Portland observer., January 24, 2024, Image 1

Volume LIV • Number 02
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 24, 2024
Committed to Cultural Diversity
A Civil Rights Legacy to Remember
Son of the Rev.
Martin Luther
King Jr., dies
of cancer at 62
Dexter Scott King, who dedicated
much of his life to shepherding the civ-
il rights legacy of his parents, the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott
King, died Monday after battling prostate
cancer. He was 62.
The King Center in Atlanta, which
Dexter King served as chairman, said the
younger son of the civil rights icon died at
his home in Malibu, California. His wife,
Leah Weber King, said in a statement that
he died “peacefully in his sleep.”
The third of the Kings’ four children,
Dexter King was named for the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,
Alabama, where his father served as a
pastor when the Montgomery bus boy-
cott launched him to national prominence
in the wake of the 1955 arrest of Rosa
Parks. Dexter King was just 7 years old
when his father was assassinated in April
1968 while supporting striking sanitation
workers in Memphis, Tennessee. “He
Dexter King, the younger son of Martin Luther King Jr.
turned that pain into activism, however,
and dedicated his life to advancing the
dream Martin and Coretta Scott King had
for their children” and others, the Rev.
Al Sharpton said in a statement. He said
Dexter King “left us far too soon.”
Dexter King described the impact his
father’s killing had on his childhood,
and the rest of his life, in a 2004 mem-
oir, “Growing Up King.” “Ever since I
was seven, I’ve felt I must be formal,” he
wrote, adding: “Formality, seriousness,
certitude — all these are difficult poses
to maintain, even if you’re a person with
perfect equilibrium, with all the drama
life throws at you.”
As an adult, Dexter King bore such a
striking resemblance to his famous father
that he was cast to portray him in a 2002
TV move about Parks starring Angela Bas-
sett. He also worked to protect the King
Continued on Page 4
Oregon Teen Saves Baby's Life
Power Line Falls
on Car During
Ice Storm
Majiah Washington listens to a question during a news conference at the Portland
Fire & Rescue headquarters on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP
Photo/Jenny Kane)
(AP) — Majiah Washington noticed
a flash outside her home this week in
Portland, where a dangerous storm had
coated the city with ice. Opening her
blinds, she saw a red SUV with a downed
power line on it and a couple who had been
putting their baby in the car.
The woman screamed to her boyfriend
to get the baby to safety, and he grabbed
the child and began to scramble up the
driveway on concrete so slick it was almost
impossible to walk. But before he made
it halfway, he slid backward and his foot
touched the live wire — “a little fire, then
smoke,” Washington said.
The mother, six months pregnant, tried
to reach the baby, but she too slipped and
was electrocuted. So was her 15-year-
old brother, when he came out to help.
Washington, 18, was on the phone with a
dispatcher when she saw the baby, lying
on top of his father, move his head — the
9-month-old was alive. Having just seen
three people shocked to death, she decided
to try to save the boy.
She kept a low crouch to avoid sliding
into the wire as she approached, she said
at a news conference Thursday, a day after
the deaths. As she grabbed the baby she
touched the father’s body, but she wasn’t
shocked, she said.
“I was concerned about the baby,” said
Washington, who recognized the woman
as her neighbor’s daughter. “Nobody was
with the baby.”
“We do have fortunately with us a
toddler that is going to be able to thrive
and do what they possibly can as they
move forward,” Graves said. “And they are
here, in part, because of the heroic acts of a
member of our community.”
The snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid
temperatures that hammered the Pacific
Northwest in the past week have now
been blamed for at least 10 deaths in
Oregon, from hypothermia and falling
trees or utility poles, along with five from
hypothermia in the Seattle area.
Oregon’s governor declared a statewide
emergency Thursday night after requests
for aid from multiple counties “as they
enter the sixth day of severe impacts” from
the weather.