February 10, 2016 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
“She went and said a
prayer, and the answer
came back quick,” Ol-
ive-Beltran said.
Olive, who was African
American, became Ore-
gon’s first heart donor at
a time when organ trans-
plants were still rare. His
other organs — includ-
ing his cornea, lungs
and kidneys — were also
“
about organ donation.
She is a board member of
Donate Life Northwest,
and got involved with the
organization in its infan-
cy, appearing at events
and working with the
media to talk about Bob-
by’s story and answer
questions about organ
donation. Olive is still in
contact with Merrell’s
Olive, who was African
American, became Oregon’s
first heart donor at a time
when organ transplants
were still rare
transplanted, though his
family has not gotten to
know the recipients.
But they did become
close to Wesley Mer-
rill, a 44-year-old White
man from Battle Ground,
Wash., and his family.
Both families, it turned
out, were Seventh-Day
Adventists, and Arsdale
would sometimes have
them over for vegetarian
soul food.
Olive’s family also im-
mediately took the op-
portunity to educate the
public about organ trans-
plants.
“At the time of the
transplant, [my mother]
worked at Boise-Eliot
School. She would bring
Wesley to school and she
would say Wesley was
her son,” Olive said. Chil-
dren would try to puzzle
out how a Black woman
could have a White son,
and then Arsdale and
Merrill would tell the
story of how they got to
know each other.
Merrill passed away in
1990, and Arsdale died in
2012, but Olive-Beltran
continues to work to tell
the families’ stories and
to educate the public
Food
mother, who currently
lives in Arkansas, but
wants to move back to
the Northwest.
Bobby’s birthday was
Feb. 12, and Belinda said
his family tries to do
something every year to
honor him and to raise
awareness about the im-
portance of becoming an
organ donor.
This Saturday there
will be an event from
5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at As-
pire, at 2601 SE 160th, to
honor Bobby’s life, raise
awareness about organ
donation and raise funds
for Donate Life North-
west.
In addition to encour-
aging people to list them-
selves as organ donors,
Olive said she wants or-
gan donors to let their
families know so they
are prepared to make the
decision their loved ones
would want if and when
the time comes. The fam-
ily is also working to
start a Bobby Olive Fam-
ily Foundation to spread
awareness about organ
donation.
“It doesn’t seem like 30
years. Time goes so fast,”
Olive-Beltran said.
Children’s Hospitals Photo Exhibit
This photograph, commissioned by Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel was selected for the 2015 Children’s Hospitals Photo
Exhibit, a national competition administered by the Children’s Hospital Association. The photo, titled “Leave the Past Behind,” shows
18-year-old Marta Nunez using art therapy. Marta suffered a spinal cord injury resulting from a car crash and persevered through months
of rehabilitation at Randall Children’s Hospital. The Children’s Hospitals Photo Exhibit will be on display to the general public at Randall
Children’s Hospital Feb. 5 through 29 in the lobby of the hospital. Learn more about the exhibit online: https://www.childrenshospitals.
org/Newsroom/Photo-Exhibit
Housing
cont’d from pg 1
will be used in the next five years,
members gave an official presen-
tation of the document at city hall
this past Wednesday.
Committee chair Bishop Steven
Holt called the council’s adoption
of the plan “a significant moment”
in the history of Portland.
The plan works across four ar-
eas of concern in the Interstate
Urban Renewal Area: prevent-
ing displacement, creating new
homeowners, creating rental
homes and land acquisition.
Some of these dollars have al-
ready been put to work in the
form of home repairs throughout
North and Northeast Portland,
with the bulk of the grants be-
ing awarded to African Ameri-
can-owned households.
The biggest portion of the
monies, $4.5 million, has been
set aside for redeveloping land
owned by Portland Housing Bu-
reau between Northeast Martin
Luther King Boulevard and Cook
Street and Ivy for “family-friend-
ly” affordable housing.
The number of homes created,
and households assisted, is ex-
pected to total around 450.
To ensure that families most di-
rectly affected by gentrification
get first dibs on these new devel-
opments, the committee has in-
“
fessor Lisa Bates said on Wednes-
day.
The plan notes North and
Northeast Portland were, just two
decades ago, home to the highest
concentration of African Ameri-
cans in the city and state, but does
The biggest portion of the monies, $4.5
million, has been set aside for redevel-
oping land ... for ‘family-friendly’ af-
fordable housing
cluded a “preference policy” that
would track award dollars based
on the amount of urban renewal
activity that occurred where they
lived.
“For example, if you are a family
member, grandparent or parent
or yourself, who appears on the
list of homes that were taken by
eminent domain or condemned
by the city in order to do urban
renewal actions in the past, that
would be in a priority ranking,”
committee member and PSU Pro-
not address race outright.
Fritz called the preference pol-
icy “groundbreaking,” but ex-
pressed concern over how fami-
lies will be chosen.
She noted the high number of
people who have been displaced
in the urban renewal area, which
stretches from around the Lloyd
Center area to the St. John’s neigh-
borhood.
Read the full story at
TheSkanner.com
cont’d from pg 1
million acres of land in 1900. By 1980,
there were less than seven million acres
farmed by Black hands. He said there
was a historic flight from the South and
“
PHOTO COURTESY OF RANDALL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
Heart
States Commission on Civil Rights,
“The Decline of Black Farming in
America,” predicted there would be no
Black farmers by the year 2000. In the
Black Americans did not want to farm — not
because of farming, but because of Jim Crow
law. They were being lynched
farming, which was too closely associ-
ated with slavery and sharecropping.
Threats and violence prevented small
independent Black farmers from keep-
ing their land. A Black woman in the
audience told Hill that her family left
land they had owned because of a racist
lynching.
“Black Americans did not want to
farm — not because of farming, but be-
cause of Jim Crow law. They were being
lynched. My own father left Alabama,
[where] we had land, to get away from
lynching. His cousin was lynched on
our property,” she said.
In 1982, a report from the United
years between 1982 and 1987, more than
one-third of the nation’s Black farmers
went out of business.
Black farmers were also denied the
support and equipment that White
farmers received. The Pigford v. Glick-
man class action lawsuit alleged racial
discrimination against African Amer-
ican farmers by the United States De-
partment of Agriculture.
Disenfranchised Black farmers were
denied farm loans and assistance from
the USDA or given smaller amounts
and heavier restrictions than White
farmers of a similar background.
Settled in 1999, almost $1 billion has
been paid to 13,300 Afri-
can American farmers
and is the largest civil
rights settlement to date.
In 2010, Congress appro-
priated an additional $1.2
billion to settle another
70,000 claims of racial
discrimination.
Hill sees a shift back
towards Black farming.
While African Ameri-
cans are only two per-
cent of all farmers, their
numbers are steadily
growing as the total num-
ber of farmers in the U.S.
is decreasing.
Black farmers have stronger collec-
tive organization now. There is a Black
Farmer and Agriculturalists Associa-
tion and a National Black Farmers As-
sociation. There are meetings such as
the Black Farmers and Urban Garden-
ers Conference and the National Black
Farmers Association Conference.
During the work session, it was asked
how Black farmers would improve
food scarcity and access. Panelist Ja-
maal Green, who is finishing his Ph.D.
in Urban Studies at Portland State Uni-
versity, said Black farmers would have
insights into the needs of Black food
consumers. He said the ability to have
SNAP benefits accepted at farmer’s
markets came out of food justice work.