Portland observer., January 27, 2021, Image 1

Driver Rampage
Kills Woman
Witnesses, police
believe destruction
was intentional
See story, page 2
Wells Picked
for Wilson High
Renaming
District to name
school for civil
rights icon
See story, page 3
PO QR code
Volume XLVV • Number 2
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 27, 2021
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Young Poet
Inspires
the World
Vice President Kamala Harris is congratulated with a fist bump from President-Elect Joe Biden just moments
before his own swearing-in as the 46th president of the United States during Inauguration ceremonies,
Wednesday, Jan. 20, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP photo)
Biden-Harris Era Begins
First female and Black vice president makes history
(AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris broke the barrier
that has kept men at the top ranks of American power for
more than two centuries when she took the oath to hold the
nation’s second-highest office last week.
Harris was sworn as the first female vice president —
and the first Black woman and person of South Asian de-
scent to hold the position — in front of the U.S. Capitol by
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Jan. 20.
The moment was steeped in history and significance
in more ways than one. She was escorted to the podium
by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, the officer
who single-handedly took on a mob of Trump supporters
as they tried to breach the Senate floor during the Capitol
insurrection that sought to overturn the election results.
Harris was wearing clothes from two young, emerging
Black designers — a deep purple dress and coat.
After taking the oath of office, a beaming Harris hugged
her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and gave President Joe
Biden a first bump.
Her rise is historic in any context, another moment
when a stubborn boundary falls away, expanding the idea
of what’s possible in American politics. But it’s particular-
ly meaningful because Harris is taking office at a moment
American poet Amanda Gorman reads her poem
during the 59th Presidential Inauguration, Jan. 20
at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (AP photo)
‘Maya Angelou is
cheering and so am I’ –
tweets Oprah Winfrey
of deep consequence, with Americans grappling over the
role of institutional racism and confronting a pandemic
that has disproportionately devastated Black and brown
communities.
Harris — the child of immigrants, a stepmother of two
and the wife of a Jewish man — “carries an intersection-
al story of so many Americans who are never seen and
heard.”
Harris, 56, moves into the vice presidency just four
years after she first came to Washington as a senator from
California, where she’d served as attorney general and as
San Francisco’s district attorney. After Harris’ own pres-
idential bid fizzled, her rise continued when Biden chose
her as his running mate last August. Harris had been a
close friend of Beau Biden, the elder son of Joe Biden and
a former Delaware attorney general who died in 2015 of
cancer.
The inauguration activities included nods to her histo-
ry-making role and her personal story.
Harris used two Bibles to take the oath, one that be-
longed to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the
(AP) — The president of a historically Black univer-
sity in Maryland was so captivated by inaugural poet
Amanda Gorman’s poem during President Joe Biden’s
inauguration that he offered her a job -- on Twitter.
Morgan State University President David Wilson
joined the many people lauding Gorman, 22, Wednes-
day after her recital of “The Hill We Climb,” a poem
that summoned images dire and triumphant and echoed
the oratory of John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Lu-
ther King Jr. among others before the global audience.
“Ms. Gorman, I need you as our Poet-in-Residence
at the National Treasure, @MorganStateU,” Wilson
tweeted. “Outstanding!!!!! Consider this a job offer!”
The 22-year-old Gorman began by asking “Where
can we find light/In this never-ending shade?” and used
her own poetry and life story as an answer. The poem’s
very title, “The Hill We Climb,” suggested both labor
and transcendence.
“We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
Of such a terrifying hour.
But within it we’ve found the power
To author a new chapter,
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.”
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