CAREERS
& Education
See articles inside
PO QR code
Volume XLVV • Number 12
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • June 23, 2021
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Nonprofit helps homeless, youth
Summer event
set to reclaim
city streets
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
Pastor Dwight Minnieweather
worries about vulnerable young
people and those who have no
home, and like so many other
members of the Black communi-
ty he grows ever more concerned
about the violence impacting
youth and others on our city
streets.
But Minnieweather does more
than worry: He takes action.
Through his nonprofit Straight-
way Services, the Portland pas-
tor, with his wife Cassandra,
regularly volunteer and recruit
others to distribute free food and
supplies to homeless camps. Un-
til the Covid pandemic hit last
year, they sponsored a midnight
basketball program for young
people in cooperation with
neighborhood police.
Now with public health re-
strictions easing with the distri-
bution of COVID vaccines, the
couple is taking community ac-
tivism a step further with a major
event set for this summer when
a “Reclaim Oregon” day is held
by
photo by M ark W ashington /t he p ortland o bserver
Through their nonprofit Straightway Services, Pastor Dwight Minnieweather and his wife, Cassandra, take action to help vulnerable
young people, the homeless and other members of the Black community.
on Saturday, July 10 at Pioneer
The name reflects on a de- of a year of protests, but also to
Courthouse Square, downtown, sire to see Portland cleaned up progress politically, addressing
from noon to 9 p.m.
from the debris and vandalism some of issues impacting people
C ontinued on p age 5
Experienced Teacher Raises Achievement Bar
‘We want to
support the
Black educators,
that’s first and
foremost.’
by s. r enee M itChell
F or the p ortland o bserver
Kevin Bacon, the new president
of the Oregon Alliance of Black
School Educators (ORABSE), Kevin Bacon
had a calling early on to become a
public school educator.
As a young boy, Bacon would
make lesson plans for a group of
friends in his apartment build-
ing about the adventures they
would discover together. As a
fourth-grader, he’d find him-
self taking mental notes on what
worked or didn’t work with the
ways teachers interacted with stu-
dents or taught their subjects.
Then after school, Bacon
would regularly settle in front of
the family television set to watch
the now-late actor Lloyd Haynes
portray the charismatic and well-
loved Black teacher Pete Dixon on
“Room 222.” This popular, half-
hour television series about a mul-
tiracial Los Angeles high school
ran for 113 episodes, from 1969 to
1974. Bacon often found himself
daydreaming about having a ca-
reer like the character Dixon.
““It was one of the first TV
shows that portrayed African
American characters in a positive
way,” Bacon said. “That had an
impact on me.”
Those collective group of clues
pushed Bacon toward a career
path as a middle school teacher in
the 1980s, pseudo school admin-
istrative positions in the 90s, and
ultimately a principal at all three
levels elementary, middle and
high before he retired in 2018.
Bacon says one of the rea-
sons he was drawn to take over
ORABSE was his interactions
with other Black educators during
his first year as a Portland Public
C ontinued on p age 13