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Volume LII • Number 05
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • March 09, 2022
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Officer
Fired for
Hardesty
Leak
Photo courtesy office of Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty
A new program to empower Black youth and eradicate racism is introduced at the newly designated Soul Restoration Center,
the former Albina Arts Center on Northeast Killingsworth and Williams Avenue. Pictured from left are Sunshine Dixon, City
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, Dr. S. Renee Mitchell and Andre Miller. Dixon works with Dr. Mitchell and Miller is part of
Hardesty’s team
Elevating Black Youth
City approves
outreach for healing
By Beverly Corbell
The Portland Observer
In a ground-breaking move that
could become a model for cities across
the country, the Portland City Council
has earmarked $950,000 to improve the
lives of Black youth while giving the
young people of color themselves the
ability to decide where the money goes.
Financial support for the program
can be traced to months of Black Lives
Matter protests in Portland following
the 2020 death of George Floyd at the
hands of Minneapolis police, when
Portland City Council Commissioner
Jo Ann Hardesty vowed to find funding
to uplift and empower Black youth in
Portland and help them heal from the
trauma of racism.
“It is rare sitting on this seat on the
council that you have an opportuni-
ty to get to see a dream come to life,”
Hardesty said, describing the effort and
outreach led by long time social justice
activist Dr. S. Renee Mitchell.
The funding will create a Black
Youth Leadership Fund in partnership
with the Black United Fund of Oregon
and the Oregon Community Foundation
and taps appropriations from the Port-
land Police Bureau, officials said. It
was approved unanimously at the coun-
cil’s meeting on March 2.
Plans call for using “evidence based
and culturally grounded engagement
processes to raise leadership and en-
trepreneurial skills of Portland’s Black
youth and offer them access to empower-
ment from inside-out, which can poten-
tially influence their trajectory for gener-
ations,” states the city’s resolution.
The fund, according to the resolu-
tion, will help make amends for racist
practices in Portland’s past, which in-
cluded redlining, residential segrega-
tion and disinvestment in areas like
Vanport, Albina and other neighbor-
hoods, undermining the social and ed-
ucational equality of Black Portlanders
for generations.
Mitchell, who will be program ad-
ministrator, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize
nominee, educator, poet and artist with a
Continued on Page 10
Brian Hunzeker
Discrimination,
harassment and
retaliation found
The former head of Portland’s police
union was fired last week for leaking al-
legations one year ago against City Com-
missioner JoAnn Hardesty, the first Black
woman to serve on the City Council and a
lifelong advocate for police reforms.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who
serves as the city’s police commission-
er and Chief Chuck Lovell outlined the
termination in a Feb. 28 letter to Brian
Hunzeker, the officer involved.
Lovell had recommended a 12 week
suspension without pay rather than ter-
Continued on Page 11