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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 23, 2022)
Eviction Fears Grow Best Films of 2021 As housing relief dries up, crisis moves to a new stage My counter- point to the Oscars See Local News, page 3 See Top 10 picks, page 12 PO QR code Volume LII • Number 06 ‘City of Roses’ www.portlandobserver.com Wednesday • March 23, 2022 Committed to Cultural Diversity ‘Without Fear or Favor’ Historic court nominee testifies before Senate (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketan- ji Brown Jackson pledged to decide cases “without fear or favor” if the Senate con- firms her historic nomination as the first Black woman on the high court. Jackson, 51, addressed the Senate Judi- ciary Committee at the end of her first day of confirmation hearings Monday, nearly four hours almost entirely consumed by opening statements from the panel’s 22 members. With her family sitting behind her, her husband in socks bearing George Wash- ington’s likeness, Jackson stressed that she has been independent and transparent in her nine years as a judge, and that she is ever mindful of the importance of that role. “I have dedicated my career to ensuring that the words engraved on the front of the Supreme Court building — equal justice under law — are a reality and not just an Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson listens during her confirma- tion hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday, March 21, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (AP photo) ideal,” she said. Barring a significant misstep, Demo- crats who control the Senate by the slim- mest of margins intend to wrap up her confirmation before Easter. Nominated by President Joe Biden, Jackson would be the third Black justice, after Thurgood Mar- shall and Clarence Thomas, as well as the first Black woman on the high court. “It’s not easy being the first. Often, you have to be the best, in some ways the brav- est,” Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illi- nois, the committee chairman, said in sup- port shortly after the proceedings began. Democrats sought to preemptively rebut Republican criticism of her record on crim- inal matters as a judge and before that as a federal public defender and a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Jackson “is not anti-law enforcement,” and is not “soft on crime,” Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said, noting that members of Jack- son’s family have worked in law enforce- ment and that she has support from some national law enforcement organizations. ”Judge Jackson is no judicial activist.” The committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, promised Republicans would “ask tough questions about Jackson’s judicial philosophy,” with- out turning the hearings into a ”spectacle.” Jackson appeared before the same com- mittee last year, after Biden chose her to fill Continued on Page 4 Reclaiming Black Community Spaces Ownership of former arts center makes amends for neglect Portland’s Albina Arts Center, a nos- talgic symbol of Black Portland’s cre- ativity and self-determination, is going to be handed back to the city’s Black community, partly as a way to make amends for decades of disruption, ne- glect and disinvestment. At the request of the State of Oregon, the Oregon Community Foundation, which annually distributes more than $200 mil- lion statewide in grants and scholarships, is the current temporary administrator of the building. Currently, the foundation is preparing for a community-led process that will even- Community ties are woven and strengthened inside the original Albina Arts Center on Northeast Killingsworth at Williams Avenue, a public gathering space that has long been a nostalgic symbol of Black Portland’s creativity and self-determination. The Oregon Community Foundation is in the process of giving ownership of the building to a Black non-profit. Continued on Back
