en-owned business participation,
DePass said, and used the latest
efficiencies for energy use and
building materials, like next-gen-
eration wood products made in
Oregon. The headquarters is in
line to receive LEED Platinum
certification, the highest rating
possible for environmental inno-
vations, she said.
DePass is proud of the diverse
workforce that benefitted from
the project. She said about half
of the construction workforce
budget went to women and mi-
nority-owned
subcontractors,
while 30 percent of the journey
c ontinued on p age 10