November 22, 2017 The Skanner Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 Black, heavily gentri- fied Northeast Portland neighborhoods. Surveys are anonymous. “This is much more than about a physical building,” Guerrero said at a Thursday-morn- ing press conference in SEI’s auditorium. “This is about establishing and supporting a thriving school community.” “This is a key landmark with a history of betray- al,” said Tony Hopson, SEI’s founder and CEO. Hopson and Guerrero sat on a panel alongside Al- bina Head Start director and longtime education activist Ron Herndon, as well as the Rev. Dr. Le- roy Haynes of the Albina Ministerial Alliance and Joe McFerrin, president of Portland Opportuni- ties Industrialization Center. In October, the school district’s plan to reopen the historically Black middle school — which closed in 2012 — ap- peared to have hit a snag as school board members voiced concerns about environmental hazards in the area. Hopson not- ed the previous promise that Tubman would re- open in 2017 led to the closure of SEI Academy. Albina Head Start di- rector and longtime education activist Ron Herndon said the envi- ronmental concerns are not new. The Tubman site is near the intersec- tion of North Flint and Russell, uphill from In- terstate-5. “The same arguments Exhibit Seattle Black Panthers One of the original founders of the Seattle Black Panthers, Aaron Dixon, points out another member of the Seattle Chapter to Kathleen Cleaver, the former Oakland Black Panther Party Central Committee communications secretary during the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party’s 50th Anniversary fundraiser Nov. 18 at the Ruins. The event was held to raise money for the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Seattle’s Black Panther Chapter, to take place April, 2018. The fundraiser also featured a welcome by Aaron Dixon, spoken word performances by several poets — including activists Nikkita Oliver and Jerrel Davis — and a performance by the Septimus Band. Grace cont’d from pg 1 tions is no, do I want to spend my time or my money with this company? “I think knowledge is power and when you understand what your power is, hopefully you make different choices and for me the civic and social justice,” Grace said. “It’s about not being afraid to say, ‘I support companies that support me.’” Grace is the senior vice presi- dent of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engage- ment at Nielsen, a market re- search firm best known for mea- suring television ratings. She will be the keynote speaker at The Skanner Foundation’s Mar- tin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast, which takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at the Red Lion Hotel on the River on Hayden Island. Grace has been with Nielsen for 13 years, and for the past seven years has overseen the produc- tion of a report on Black consum- ers. The most recent report, “Af- rican American Women: Our Science, Her Magic,” hones in on the consumption habits of Black women. The title is a nod to the hashtag campaign #blackgirl- magic, a social media campaign about celebrating Black women’s “ When you un- derstand what your power is, hopefully you make different choices accomplishments and ideas. The report focuses in part on the social media habits of Black women. Not only are Black women more likely to use social media, Grace said, they use it for a wide variety of purposes. “We are 86 percent more likely to spend five hours or more on social media platforms. We don’t just use social media to look at cat videos. We use it to galvanize and share opinions,” she said. Black women’s purchasing hab- its also influence people in their own communities — 47 percent say people come to them for ad- vice on purchasing decisions — and trends and styles that become popular with Black women tend to influence trends among other demographics and ethnicities. Nielsen’s 2011 report on Black consumers was the first to hone in on a specific racial demographic. Since then, the company has be- gun producing reports on Asian and Hispanic consumers as well. While Nielsen reports are pre- pared for businesses who want to understand demographic trends and how best to advertise to their target audiences, Grace said she also wants to help consumers un- derstand their own buying power and think more carefully when making purchasing decisions. “When you don’t stop to think about your collective power it’s a missed opportunity,” Grace said. cont’d from pg 1 was happening on the national stage. Nevertheless, through the dedicated efforts of volunteers, the Pioneers have composed a regional portrait of the struggle towards equality from vari- ous archives, private collections, and personal and public stories. The result is a larger cultural and legal context of discrimination and displacement at that time. “It’s important to point out that the photo work in (the exhibit) is really of Oregon’s time and Oregon people,” said Black Pioneers president Wil- lie Richardson, who noted many civil rights movement retrospectives focus on southern states. “You’re going to be looking at your hometown folks who were activists.” A new Black identity In the 1960s, Black culture went through tremendous change, giving rise to a new sense of Black identity with Afro-centric style. So part of the fun of the exhibit, the Pioneers told The Skanner, is seeing how the some of the movers and shakers of Oregon commu- nities — including Portland State pro- “ It’s important to point out that the photo work in (the exhibit) is really of Oregon’s time and Oregon people fessor Darrell Millner and education advocates Ron Herndon and Joyce Har- ris — looked back then. “I think one of our lessons learned from prior exhibits is that because there is so much material, and so much to say , that you tend to want to say it all,” said Carr. “And yet in an exhibit, you have to find that balance between saying it and showing it — or having people experience it.” In addition to rare photographs of the movement’s key players, “Racing to Change” includes artifacts, captions and quotes in place of heavy texts, as well as interactive components, in- cluding a chance for visitors to act out scenes from the Sidney Poitier classic film, “A Raisin in the Sun.” Students as catalysts for change Visitors can also experience a mock dormitory room – decorated with post- ers of Black Power icons and various paraphernalia of the era — to get a sense of what a college campus might look like back then. “A lot of what was going on then was centered on college campuses, so you’re looking at eastern Oregon, southern Oregon, that’s where the action was taking place,” said Carr. “The more re- search we did, the more we found how important young people were as a cata- lyst for that across the state.” PHOTO BY HUGH ACKROYD (B. 1913) “ This is a key land- mark with a history of betrayal you hear now came up then,” Herndon said. “Can’t you come up with a new fake?” He added that if officials are concerned about air quality, they need to test the air near Lincoln and Benson Polytechnic High Schools as well. Benson is situated in Northeast Portland near I-84; I-405 runs through southwest Portland near Lincoln High School. “I’m just as concerned about those little kids,” Herndon said. Guerrero said the site would need to be as- sessed thoroughly, but also that he had so far seen nothing in the re- cords that should fur- ther delay the school’s reopening. Herndon offered a brief history of the mid- dle school, which opened in the early 1980s as a re- action to the perverse ef- fects of school desegrega- tion. In the 1980s, Black students were bussed from Northeast Portland to 32 different schools around the metropolitan area. The long distance from home made it hard for Black students to participate in extracur- ricular activities; White schools opened pre- schools and accelerated programs Black children couldn’t access. While some of the ar- guments for and against reopening the school continue, he said, one thing is different: Guer- rero’s engagement. Guerrero, a former deputy superintendent from San Francisco, was hired in August and started his job Oct. 1. “We hope today’s press conference will be a cel- ebration of what will be, not a continuation of what has been,” Hopson said. PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Tubman NAACP picketing City Hall. Sept. 30, 1963 Carr herself was actively involved in the civil rights movement in Los Ange- les, where she attended a small private college. Read the full story at TheSkanner.com