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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2018)
Page 2 The Skanner March 21, 2018 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Black Women You Should Know Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor A Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2018 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS to y • d ay ! • L i ke u s o n F ac it Updated daily. ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n Opinion ll too often, our “histo- ry” month turns into a tribute to the past. And while the past is an im- portant place to lift up it is, in- deed, a tributary, a stream that flows into the larger stream of an unbounded future. The fu- ture must always be greater than the present, or there has been no progress. And, in the words of Frederick Douglas, “progress concedes nothing without a demand.” I spend much of Women’s History Month thinking of those who have come before me; I stand on their shoul- ders. I claim Women’s His- tory Month for Black Wom- en and love to call our roll of luminaries that, for me, includes Dr. Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first Black woman to get a Ph.D. in economics, Dr. Phyllis Ann Wallace, the first Black wom- an to get a Ph.D. in economics from Yale, and the first to at- tain tenure at MIT. There are more, but I also want to spec- ulate about the future role of luminaries and reflect on that fact that many Black women have made it possible for us to bask in a new generation of leadership. The past has laid a foundation, but the future is far more important than the past. Thus, Leah Daughtry (who Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist managed the 2016 Demo- cratic National Convention), Minyon Moore (who had a key role in the Clinton cam- paign), and Yolanda Caraway (an amazing political opera- tive who has worked for Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Bill Clinton, and candidate Hil- “ The past has laid a founda- tion, but the future is far more import- ant than the past lary Clinton), put a footprint in the sand for future leader- ship with their Power Rising conference in Atlanta, last month. They gathered more than a thousand Black wom- en from around the country to develop a “Black Women’s Agenda,” deliberately mix- ing up the seasoned with the sassy, established leaders with those who are eager to make their mark. Symone Sanders, the CNN commentator who made her mark supporting Ber- nie Sanders, and who does not back down from a fight around principles and issues, led a panel of young women who spoke of the challenges in their work. Amanda Brown Lierman, a new mom and the political director of the Dem- ocratic National Committee, was among those on another panel about life in politics. Others on that panel included LaDavia Drane, who led Black outreach for Hillary Clinton and is now chief of staff for Congresswoman Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) and Boston City Coun- cilor Ayanna Pressley, who is now running for Congress. These young women aren’t playing! They are calling out their elders, but also calling out the rules. They aren’t try- ing to toe a line, they are try- ing to make a difference. Ayanna Pressley, as an ex- ample, is challenging an in- cumbent Democrat in a Con- gressional primary. Tired of being told to “wait her turn”, she has decided that now is her time. Even though she has always garnered sup- port from Emily’s List, the fact that she is challenging a pro-choice Democratic man in Boston has not won her support from the political es- tablishment. Yet the 42-year- old sister says she will not be constrained by tradition. The Power Rising conference rep- resented an example of that unfettered and passionate energy. One of the most promising young leaders is Tamika Mal- lory, one of the four co-lead- ers of the Women’s March. Tamika is a protégé of Rev. Al Sharpton (her parents were among the founders of the National Action Network, and she served as its Executive Director for several years). Because of her amazing work, Mallory earned a Phoenix Award from the Congressio- nal Black Caucus Foundation in 2017. With appropriate hu- mility, she accepted her award “for the people,” and the most important thing that one gets from Tamika Mallory is that she loves humanity, loves Black people, and especially Black women. She, like the others mentioned, is a leader for our future. She is the fu- ture of Black Women’s Histo- ry. We all know that because she is a leader, she will attract negative energy and still, she rises, walking through life with her shoulders back, head held high, an unapologetic lover of her people. Remember (The Truth About) The Alamo O n a Saturday evening in February 1955, like a million other kids in America with their eyes glued to black and white tele- visions, I sat watching Walt Disney’s version of the Battle of the Alamo. What we saw was the popu- lar actor Fess Parker portray- ing a heroic Davy Crockett on the ramparts of the famous old Spanish mission battling Mexican soldiers for free- dom. What I did not know at the time was that the history sur- rounding this battle, and the role of Americans in the early history of the Mexican repub- lic, was being extremely dis- torted. Walt Disney never told us that slavery was the reason for the battle and the ultimate creation of the Republic of Texas, which later became the state of Texas. On Sept. 16, 1829, the Af- ro-Mexican president of Mex- ico, Vicente Guerrero, signed a decree outlawing slavery in that nation at a time when the southern United States was deeply in thrall to slave labor. While most of Mexico wel- comed the emancipation decree, its northern region, known as “Texas,” was large- ly populated with American Southerners who had moved west in search of more fertile Oscar H. Blayton Attorney, NNPA Columnist land where their slaves could produce cotton. To accommodate the “Texi- can” slaveholders, Texas was exempted from the decree for one year. But after the period “ Walt Disney never told us that slavery was the rea- son for the battle of exemption ended in 1830, the Texicans refused to free their slaves and the Mexican government demanded that they comply with the law or face military intervention. While military interven- tion did not occur for another six years, several violent con- flicts broke out in the inter- im between Texicans and the Mexican government Finally, in 1836 Gen. Anto- nio López de Santa Anna led an army north from Mexico City to put down what had grown to be a Texas insurrec- tion and freeing slaves along the way. Determined to resist Mex- ico’s intention to free their slaves, Davy Crocket and roughly 200 other Texicans gathered at the Alamo in San Antonio to block Santa An- na’s advancing army. Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, and after 13 days, it fell. While the “heroes” of the Alamo were under siege, Sam Houston and other Texicans were less than 200 miles away drafting a constitution for the hoped-for independent Re- public of Texas. It contained the following guarantees that slavery would be protected: “…[N]or shall Congress have power to emanci- pate slaves; nor shall any slave-holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or slaves, without the consent of Congress...” The Texas constitution es- tablished additional racist policies by stating: “No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Re- public, without the consent of Congress...” Weeks after their defeat at the Alamo, the slaveholding Texicans got what they want- ed when they defeated Gen. Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto and forced him, as a prisoner, to sign the Treaty of Velasco. That treaty recog- nized Texas as a republic, in- dependent of Mexico, but it also stated in part: “[A]ll private property in- cluding… negro slaves… that may have been captured by … the Mexican army or may have taken refuge in the said army … shall be restored to the Commander of the Texi- can army…” The Mexican government refused to recognize the Trea- ty of Velasco and consequent- ly did not return any slaves. But Texas continued as a slaveholding republic and lat- er as a slaveholding state. Twenty-five years after the Battle of the Alamo, Texas, along with 10 other slave- holding states, tried to revolt against the United States as it had with Mexico. Today, whenever we hear cries of “Remember the Al- amo,” we should ignore Dis- ney’s image of Davy Crockett bravely wielding his musket as a club in defense of free- dom while being swarmed by Santa Anna’s troops. Instead, we should remember that Crockett and those by his side were fighting in defense of slavery, not freedom. Oscar H. Blayton is a former Marine Corps combat pilot and human rights activist who practices law in Virginia. nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
