Page 6 The Skanner BLACK HISTORY EDITION February 20, 2019
Black History
Black History Month
News Briefs
Renton Library Hosts
‘The Wiz’ Screening
Diana Ross plays Dorothy, a high
school teacher who’s transported to
the land of Oz, where she meets a host
of characters (a scarecrow, a tin man,
and a cowardly lion) who join her on
the Yellow Brick Road as she searches
for “the Wiz.”
Catch a free screening of this 1978
Wizard of Oz parody with a slice of
free pizza during the Renton High-
lands Library’s Black History Night
Monday Screening. From 4 -6 P.M. 
Renton Highlands Library, Renton
Highlands Library, 2801 NE 10th St.
King County Hosts
Lecture on the Rise and
Fall of ‘Black Wall Street’
Historian, author and founder of
the award-winning historical website
BlackPast.org, Dr. Quintard Taylor,
will present a lecture, “The Epic Rise
and Tragic Fall of ‘Black Wall Street,’”
North Portland Library
Screens ‘Where the Heart
Is’ Feb. 24
In Elijah Hasan’s “Where the Heart
Is,” nine Black Portlanders recall
mixed experiences detailing the
journey to a place they’ve come to
feel is and call home. The film will
be screened from 2 to 4 p.m. in the
meeting room of the North Portland
Library as part of the library’s cele-
bration of Black History Month.
Hasan will be present for a conver-
sation about the film following the
screening.
New OPB Documentary
Tells the Stories of
Oregon’s Black Pioneers
Who Helped Shape the
State
OPB will premiere a new historical
See BRIEFS on page 11
enson was born in
Maryland to share-
croppers and grew
up in the Washing-
ton, D.C., area. He was
hired by Peary as a per-
sonal valet in 1887, and
Henson first accompa-
nied him to the Arctic in
1891. In 1908-1909, Hen-
son also accompanied
Peary on the Greenland
expedition that claimed
to reach the geographic
North Pole, even plant-
ing the flag at the spot,
but the claim the Peary
expedition reached the
pole was debunked in
1989. Henson served as
navigator and craftsman
and, like Peary, had a re-
lationship with an Inuit
woman. They had a son,
Anauakaq.
The 1909 expedition
brought Henson some
fame. He published a
memoir in 1912, “A Negro
Explorer at the North
H
Pole.” He became
the first Afri-
can-American
lifetime member
of The Explorers
Club, was award-
ed a duplicate
of the Peary Po-
lar
Expedition
Medal, and was
received at the
White House by
President
Har-
ry Truman and
President Dwight
E i s e n h o w e r.
But
Henson’s
achievements
didn’t receive the
same recognition
Peary’s did. He
spent the rest of
his life working at
the U.S. Customs House
in New York.
Henson died in 1955.
A U.S. Navy ship, the
USS Henson, a Pathfinder
class oceanographic sur-
vey ship, is named in his
GUTENBERG.ORG
Renton residents John Houston and
Benita Horn will share the accom-
plishments of the city’s Black commu-
nity members throughout history on
this virtual tour. From 7 - 8 :30 p.m.,
Renton Highlands Library, 2801 NE
10th St, Renton.
from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 21 at
the Maleng Regional Justice Center
3rd Floor Rotunda, 401 4th Ave. N. in
Kent. Light refreshments will be pro-
vided.
“Black Wall Street” was the thriv-
ing Greenwood community of Tulsa,
Oklahoma, that in 1920, boasted 600
Black business, including several doz-
en restaurants and grocery stores, six
private airplanes, a hospital, a bank,
law offices and a bus system.
Explorer Matthew Henson spent nearly 20 years
trekking the frozen north with his more famous
colleague Robert Peary, including the 1909 expedition
that claimed to reach the geographic North Pole.
UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Renton Residents Offer
Virtual Tour of African
American Historical Sites
Matthew Henson
honor, as is a conserva-
tion center in Washing-
ton, D.C., and a National
Geographic Society schol-
arship. Maryland has sev-
eral schools and a state
park named for Henson,
as well.