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A PRIL 8, 2015
P ORTLAND
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S EATTLE
V OLUME XXXVII, N O . 27
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The Skanner News presents
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Lawsuit
Ends with
Lasagna
25
STRATEGY
But what are your
rights in a restaurant?
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
See ENZO’S on page 3
INDEX
News.............1,3,6,910
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................7,8
Bids/Classifieds ........11
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
A
lawsuit alleging denial of service
brought by Alberta Street resident
Kathleen Hampton against Enzo’s
Café Italiano has been amicably settled over
a pan of the restaurant’s famous homemade
lasagna.
Hampton said last week that Enzo had
reached out to her with a letter asking for a
meeting, and that the food – and Enzo –
were wonderful.
Maybe even the best in town.
“I feel good about it,” Hampton said
Wednesday. “I think he’s a nice man and
he’s been thinking about what happened.”
Details of a legal agreement reached
between the two remains sealed.
It’s a stunning turnaround for a case that
touched a raw nerve in Northeast Portland,
where Alberta Street’s gentrification
remains headline news.
However, the number of similar com-
plaints posted locally to social media beg
the question: How do you prove your bad
restaurant service is a civil rights violation?
Nationally, high-profile cases that have
raised eyebrows include the 2013 pat-down
of Forest Whitaker in a New York deli and
comedian Kamau Bell’s experience last
February in a Berkeley cafe where a server
tried to “shoo him away” because she
thought he was harassing eaters. Both were
addressed through mediation but in both
cases the restaurants insisted the incidents
were “not about race.”
Other complaints around the country
involve restaurant workers writing racist
words and comments on cash register
receipts.
The issue reached headlines locally in
February after complaints that one public
banquet facility and two restaurants had
allegedly treated Black customers different-
ly than white customers.
In addition to the Enzo’s incident, Port-
land Black PFLAG’s case against the
Ambridge Center was resolved through
Before children charged the Nathan Hale football field, one dad strategized with his son about how to get the
most candy during the Annual Meadowbrook Community Center spring egg hunt. Similar activities were held at
community centers all over Seattle on Saturday April 4.
Trayvon’s Mother in Portland
Sybrina Fulton plans two appearances next week on youth rights
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner News
S
ybrina Fulton, mother of
late Florida teenager
Trayvon Martin, will
speak to a special gathering in
Portland, April 13, from 6:45 to
8:30 p.m. at the Maranatha
Church.
Fulton will deliver a message
of youth empowerment in an
event that is free and open to the
public.
The following day, Fulton
keynotes the 23rd Annual
YWCA Inspire Luncheon and
fundraising event, bringing
some of the area’s most promi-
nent businesses and community
leaders to the downtown Hilton
Portland & Executive Tower.
Longtime activist Joyce Har-
ris, who helped in bringing
Martin’s mom to Maranatha
after hearing she would be in
town, says she sees the night as
“bringing together the village,”
and an opportunity to “reignite”
the sense of unity and responsi-
bility amongst the community.
“We don’t have a lot of oppor-
tunities in Portland for cultural
events,” Harris says. “So when
those opportunities come
around we need to understand
that it’s not just the adults that
need that cultural healing and
connection—it’s the young peo-
ple too.”
Fulton became an activist
after her son Trayvon was shot
by neighborhood watchman-
turned-vigilante
George
Zimmerman, who walked free
after a court trial.
Harris called her message
“beautiful.”
“She realized that I have got
to speak up. What’s so beautiful,
is she clearly understands when
she speaks up, it’s not just trying
to address the injustice that hap-
pened to her son, but for all her
kids,” says Harris.
“We still have people that
don’t actually realize that racial
profiling and racial discrimina-
tion are actually happening
because it’s not happening to
them,” Fulton said in February
during an interview with James
See MARTIN on page 3
Urban League Career Fair This Month
More companies are currently hiring from across a range of jobs
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
F
or local job-seekers, it’s time to dust
off that resume and put on your best
interview clothes for the 22nd Annual
Career Connections Fair.
The Urban League of Portland, in partner-
ship with IHeartMedia, JAM’N 107.5 and
Bank of America, is hosting the event on
April 22, at the Double Tree Hotel near
Lloyd Center.
The yearly fair brings together employers
from the Portland area that are looking to
recruit skilled, diverse job candidates.
Employers come from many different eco-
nomic sectors including; retail, health care,
construction, corporate and government.
Debra Lindsay, director of Workforce
Development at the Urban League of Port-
land said the employers who attend the fair
have open job positions right now and are
looking to hire.
“Employers look to the Urban League to
recruit qualified candidates,” Lindsay said.
“This is an opportunity to match employers
with community members that are looking
for employment.”
See CAREER on page 3