MARCH 15, 2017
25
CENTS
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 24
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Dred Scott and Taney ......8
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF
PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU
WOMEN’S DAY
Officer Kevin Modica (seen here) and Officer Derek
Rodigues, both of whom had already been demoted
by the Portland Police Bureau, were placed on
administrative leave by the bureau last week.
AMA
Continues
Call for
Diversity
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
T
he Albina Ministerial Alliance for
Justice and Peace Reform last week
has reiterated its call for Portland
Police Bureau to hire more officers
of color to its command-line staff.
Last Thursday KOIN reported that
Kevin Modica of the Police Bureau’s
Youth Services Division and Derek
Rodrigues of the Family Services Divi-
sion had been placed on administrative
leave. They were stripped of their guns
and badges and are required to report
twice daily to personnel.
See AMA on page 3
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Details are unavailable
on the suspension of two
officers of color
Activist Shaun King and Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant wait to speak at the “Womxn of the World Unite” rally hosted by Councilmember
Kshama Sawant and Socialist Students on March 8, International Women’s Day, at Westlake Park. A lineup of speakers that included New York Daily
News writer and activist King, Pussy Riot members, Nicole Grant of the Martin Luther King Labor Council, Terry Lindeke, NOW board member and Poet
and Lawyer Nikkita Oliver, who just announced her candidacy for Mayor of Seattle reminded the crowd of the struggles affecting women in their
continued fight for reproductive and abortion rights, equal pay for equal work, family leave and affordable housing.
PPS Candidates Debate Zone 4 Priorities
Read Jamila Singleton Munson and Rita Moore’s answers to key questions
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO MARK SCHAAF/THE
JOURNAL TIMES VIA AP
P
Dohald Bell, of Chicago, speaks at a protest over
the proposed health care law in downtown Racine,
Wis., March 14. A few hundred protesters gathered
near Paul Ryan’s Racine office to protest the
American Health Care Act.
World News
Briefs
Trump’s taxes, Ryan’s
healthcare bill and more
page 10
Kam Reviews ‘The
Obama Years’
page 7
ortland
Public
Schools will undergo
stark changes to its
board May 16 when
three of its seven seats will
be filled with fresh mem-
bers. None of the board’s
incumbents have plans to
run again.
While Steve Buel has re-
tracted his bid for reelec-
tion of Zone 4, which pre-
sides primarily over North
Portland, two female can-
didates have risen to the
challenge: educator Jami-
la Singleton Munson and
Portland Public Schools
activist Rita Moore.
Both women took to the
stage on Monday evening
at Maranatha Church
in Northeast Portland
to participate in Black
Voices Candidate’s Fo-
rum, co-sponsored by the
NAACP, the Portland Afri-
can American Leadership
Forum, and the Albina
Ministerial Alliance and
others.
The public event, which
pulled around 60 commu-
nity members, was put for-
ward by Nichole Watson, a
fifth grade teacher at Jason
Lee Elementary School and
instructor through Black
Parent Initiative, a non-
profit that empowers Af-
rican American parents to
engage on campuses that
serve their children.
“As a third-year teacher,
there is still much I need to
learn about the politics of
public education,” Watson
told The Skanner. “In a dis-
cussion with parents I re-
alized, yet again, the Black
voice was missing.”
In fact, back in 2013, only
17 percent of Portland’s
entire population voted in
the PPS board election.
To help correct that poor
level of engagement, Wat-
son initiated the debate
to inform and embolden
local organizations that
impact and serve the Black
community, along with the
families and parents that
dwell within it.
“Many parents and teach-
ers, including me, are un-
aware of exactly how much
See PPS on page 3
PSU Study: African American Population Decreasing
Portland’s newest residents are more diverse
than the region – but Black residents are leaving
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
A
new study released by PSU’s
College of Urban and Public
Affairs found that Portland’s
newest migrants are more di-
verse than the overall population,
yet the Rose City continues to lose its
African American population.
“At this point we can only speculate
on the reasons African Americans
seem to be leaving the Portland area,
such as the gentrification of North
and Northeast Portland,” said Jason
Jurjevich, assistant director of PSU’s
Population Research Center, in a
press release for the study.
The study is part of PSU’s America
on the Move project, which tracks
migration trends across the largest
U.S. metro areas.
Among young, college-educated
A portion of the “Bilalian Odyssey” painting, at
See POPULATION on page 3 Oregon Convention Center.
