WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J UNE 8, 2011
P ORTLAND
V OLUME XXXIII, N O . 32
25
CENTS
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C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow
Report
Details
Abuse
The Princesses
Officials denied
services, claiming 17-
year-old ‘faked it’
Benson: Erica Wu
Central Catholic: Heidi Henderson
Cleveland: J'reyesha Brannon Douglas: Cassandra Hamann
by lisa loving
of The Skanner News
Part 1 of a 2-Part Series
O
n Sept. 13, 2010, Parkrose High
School senior Kyeron Fair went to
school. Within 24 hours he was
incarcerated and in the middle of a night-
mare so deep he couldn’t eat, sleep or track
what was going on around him. The 17-
year-old had no prior arrest record.
Criminal charges against Fair are sched-
uled for an ongoing series of settlement
hearings. Meanwhile questions about what
happened to him in custody have generated
an 1,151-page Oregon State Internal
Excessive Force Investigation, obtained by
The Skanner News.
Arrested on charges he was present during
the armed robbery of an alleged marijuana
dealer – and hit with nearly a dozen gun
charges himself even though the alleged
victim told police Fair was not armed – the
teen was arrested by the Portland Police,
questioned before his parents even knew
where he was, then lodged at the Donald E.
Long Center, where he began showing men-
tal health problems within hours.
By the time a week had passed, Fair had
been housed in the adult jail, Tasered, beat-
en, placed on suicide watch, “approved for
strip-search,” dosed with anti-psychotic
medications, and lodged in the OHSU car-
diac intensive care unit in a catatonic state.
All that before being arraigned on any
charges.
The Oregon State Police investigation into
why a 17-year-old was hospitalized in an
intensive care unit while in the custody of
Multnomah County authorities was request-
ed by state Rep. Lew Frederick, who spoke
recently about Fair’s case on the floor of the
Oregon legislature before passage of a law
against incarcerating minors charged with
Measure 11 crimes in adult facilities.
The investigation into county law enforce-
ment, opened Oct. 13, 2010, was done by
Franklin: Lamarra Haynes
Glencoe: Taylor Gerst
Marshall: Nadia Martinez
Parkrose: Taylor Ballard
News ................2,3,8,9
Opinion ..................4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ...10,11
Lincoln: Sarah Schreiter
Madison: Uma Abdullahi
Roosevelt: Kristin Cubbison St Marys: Anne Nienow Birch
Wilson: Taylor Hodge
The Rose Festival Queen will be crowned on Saturday morning before the Grand Floral parade. For more
information about Rose Festival events, go to page 7.
Portland’s Negro Baseball Team
Multnomah Library seeks artifacts of short-lived sports league
by brian Stimson
of The Skanner News
I
t’s like something straight
out of a pulp mystery novel.
In the spring of 1946,
Olympic gold medalist became
the owner of the Portland
Rosebuds – one of 10 baseball
teams in the West Coast
Baseball Association, an all-
Black league.
The association itself was
owned by Abe Saperstein, the
owner and one of the original
founders of the Harlem
See KyEroN on page 3
INDEX
Grant: Maya Allen
Globetrotters.
The Rosebuds – who shared a
name with a professional hock-
ey team in Portland 25 years
before — played their first game
against the Seattle Stealheads in
a city that has never been con-
sidered to be a part of the West
Coast – El Paso, Texas.
Two months later, with only
the Oakland and Seattle teams
bringing in any money, the
league folded and was nearly
lost to memory.
Now, the Multnomah County
Library is looking to include the
Rosebuds as part of a national
traveling exhibit on baseball,
“Pride and Passion: The African
American Baseball Experi -
ence.” The trouble is – so little
evidence
exists
of
the
Rosebuds’ existence that it’s
becoming a little bit like a wild
goose chase.
Cindy Strasfeld, the library’s
Program Development Special -
ist, says it’s been the most diffi-
cult exhibit she’s had to put
together so far. She’s desperate-
ly trying to find anyone that has
old artifacts, memories or infor-
mation
“This is what keeps me up at
night,” she says of her search.
In an unofficial capacity, the
library’s Rodney Richards has
been assisting Strasfeld in her
search. An amateur baseball his-
tory buff who’s lived in Portland
since 1981, Richards made
friends with Artie Wilson after
Richards’ wife tailored a dress
for Dorothy Wilson.
While Wilson never played
for the Rosebuds, he did play
for Negro Leagues teams and
See roSEbuDS on page 3
Urban League’s Young Professionals Grows
Join them for the Let’s Move health event on Saturday, June 11
by Helen Silvis
of The Skanner News
S
ome work for government, nonprofits
and city leaders. Others are perform-
ers, marketers, doctors or designers.
Many run their own businesses; others are
rising stars at top national companies. What
do they have in common besides being
young, gifted and Black? They all belong to
the National Urban League’s Young
Professionals.
With more than 50 chapters in cities from
Atlanta to Anchorage, the Young
Professionals are growing in numbers and
influence. Portland’s group now numbers
more than 50.
“They are part of a national network,”
says Marcus Mundy, CEO of the Urban
League of Portland. “They help the Urban
League reach its strategic goals, financial,
advocacy and community goals.
“They’re a group of young people, so they
have different ways of getting things done.
And they have better, more creative ideas
that some old people like me don’t have.”
Mundy is being modest. Under his leader-
ship, the Urban League of Portland has
See ProfESSIoNalS on page 3