October 13, 2021 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
According
to
doc-
uments and records,
through corrupt means,
the City of Manhattan
took ownership of their
property, representing
the racial imbalance
of that time. Looking
through a lens of equal-
ity today, public officials
of Los Angeles County
decided to revisit the
possibility of returning
“
The dis-
taste in
Black-own-
ership was
not hidden
power of the beachfront
back to the descendants
of the Bruce family.
Located on 2600 High-
land Avenue in Manhat-
tan Beach, California,
Bruce’s Beach served as
an oasis-like resort for
people of color looking
to enjoy the scenic coast
during times of segrega-
tion. Noted previously,
Willa and Charles Bruce
purchased this piece
of paradise for $1,225
($33,034) and followed
suit in buying more land
after that.
Other families of col-
or bought beach estates
alongside them, forming
a Black community of
coastal property owners
developed during the
Jim Crow era. There was
a shared notion that only
certain races should be
allowed selected proper-
ties; this agenda was car-
ried out through policies
to seize privately- owned
land for the betterment
of the community.
The
distaste
in
Black-ownership was not
hidden; racially charged
vandalism and sabotage
were found routinely at
Bruces’ Beach and sim-
ilar places. During the
Jim Crow era, Manhat-
tan Beach City officials
Awards
obtained the rights to
Bruce’s beach, and oth-
er Black-owned coastal
plots, through an ordi-
nance known as eminent
domain.
Through the eminent
domain procedure, cer-
tain members of the
Manhattan community
empowered City offi-
cials to acquire private-
ly-owned properties and
reinvent the lots for pub-
lic use. The urgent take-
over of the Bruce’s land
was to fill the need for a
public park.
The
Bruce
family
fought for years in lit-
igation; they asked for
$120,000
($3,203,044)
for loss of property and
damages. After a strenu-
ous battle, the Bruces re-
ceived $14,000, which is
$300,000 in present-day,
and the other families re-
ceived far less than that.
On April 8, Los Ange-
les County Supervisor
Janice Hahn announced
steps towards returning
the waterfront landscape
known as Bruce’s Beach
back to the decedents of
Charles and Willa Bruce.
California State Gover-
nor Gavin Newsom an-
nounced through a press
release, “Moving to Right
Historical Wrong.” He
signed legislation to re-
turn Bruce’s Beach back
to descendants of the
original owners.
According to the infor-
mation released by the
California
governor’s
office, the directive, SB-
796, allows Los Angeles
County Supervisors to
transfer the land imme-
diately to the Bruce fami-
ly. Soaking up the histor-
ical moment at Bruce’s
Beach, Newsom was
joined by Senator Steven
Bradford, Bruce’s family
members, and other civic
public servants.
Read more at
TheSkanner.com
PHOTO/WORKSYSTEMS
Bruce
Driving Diversity Opens New Doors
Chip Shields, a former Oregon state senator established the Portland Justice Fund which provided funding to Worksystems to develop a
unique program that’s creating new pathways for people of color and women into trucking careers. Partnering with Interstate Trucking
Academy and the Portland Haulers Association, Worksystems developed the Driving Diversity in Portland Program to prepare and
qualify diverse job seekers to work in the recycling and waste hauling industry. On Friday, October 8 the second cohort of students
graduated and entered driver careers. To date, 80% of trainees have been hired by Portland Haulers Association member companies
into permanent jobs that start at $50,000 or more and include comprehensive benefits.
Reimagine
cont’d from pg 1
ly stalling legislation important
to Reimagine Oregon. Wise said
the group was now working with
Prozanski to bring back areas of
criminal justice reform that were
cut from the now-passed House
Bill 2002.
Wise also said the group gave
Clackamas County an “F” grade
on public safety, noting that com-
munication with the county had
broken down with the transition
to Clackamas Board of County
Commissioners’ Chair Tootie
Smith’s leadership.
Housing
Last year, Reimagine Oregon
partnered with elected officials
at the city, count and state levels
to hold lawmakers accountable to
substantive policy change, as out-
lined on the project’s website, ad-
dressing urgent needs in educa-
tion, police divestments, housing,
health and wellbeing, transporta-
tion, economic development, leg-
islative process and community
safety.
Demands were categorized as
state-wide, Metro, or by county,
with legislative leads designed
to each. Reimagine Oregon asked
the relevant legislators to give a
prognosis -- or progress report --
on each demand.
While Reimagine Oregon’s
demands are divided into eight
“
People have spo-
ken in streets,
in research
reports and in
daily service
categories, the group focused on
three in summarizing the state’s
performance last week: housing,
public safety and legislative pro-
cess.
“We launched this project about
a year ago in the spirit of expecta-
tion,” Katrina Holland, executive
director of JOIN, said, adding it
was “an expectation of catalytic
movement, of beginning to dis-
mantle anti-Black racism in Ore-
gon.”
In the area of housing, howev-
er, the state had only made incre-
mental improvements, she said.
Reimagine Oregon had asked
the state to intervene in evictions
and aide COVID recovery by can-
celing rent and removing barri-
ers to rent assistance.
“Early in the legislative session
and even before, there were many
alternative options to canceling
rent that were presented and
discussed, that would’ve taken
the burden off of renters, recog-
nizing the constitutional poten-
tial violation that canceling rent
would’ve brought on, that would
assure just compensation, but a
lot of them weren’t thoroughly
explored or even attempted,” Hol-
land said.
The group had also pushed
forward the cancelation of a
controversial housing subsidy:
mortgage interest deductions on
secondary residences, which crit-
ics point out costs the state about
$500 million each year).
Read more at TheSkanner.com
cont’d from pg 1
shadow for the film development pro-
cess. Until the 1970s, the subject was
always a White woman who was often
labeled “normal,” with other skin col-
ors -- if they were included at all -- re-
ferred to as “other.” Davis explored the
idea of working with visual media that
had white skin and whiteness already
programmed in as a default. The ef-
fect is his often vintage-style portraits
of Black subjects in their own Shirley
card-evoking layouts, much more vi-
brant and colorful than Kodak’s restric-
tive calibration would have allowed.
“I did these paintings that were about
that, so a lot of the subject matter that
circles around the subject and the piece
kind of references those Shirley cards,
or magazine publications from the fif-
ties, more Black-centered publications
like Jet and Ebony,” Davis said. “I try to
include a little bit more content in the
bodies of work that are about an idea
versus a particular subject.”
For a more recent project, however,
Davis stuck to the portrait approach.
In 2015 and 2016, Davis wrestled with
the feverish press coverage of police
“
I wanted to also
spotlight achieve-
ments from Black
people
killings of unarmed Black Ameri-
cans. While he felt the attention was
necessary, he also wanted to see more
Black media presence that wasn’t over-
whelmingly sad.
“I wanted to also spotlight achieve-
ments from Black people,” Davis said.
“So I started doing these paintings
around then that kind of highlighted
these different artists, poets, people
that I knew and people that I just found
out about through research that just
really enhanced the work for me, and
enhanced the experience for people
viewing the work.”
He was drawn to the lesser-known
histories in particular, like civil rights
and women’s rights activist Pauli Mur-
ray and singer and early screen star
Nellie Hill.
“The idea of making work that calls
people to do their own research, find
out something new and dig in, just be-
came really interesting to me,” Davis
said. “It just continues the process of
seeing the piece in the museum, then
you want to go home and find out more,
to expand upon -- it being an art piece,
it being a learning experience at the
same time.”
Community Justice
Preuitt started as a probation and
parole officer nearly three decades
ago with Multnomah County’s De-
partment of Community Justice Gang
Unit, later becoming the director of
the department’s Adult Services di-
vision. In 2017 she became the first
African American woman to act as
president of the American Probation
and Parole Association, which serves
45,000 community corrections pro-
fessionals nationally. She was named
Director of Multnomah County’s De-
partment of Community Justice in 2019
(https://www.theskanner.com/news/
northwest/29158-erika-preuitt-ap-
pointed-director-of-multnomah-coun-
ty-s-department-of-community-jus-
tice).
Her approach is grounded in the be-
lief that people have the capacity to
change.
“I look at it from the perspective that
we are about public safety, but our pub-
lic safety impact really is a long-term
impact,” Preuitt told The Skanner in
2019. “Because when we help a person
change their life, and help them to re-
store their family, we help our commu-
See AWARDS on page 10