JUNE 7, 2017
25
CENTS
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 36
News ...................................3, 6
Opinion ...................................2
Calendars ...............................4
A & E ........................................5
EDITION 2017
Classified ................................7
INSIDE:
CAREERS
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO COURTESY OF US ARMY CENTER
OF MILITARY HISTORY
REV. JESSE JACKSON VISITS
The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion waiting for
a routine equipment check.
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
How many wartime stories incorpo-
rate Oregon history, the forest service,
smokejumping, and civil rights?
The likely answer is very few. But the
courageous tale of the 555th Parachute
Infantry Battalion — otherwise known
as the Triple Nickles — checks all those
boxes and more.
The Nickles were a segregated, all-
Black paratroop unit activated during
World War II — and the first African
Americans in U.S. military history to
work as airborne soldiers. Moreover,
according the official webpage of the
555th, “the Triple Nickles served in
See PARATROOPERS on page 3
Traveling
Without
Your Pet
Multnomah County commissioner Loretta Smith, left, stands with Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Mark Knutson, pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church, at
a June 2 press conference. Jackson announced he’s asked Smith and Knutson to co-chair a local office of his organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Jackson Working to Open New Rainbow PUSH Office
Veteran civil rights activist also urged Portlanders not to give racists ‘a crowd’
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
R
ev. Jesse Jackson
urged
Portlanders
last week to embrace
nonviolence and take
“multiracial, multicultur-
al” action against racist at-
tacks like the May 26 stab-
bing on a Portland MAX
train — and called for the
opening of a local office of
his organization.
At a June 2 press confer-
ence at Augustana Luther-
an Church in Northeast
Portland, Jackson also
called for the creation of
a local office of his organi-
zation, the Rainbow PUSH
Coalition, to fight racism
in Portland — and that he’d
asked the Rev. Mark Knut-
son, pastor of Augustana,
and County Commissioner
Loretta Smith, to co-chair
the chapter.
Collection envelopes for
the local Rainbow PUSH
office circulated at an in-
terfaith prayer breakfast
preceding the press con-
ference, and at both the
breakfast and the press
conference those in atten-
dance were encouraged to
donate via text message if
they wanted to join.
The Skanner was unable
to confirm by deadline the
amount of money raised
Friday, where funds raised
went or what next steps
are for a local RPC office.
This is at least the second
time Jackson has attempt-
ed to open a Portland chap-
ter of his organization. In
2010, The Skanner reported
on a speech Jackson gave
at Self Enhancement Inc.,
in which he said he was
working with Bishop A.A.
Wells to establish Port-
land and Seattle chapters
of the group. The Skanner
was not able to reach Wells
for a comment on what be-
came of that effort.
According to the orga-
nization’s website, in 1996
Jackson merged two or-
ganizations he’d founded
earlier (People United to
Serve Humanity, founded
in 1971, and the Rainbow
Coalition, formed in 1984)
to form Rainbow PUSH Co-
alition. The Chicago-based
organization has offices in
Washington, D.C., Atlanta,
Professor Looking for Details on
Historic Black Women’s Newspaper
Dr. Jasmine Streeter
offers helpful tips
page 6
The only known edition of Portland’s ‘The
People’s Bulletin’ is dated exactly 100 years ago
Urban League Offers
Tech Jobs Training
O
Careers, page 4
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
n June 7, 1917, a small communi-
ty newspaper released its 34th
edition. That issue is the only
known copy of what was called
“The People’s Bulletin.”
Beneath the masthead its mission
reads clear: “In the interest of the col-
ored people and the good of the state
of Oregon.”
Oval-shaped portrait shots of
young African American women fol-
low the headline, “Petticoat Minstrel
Participants.” Inside, its tattered and
tainted pages include ads for Port-
land’s Black businesses, church ser-
vice announcements for prominent
See BULLETIN on page 3
Detroit, Houston, Los An-
geles, New York and Oak-
land.
Jackson was already
scheduled to speak in Port-
land that day at a meeting
of the National Organiza-
tion of Black County Of-
ficials, of which Commis-
sioner Loretta Smith is a
board member.
He praised the hero-
ism of 53-year-old Ricky
Best, 23-year-old Taliesin
Myrddin Namkai-Meche,
and 21-year-old Micah Da-
vid-Cole Fletcher, White
men who intervened on
behalf of two Black teen-
age girls who were being
harassed on a MAX train
May 26. Best and Nam-
kai-Meche were killed and
See JACKSON on page 3
DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL RESEARCH COLLECTIONS, UCSB LIBRARY,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, CA
The secret history of
the Triple Nickles is
commemorated at the
Siskiyou Smokejumper
Museum
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
All-Black
Paratroopers
Recognized
The only known copy of “The People’s Bulletin.”
Image courtesy of Wyles Mss. 179, Portland
[Oregon] African-American Collection, circa
1900-1970.