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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2011)
www . thesKaNNer . COm O CtOBer 19, 2011 s eattle , w ashiNgtON V Olume XXXiii, N O . 51 25 CeNts i nSiDe Dr. King’s Charge page 4 Jessie Jackson Jr. page 5 Kwei Quartey C hallenging P eoPle to S haPe a B etter F uture n ow page 2 The big guys Kings Call for Fairness Bernice King says her father sought to Occupy Washington PhOtO BY Julie Keefe Brett Zongker the Associated Press Pee wee football player Nasyr Cornett 6 and his Kent Cobra teammates took on the rainier eagles in the 6th game of the season Oct. 15 at at rainier Playfield. the eagles prevailed 18 to 6. seattle seniors Fight Foreclosure National campaign brings last-minute hope of saving family home By the Skanner news L ike thousands of other homeowners across the country, Dixie Mitchell found herself in danger of losing her family home in Seattle’s Central District, Her mortgage holder Ocwen Financial refused a loan modification and the home was scheduled for auc- tion. But neighbors, family and friends came together to help the 71-year-old cancer survivor. “I’m just one of the thousands of families whose lives have been turned upside down by the banks,” said Ms. Mitchell. “They got bailed out, but nobody’s around to help us when we fall on hard times.” Now a national campaign has brought last-minute hope to the family and, Issaquah- based lawyer John Long has volun- teered his services on a pro bono (no fee) basis. And what seemed like a lost cause, could well become a victory. Ms. Mitchell and her husband, Luster, have owned their home for 44 years. The couple raised inDex News ...........................3 Calendar ....................2 Opinion ....................4,5 Bids/Classifieds.........6-7 nine biological children and cared for 50 foster children in this home. The house was paid off in full in the mid-1980s, but when they needed money for repairs and to help one of their foster children, they went to a bank for advice, and refinanced with a sub-prime loan. The loan repayment jumped to $2,052. But after Luster Mitchell suffered a stroke and became unable to work, the Mitchell’s monthly income fell to $2,200. The couple fell behind on payments and the lender began foreclosure pro- ceedings. Their home was scheduled for auction Oct. 28. Dixie Mitchell has done everything she can to keep the home: filing for bankruptcy, vis- iting assistance agencies, offer- ing to rent out rooms to cover costs, and more. She tried to get a simple loan modification but Ocwen Financial, who hold the title to her mortgage refused to modify the loan. She tried to find the people who had initial- ly told her how the loan would See Dixie on page 3 WAShingtOn — For many who helped dedicate the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Sunday, the towering gran- ite monument is a stark reminder that the civil rights leader’s dream of social and eco- nomic justice has yet to be realized. In many ways, the ceremony was a pass- ing of the torch to a younger generation with speeches marked by fierce rhetoric over the nation’s economic disparities. Thousands gathered at the memorial site, some as early as 5 a.m., to hear President Barack Obama, King’s children and other civil rights leaders. Speaker after speaker invoked King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963 to challenge others to carry on his fight. “Yes, my father had a dream. It was a dream, he said, that was deeply embedded in the American dream,” said King’s son Martin Luther King III. “The problem is the American dream of 50 years ago ... has turned into a nightmare for millions” who have lost their jobs and homes. The nation has “lost its soul,” he said, when it tolerates such vast economic dispar- ities, teen bullying, and having more people of color in prison than in college. His sister, the Rev. Bernice King, remind- ed the crowd that just before her father’s assassination in 1968, he was mobilizing a poor people’s campaign to occupy the nation’s capital until the economic system changed. She said the postponement of an earlier dedication because of Hurricane Irene that was planned on Aug. 28, the 48th anniver- sary of her father’s “Dream” speech, may have been an act of God. “Perhaps the postponement was a divine interruption to remind us of a King that moved us beyond the dream of racial justice to the action and work of economic justice,” she said. “Perhaps God wanted us to move See KingS on page 3 why is Occupy movement so white? Minorities suffer most from wealth gap but few attend the protests By errin haines the Associated Press AtlAntA (AP) — Jason Woody imme- diately recognized a shared struggle with many of the Occupy Wall Street demonstra- tors: The 2007 college graduate has been out of work for two years, and it’s been longer since he’s seen a doctor. He also noticed something else - the lack of brown faces on the front lines of the Occupy move- ment. “When I started out here ... I realized there was not a lot of diversity out here,” said Woody, who is black and graduated from Morehouse College and has camped in a downtown Atlanta park with other protest- ers for more than a week. “It’s changed in the course of the past week. I’d like to see that grow.” The outcry against the nation’s financial institutions that has swept the country in recent weeks has crossed many boundaries, including class, gender and age. But a stub- born hurdle in many cities has been a lack of racial inclusion, something noted by organ- izers and participants alike. “We, the 99 percent, have to be reaching See White on page 3
