JANUARY 23, 2019
Portland and Seattle Volume XLI No. 17
25
CENTS
News .............................3,10-12 A & E .................................... 8-9
Opinion ...................................2 MLK Breakfast Photos .6-7
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY LISA LOVING
MLK BREAKFAST
Danielle Outlaw
talks about police
recruitment, mental
health and White
supremacist activity
By Lisa Loving Of The Skanner
A
t this week’s Martin Luther King
Breakfast, The Skanner News
spoke with Portland Chief of Po-
lice Danielle Outlaw about her
work, her vision and issues impacting
the bureau.
The Skanner News: How is officer
recruitment going, and what are you
looking for in your police recruits?
Portland Police Chief Danielle Out-
law: We are looking for the nontradi-
tional officer. Historically, we would do
a lot of recruiting directly from the mil-
itary, which we still do. But the nature
of policing has changed so much that
we are looking for those maybe with
liberal arts backgrounds. We want cre-
ative problem solvers with fresh ideas,
that represent not only the diversity
of our community but the diversity in
this country and internationally. Be-
cause they bring new ways of doing
See OUTLAW on page 3
About 1,000 people gathered Jan. 21 for The Skanner Foundation’s 33rd annual Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast featuring King County Councilor Larry
Gossett as the keynote speaker.
Gosett: Time to ‘Build Bridges, Not Walls’
King County Councilor Larry Gossett describes MLK’s deeper vision
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
Structural racism in Se-
attle was more subtle than
other cities, said King
County Councilor Larry
Gossett Monday morning
at The Skanner Founda-
tion’s 33rd Annual Martin
Luther King Jr. breakfast.
Rather than legal, sepa-
rate-but-equal
facilities,
in every neighborhood in
Seattle houses were sold
with restrictive covenants
in their deeds, saying they
could not be sold to a per-
son of color.
“We were a highly segre-
gated community,” Gossett
told the crowd of about
1,000 individuals who gath-
ered at the Red Lion Hotel
on the River on Hayden Is-
land for the event, where
29 students were honored
with scholarships from
The Skanner Foundation.
Gossett, who co-founded
the Black Student Union at
the University of Washing-
ton and later helped orga-
nize Black Student Unions
at high schools and middle
schools around the Seattle
area, was instrumental in
changing the logo of King
County to honor Martin
Luther King. Originally,
the county was named
for William R. King, a
19th-century
politician
and diplomat who rep-
resented North Carolina
and Alabama in Congress
and served as the 13th vice
president of the U.S. for six
weeks before his death.
William King was also a
member of one of the larg-
est slaveholding families in
Study Reveals
States with the Kamala Harris Opens
Presidential Bid
Most Racial
Progress page 10
By Juana Summers
Associated Press
Oscar
Nominations
page 8
WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris,
a first-term senator and former Cal-
ifornia attorney general known for
her rigorous questioning of Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s nominees, en-
tered the Democratic presidential
race on Monday. Harris would be the
first woman to hold the presidency
and the second African American.
Harris, 54, who grew up in Oak-
Alabama, owning as many
as 500 slaves at one point.
Neither the county logo –
an imperial crown – nor
William King’s history
seemed like an appropri-
ate legacy, Gossett said,
so he pushed for a change
that would better reflect
the area’s values.
Gossett stressed the
“deeper
meaning”
of
King’s life and vision. The
most popular King quotes
and remembrances focus
on the idea of people of dif-
ferent races getting along
— multiracial groups of
children holding hands.
“For some reason, many,
many Whites in our coun-
try believe that is the es-
sence of King’s dream,”
Gossett said.
But King’s concerns were
not just interpersonal.
land, California, is one of the earliest
high-profile Democrats to join what
is expected to be a crowded field.
She made her long anticipated an-
nouncement on ABC’s “Good Morn-
ing America.”
“I am running for president of the
United States,” she said. “And I’m
very excited about it.”
She portrayed herself as a fighter
for justice, decency and equality in
a video distributed by her campaign
See HARRIS on page 3
They were structural. Seg-
regated public facilities
reinforced the notion of
African Americans’ inferi-
ority and they were the law
of the land.
Gossett said he’s also
pushed back against the
idea that young people
shouldn’t take risks with
direct action. Historical
evidence – notably, the Bir-
mingham Children’s Cru-
sade of 1963, during which
thousands of children
walked out of school and
were arrested — suggests
otherwise, he said.
“It is said by most histo-
rians that it is not likely
that the back of segrega-
tion would have been bro-
ken in Birmingham if not
for thousands of children,
ages seven to 17,” Gossett
See BREAKFAST on page 3
AP PHOTO/MANUEL BALCE CENETA
Chief
Outlaw
Speaks
Portland Police Chief
PHOTO BY ANTONIO HARRIS
Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw was
interviewed by The Skanner at the annual MLK
Breakfast event.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., arrives to speak to
the members of the media at her alma mater,
Howard University, Jan. 21 in Washington,
following her announcement earlier in the
morning that she will run for president.