AUGUST 23, 2017
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXIX No. 47
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-12 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Jackson, Miss. Mayor ......8
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY MELANIE SEVCENKO
TOTAL ECLIPSE
Demetria Hester & Pastor E.D. Mondainé, press
conference, Aug. 18, 2017.
By Melanie Sevcenko
Of The Skanner News
O
n the night of May 25, Demetria
Hester, 42, was riding the TriMet
MAX home after work, just past
10:30 p.m. She got on the Yellow
Line at the Kenton/Denver stop and
took a seat directly behind the train op-
erator.
Three stops later she says she was ver-
bally and physically assaulted by a rag-
ing man who told her he was a neo-Nazi
and that she — a Black woman — had no
right to be in his country.
His name was Jeremy Joseph Chris-
tian. Less than 24 hours later, he would
See ATTACK on page 3
People gathered at Bryant Park and several other Seattle parks and community centers to watch the solar eclipse Aug. 21. Seattleites saw about 93
percent coverage during the eclipse while people in Portland saw a little over 99 percent coverage of the sun by the moon. Emergency management
officials prepared for the worst, due to a large influx of people in Oregon’s remote areas during the peak of wildfire season, and were pleasantly
surprised when the event passed without incident.
Historic Eclipse Passes Without Mayhem
Emergency responders prepared for the worst, but Oregon handled the
glut of visitors with few hiccups
By Andrew Selsky
Associated Press
ELVERT BARNES/FLICKR
SALEM — No raging for-
est fires trapped people.
The telecommunications
system didn’t crash. There
were only a few traffic
jams. Tourists spent mon-
ey in restaurants and
brewpubs, and found gas
to get around. Even the
weather cooperated, with
Dick Gregory died Aug. 19. This photo was taken
during a rally against police brutality at the African
American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Dick Gregory
Dies at 84
Icon and innovator of
the Black Community
honored by many page 7
Flint Water Lawsuit
to Continue page 12
skies mostly clear across
Oregon for the eclipse.
Emergency
respond-
ers had prepared for the
worst, using practice runs
for a massive earthquake
as a template. Oregon Na-
tional Guard troops and
their Blackhawk helicop-
ters were ready to help in
evacuations.
But Oregonians and an
uncounted number of
visitors from the U.S. and
abroad came together and
experienced awe as the
moon eclipsed the sun,
putting part of the state
in total eclipse, with stars
coming out and tempera-
tures plunging.
“I’m still basking in the
glow of really what was
an incredible experience
in terms of being able to
see the eclipse and a pos-
itive and safe experience
throughout Oregon for ev-
erybody,” Andrew Phelps,
the director of the Oregon
Office of Emergency Man-
agement, said Tuesday.
Oregon was one of 14 U.S.
states in the path of the to-
tal eclipse on Monday, and
the first to experience it.
No major problems were
See ECLIPSE on page 3
Black Restaurant Event Expands to
Full Week
Support Black-Owned Restaurants Week, now in
its third year, kicked off Monday
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
S
upport Black Restaurants Week
kicked off Monday with “black-
out” eclipse specials and will
end Saturday with a patio party
at Dubs in St. Johns.
The event started in 2015 as was
promoted on Facebook and some lo-
cal media as Black Restaurant Days, a
weekend-long event to support Black
restaurants in Portland.
Portlander Bertha Pearl created
the event after hearing about a simi-
lar promotion in the Bay Area, which
itself was part of Black Business
Month, a nationwide event.
This year it’s expanded to a full
week, and organizers have created a
website, http://iloveblackfood.com/,
to promote the event and Black-
owned restaurants in general.
It includes a calendar listing of spe-
cial events, as well as a list of restau-
rants owned by people who identify
as Black or African American.
William “Dub” Travis III, the owner
of Dub’s St. Johns, said the 2015 pro-
See RESTAURANTS on page 3
PHOTO BY CHRISTEN MCCURDY
Victim tells of lack of
police protection against
white supremacists
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Woman
Attacked on
MAX Before
May 26
Keacean Phillips, the owner of Jamaican
Homestyle Cuisine on North Killingsworth,
moved to her brick-and-mortar location in May
2016 after selling Jamaican food out of a food
cart since August of the previous year. Her
business is one of nearly 70 listed as part of the
Support Black-Owned Restaurants promotion.